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                          Weird Science

                  Episode Guide & Series Review

                        by Mark Thompson
                  thompson@clipper.robadome.com

Weird Science (USA Cable Network, 5 Mar 1994 - present, 30 min.)

Series Summary

This show takes the premise of the original John Hughes teen film and
fleshes it out in an expanded direction to form an ongoing series.
Suprisingly, this seems to work better than you would imagine.

Like the movie, the show is about two geeky high school boys who have
trouble relating to (and talking to) girls.  One night, in frustration,
they use their computer to generate a girl to "teach them about
women."  They get more than they bargain for when some supernatural
force intervenes and creates a beautiful, magical woman who has the
power to grant their every wish, though only for short periods of
time.  Like the movie, their wishes end up teaching them more about
women and about themselves than they would imagine.  Unlike the movie,
they attempt to improve their lives in different ways, one method per
episode.

The "genie in a bottle" aspects of the computer-generated wish-granting
Lisa are played up, as is the "geeky high school dating problems" part
of the boys' lives, creating a cross between "I Dream of Jeannie" and
"Parker Lewis Can't Lose", heavy on the Jeannie.  But Lisa is less
anxious to please her masters than Jeannie was, and seems to enjoy
playing out the more literal aspects of wish-fulfillment, adding a sort
of "Monkey's Paw" flavor to the show (as in episode #103).

So far, every episode has dealt with Gary trying to get a girl, and
this subplot will be getting old fairly quickly.  One hopes the series
will at least do a *few* shows where some other aspect of life is dealt
with, and Gary can keep his mind "out of the gutter" for a while.

Special effects are surprisingly good for a cable show; they rival
those of network TV, though not coming close to such syndicated fare as
Star Trek or Babylon 5.  Still, they make the most of such inexpensive
but impressive-looking effects as morphing, computer animation, and
video effects.  In short, they fit the show quite well; I have yet to
encounter an effect which didn't "work" for me.

The casting was interesting - the two actors playing the teenage boys
were apparently chosen for their resemblance to Anthony Michael Hall
and Ilan Mitchell-Smith, the stars of the original movie.  The actress
playing Lisa is quite beautiful (which is kind of the point in the
movie, if you're creating a woman), and the actor playing Wyatt's
military brother also mimics the movie's choice closely.  This is both
positive and negative: positive in that continuity with the movie is
established; megative in that you have to wonder if better actors were
passed up.

The writing has so far been fairly tight and well-plotted, the acting
is not bad (a few blips and a little stony, but otherwise adequate),
the direction and pacing quite acceptbale.  The producers even had the
class and the cahones to get the rights to Oingo Boingo's great theme
song from the movie to use here in the show!  In one month, this has
become one of my favorite shows on TV, and is now on my "can't miss"
list.  It's excellently done B-movie material, in a short half-hour
bite-size!

Note that I have not found official episode numbers for these shows,
but that the titles are given in the show, and are thus as "official"
as I can make them.

Episode Guide


Ep Num    Episode Title          Orig Air Date

101       She's Alive            05 Mar 94
		Gary and Wyatt, two geeky high school boys,
		use their computer to create a magical woman
		who can grant their every wish.  In this instance,
		their wish is to be "babe magnets."
		(this ep. was shown at least 3 times from Mar 5-11)
102       Universal Remote       12 Mar 94
		The boys wish for a remote control that works on life
		the way the VCR remote works, so they can fast-forward
		through "the boring parts."
103       Cyrano de Braniac      19 Mar 94
		Gary wishes for the brain of Einstein and gets
		more than he bargained for when he tries to win
		a girl who apparently likes brainy guys.


!!! SPOILERS BELOW - in the episode reviews !!!


Episode Reviews  (*** SPOILERS GALORE! ***)

101  She's Alive

	The major drawback of this episode is pacing; they try
	to cram the entire movie into one 22-minute episode, and
	it shows.  This premiere episode tells the origin of Lisa,
	and the boys' first wish is to be "babe magnets".  At the
	school dance that night, and later, they discover that
	somehow "wishing" girls to like them is unsatisfying at best,
	and painful when it wears off.

	The fact that two stories are being told here does not help;
	the origin of Lisa alone took around 30 minutes in the
	movie, and having it crammed into an effective 10 minutes
	here makes it almost incomprehensible.  Some nice lines are
	tossed in ("I know it's possible - I saw it in a John Hughes
	film!"), but with the whirlwind pace, one can hardly find
	them amidst the clutter.  Having the boys suddenly decide
	to make a woman ("no - a *real* woman") seems to make no
	sense, and we barely see anything of the consequences of
	"babe magnetism" beyond the moral at the end.

	Apparently, the series producers felt it necessary to include
	a problem-wish-lesson storyline *along* with the origin in
	this premiere, and that's a shame.  I know a few people
	who were turned off by the pace, which is totally unlike any
	other episode.

	Special effects were quite nice throughout, especially the
	first appearance of Lisa, and Wyatt's morph at the end (although
	I don't understand that entirely - there was no actual wish, after
	all...)

	Overall Grade: B-

	Best lines:
	"I know it's possible - I saw it in a John Hughes film!"
		- Gary, convincing Wyatt to try to create a woman.
	"Then again, what am I complaining about?"
		- Lisa, after noting her body is a reflection of sexist ideals.

102  Universal Remote

	The boys wish for a way to skip "the boring parts" of life,
	and Lisa responds by providing them with a VCR-like remote
	control, complete with fast-forward, reverse, and pause.
	Initially nonplussed, the boys discover the remote affects
	time itself, with the two of them being the only ones who
	aren't affected.

	They use it first to escape having to listen
	to a long, boring story from Wyatt's brother.  Next, they
	escape listening to a boring history lecture.  But when
	Gary starts using it to "skip the boring parts" of his
	dates so he can just get to the goodnight kiss, trouble
	starts brewing.  Wyatt, for instance, is having a little
	trouble even eating a sandwich when it will suddenly grow
	stale and moldy in front of him as Gary FF's through a date.

	An excellent episode, the only fault being the lack of time :-)
	to fully explore the effects of their tampering with time.
	Wyatt, for instance, bemoans his fate to Lisa as the sandwich
	molds, but only *describes* his problems in a sentence or two.
	It would have been much more effective (and fun) to have
	seen some of those problems first-hand.

	The final scene, with its "Groundhog Day" overtones and unpredictable
	outcomes, really makes this episode shine and the moral seems to flow
	naturally from the storyline without seeming tacked-on.

	Special effects were quite good, especially when we note Biff's
	story and the *way* he is sped up and slowed down - just like a
	VCR, he ramps up to FF speed, and winds back down to normal as
	the guys let go of the button.  Excellent attention to detail.

	Overall Grade: A

103  Cyrano de Braniac

	When Gary thinks the new girl at school is eyeing him, and finds
	out that she likes brainy guys, he wishes for Einstein's Brain.
	So Lisa provides it to him - in a jar.

	Gary tries to make the best of his wish by using Einstein as a
	sort of "dater's helper", asking him advice on getting the girl
	to like him.  But Einstein's advice is hopelessly rooted in
	Germany of the 1930's, and asking a girl out for strudel doesn't
	seem to work as well here in America :-).

	As he continues trying to get the girl, and Lisa and Einstein
	start having fun playing chess and talking, Gary discovers his
	target actually has been eyeing *Wyatt* all along.  He wrestles
	with his ego and conscience and ends up helping Wyatt ask her
	out on a date.

	Special effects were limited this time, but the "zipper in the
	ceiling" was quite nice, reminiscent of Time Bandits.  Einstein
	was played quite well, and everyone comported themselves with
	aplomb throughout the show.  It felt a touch - skimpy - on
	story, and we never do get to see if Wyatt and the girl hit it
	off, but other than that, a quite good episode.

	Overall Grade: B+


Mark Thompson
ROLM PhoneMail Prompts / UI
thompson@clipper.robadome.COM
