User Reviews

When I first heard Kiefer Sutherland was coming back to our small screen. I thought action, guns and explosions. That's what he's been typecast as over his years as Jack Bauer.

For me anyway.

When I first saw the trailer I was sceptical. I mean how many of us an admit six times out of ten trailers that are awesome tend to be quite disappointing features. Well this is not the case for Touch.

--spoilers below--

It takes an interesting idea about how everyone is connected which seems familiar but it's done rather intuitively. While you may get a sense of lost and other mystery shows I have to say that's not a bad thing. The story advances quite fast and if you don't know what the actors (mainly Danny Glover to piles on a truck load of mumbo jumbo in an amazing few minutes of acting) are on about you may get confused at mention of terms like Fibonacci sequence and quantum entanglement.

If you understand the terminology behind it, it becomes much more interesting. I was aware of every theory they talked about in the show and it made it quite interesting.

The acting was very well done for a TV show I must say. Kiefer never fails to impress, the young British man who lost his phone (long story) could have been terrible but the actor pulled it off amazingly. Kiefers son also plays the child prophet???? And it was nice to see Danny Glover again.

Ain't' he getting to old for this...you get the point.

Only person I was iffy on was the welfare worker. While she was not bad she seemed to overact a tad but I'm sure she will get it down pat.

All in all Touch left me wanting to watch more which has not happened with a Pilot in many years.

It might not be you're cup of tea with all the technobabble or people who can't handle outlandish stories.

But if you like a mix of suspense, family drama, possible romance and real life drama.

Touch is for you.

Thanks for reading my first movie review. Hope you still have you're sanity.

First, the good:

• The premise is OK.

• They have people from other countries that actually speak their own native language.

• Looks like good production values.

• Nice intro music.

Then the bad:

• The show is in reality about a kid with super powers, but they try to give it a reasonable explanation, and make it scientific by including numbers. Just using random numbers every episode doesn't explain anything. One thing is saying that the kid sees patterns in nature that others don't. OK. But this makes him able to predict human actions, choices and the future? Not so much.

• The plot is weak. I mean really weak. Each episode has a very bad story with cheap coincidences, but they make you buy them because some number is present every time. And it's fate.

• After a while you learn that the kid is hurting because of some unbalanced equation in the universe (the Matrix Revolutions?). But the things that hurt him are mundane. Here are two examples from one of the last episodes: (1) A lesbian couple is tying to have a baby, but one of them doesn't really want to because of her carrier. (2) A man wants to do something that matters, but he just made it so that an old building can be demolished for profit. These are the great pains in the universe? How about wars, poverty, child abuse, torture or slavery? Those things don't hurt him, but a father and a daughter that don't talk much do? I don't buy that!

• Even though the show tries to be international it's still awfully American. Removing the 9/11 and Iraq themes would have made it more acceptable. Google "Blowback".

• Kiefer Sutherland overacts. I liked him in 24, he's terrible in this show. He's constantly panting. Even though he's standing still. And in every episode he says "Jake!" at least 100 times. It gets annoying after only a few episodes.

• The show has too many plot lines simultaneously. Like it has short attention span and constantly needs something new. But then it loses the overall plot to drive the series from episode to episode, except the "pain of the universe"-theme, mentioned above.

And finally the verdict:

Touch tries too hard and fails. It's not about super powers, though it includes them. It's not about mathematics or science, though it wants to. It's not a good drama, because most people only appear for one episode, and the ones that don't have zero character development. And it's not a thriller, because the most thrilling thing each episode is spotting a number somewhere so it all makes sense. So in the end what is it really all about? I say it's about fate. And that makes it a really bad show!

Slight spoiler:

I admit, I'm generally skeptical when previews are "too good." However, in this instance, "Touch" did not disappoint, nor did the previews give everything away. Tim Kring has a phenomenal ability to tie together multiple story-lines creating an intricate web that surprised me and left me heavyhearted and delighted by the end of the pilot. I am so used to seeing Kiefer Sutherland in his Jack Baur role that I was sure I wouldn't be able to separate him from that character. I was wrong. His portrayal as Martin Bohm, the father of a young seemingly non-communicative boy was exceptional. Danny Glover added a great "Touch" to the episode and the story left me wanting more.

Kim Tring, creator of heroes, strikes again with the same issues.

Heroes started off promising, interesting and with a great central theme or 'MacGuffin' for all characters to chase after.. then, I don't know what happened but it just fell apart. The show was cancelled, but love for it obviously brought it back as 'Heroes Reborn'.

Here, the same thing seems to happen. There is a lot of time wasting with voiceovers about 'fate' and pseudo philosophical twaddle.. then the formula starts. The boy writes some numbers, Keifer goes on a quest to help someone out.. its like the A Team + Quantum Leap + Numbers.

Then the writers seems to sort of give up on effort, coast for a while, play the hand theyve been holding back - Amelia, Child Protection Services and the algorithm.. then, the first series ends.

Its .. okay.. its watchable.. but it's really difficult to binge watch because if I hear the words 'Buddy' or 'Jake' one more time, I'm going to scream. As the boy doesn't talk, the father has to talk AT him using those two nicknames for him over and over and over.. And its clearly for the audience as you would have thought as the boy doesn't speak, talking to him is completely pointless by now.

If you want Autism.. try the Good Doctor. Its more realistic. This is interesting, but its too magic/pseudo science for my taste.. either go ALL OUT with magic, super powers and stuff.. this ambiguous nonsense about it being part of Gods plan and all the religious Jewish Hokum doesn't do it any favours at all.

Unlike most people here I watch several episodes before I make up my mind about a TV series or movie.

But with Touch it's very clear: the concept so brilliantly presented in the first episode already falls apart in the second episode.

The magic and the big surprise from episode 1 are gone in episode 2. We already know that the kid has some special power to link people and locations together to help someone by the end of the episode.

And where this concept was presented delicately in episode 1, it has been done over the top in episode 2. Martin Bohm only seems to be shouting at his son: 'What do you mean with this? What do you mean with that?'

You already know that you have to just sit and wait for the end result at the end, you already know that most of the characters you start with in the beginning will be connected, yada yada yada. There will be no surprise, so it's utterly boring.

Another (lesser) mistake in episode 2 is the role of Clea Hopkins (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Yes, she is still really pretty, but she doesn't add anything to the story and could have been easily replaced by anyone else. So no character building there.

Furthermore, in the first episode Clea Hopkins understood the kid special situation in the end, so why take ten steps back and be the annoying woman from child protective services?

And then the kid. I believed him in the first episode, but in the second he just looks and acts too much like a normal kid. It doesn't help that he talks to the audience in a voice over at the beginning of the episode. So he can talk?! And he knows it's strange that he never said a word?! So basically there is no reason for him not to speak? Urgh.

The concept for Touch's episode 1 is great, brilliant even, but is only suitable for a movie. If Tim Kring keeps repeating this same formula for every next episode he will be in for a treat.

The right thing to do here is to simply create new concepts within the magical universe of episode 1. Surprise me.

This is how I see a writing session of this show. Put a bunch of writers in a room, with a series of dartboards. Lets say there are 5 dartboards :

The 1st just has random numbers all over it. (12, 555 5555, 12345, 454 etc)

The 2nd has a series of objects that might be On a person. (tattoo, wallet, phone, clothes, jewelry, watch, etc)

The 3rd a series of objects that are just objects (A door, a bus,a bill board, a house number, a phone number, a book etc)

The 4th peoples relations to each other (mother, brother, husband, wife, friend etc)

The 5th is a list of countries. (Japan, Iraq, Liberia, USA etc)

Sprinkle in some 9/11 stuff.

They give the writers a bunch of darts, they throw them, and the episode writes itself. EXAMPLE 12, watch, door number , husband, Iraq.

The kid (jake) writes down the number 12 a thousand times in his notebook. Keifer looks at his watch and sees that it is 12:12. He realizes they are late for an appointment at the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital Jake runs away and finds a door in the hospital with a 12 on it. The man inside, a john doe, is in a coma. For some reason they are unable to identify the man, maybe his face was blown off. Maybe he was in Iraq. The episode ends with Keifer reuniting him with his Wife, who thought he was dead. Maybe he wakes up at 12 o'clock.

Doesn't that seem like a plausible episode of the show ? And it took me less than 5 minutes to write.