New Fox Show - Human Target

[CheddarLimbo]

I just got done watching the pilot for Fox's new show Human Target based on the DC character Christopher Chance. It was a little over the top in terms of plausibility, but that's totally forgivable when you consider the source.

Chance is played by Mark Valley - who some might recognize from Fringe. He is a PI/bodyguard of a very specific breed. In the original comic series, Chance would actually take the place of the person he was hired to protect, but in this new story, Chance is more of a traditional bodyguard. He stays close to his client, but in an inconspicuous way in order to draw out the villain. He has no super powers to speak of, he is just an extremely fearless and capable man who put his life on the line for others.

In the pilot episode, Chance is hired to protect the designer of California's new super-train (played by Tricia Helfer, the smoking hot Six from BSG) when threats are made on her life by an anonymous killer. In order to draw out the assassin, Chance and the client board the super-train on its maiden voyage. Chaos ensues after an attempt on her life is made and when the train is eventually sabotaged, Chance - along with a hundred other passengers - has to make a daring escape from a train barreling along the California coast at 200 miles per hour.

The show sports some jaw droppingly great action sequences in terms of close quarter combat fighting. They really went all out to choreograph the fights and it shows. I think that's an important aspect of the super hero sub-genre and they really did it justice here. The show also sports a great supporting cast in Chi McBride (from Pushing Daisies) and Jackie Earle Haley (who recently played Rorschach in Watchmen) as Chance's sidekicks.

The show did not go a long way towards developing Chance's character, however. In fact, you know next to nothing about him by the end of the episode except that he is living dangerously in the space between heroic and suicidal. However, it's shaping up to be a pretty good show from Fox this season and is set to air this Fall.