Drop the Chalupa     |   Home Page

ER Mailer from Spring   |   The Gordita Spoilers   |   Gordita Articles   |   ER Schedule   |   Season 8 Schedule

Gordita Articles

Variety:

6/1/01, by Steven Oxman

A mix of "Broadcast News," "Network" and "The Truman Show," ABC

series "The Beast" depicts a TV newsroom in which everyone's every

move is Web-cast. It's a weird concept, created by writer Kario Salem

(HBO pics "Don King: Only in America" and "The Rat Pack"), who, along

with ABC and producers Imagine Television, deserves credit for a

bold, uncommercial effort even though the show never manages to turn

its thoughtfulness into effective drama. Alphabet net will give this

untraditional fare an untraditional summer launch in the Wednesday 10

p.m. slot, in which "Once and Again" struggled during the regular season.

Frank Langella stars as the cryptic media magnate Jackson Burns,

owner and driving force behind the experimental World News Service.

He made his fortune off violent videogames and, to him, a fully

exposed, and therefore completely honest, news service serves as a

type of penance. In the pilot episode, he recruits talented print

journalist Alice Allenby (Elizabeth Mitchell) to join his motley

corps. A pronounced opponent of the death penalty, Alice immediately

makes waves by asking a death row inmate to allow them to broadcast

his execution.

The strong ensemble cast includes Peter Riegert as a news editor

who's been fired from every traditional network, Jason Gedrick as an

anchor who speaks his mind, Harriet Sansom Harris as a caustic

assistant, and Naveen Andrews, April Grace and Wendy Crewson as

journalists at this 24-hour news channel. ("Why's it called 'The

Beast?,' " one character asks about WNS early on. Answer: "Because

it's always hungry.")

Salem's previous work was with true stories about strong

personalities, and he hasn't yet figured out how to construct

fictional characters in an interesting way. But that's also because

"The Beast" is neither character- nor story-driven -- it's

idea-driven, which is what makes it unique. Unfortunately, the ideas

-- while certainly worth exploring -- are not expanded, developed and

argued with enough alacrity. Should executions be broadcast? This

character says yes, that one says no, with each voicing only obvious

justifications for their opinions.

Mimi Leder directs the pilot with the same frenetic pace she became

familiar with on "ER," and she gets strong support from production

designer James Spencer and editor Marty Nicholson. Director of

photography Charles Minsky smartly mixes in video with film to show

us what's going out over the Web and to remind us that everything

here is being watched. The Webcast is controlled by offstage

character Harry (Gary Werntz); we see only his eyes and mouth in

extreme close-up. He's the ultimate detached observer, and by the

second episode he's already being blatantly compared to God.

Also by the second episode, the plots are already becoming

narcissistic, with these journalists finding their stories way too

close to home. This show seeks to take a hard look at the media and

seems to applaud Burns' effort at full exposure at what goes on

behind the scenes, but it still comes across as one form of media

looking unconvincingly at another.

It's a high-concept TV show about a high-concept TV show within a

high-concept Internet show. It's intriguing, fitfully intelligent,

but unfulfilling.

WAAY TV -- June 3, 2001

From ER Daily

The naked and the soon-to-be-dead?

Elizabeth Mitchell's new ABC series, The Beast, is set to premiere on June 13. Elizabeth, who plays a magazine journalist-turned-TV reporter, is reportedly naked during her entire first scene on the show. Mitchell says, "What I liked about that scene is that [my character] is very free ... When we see her (later) interviewing for a job, we've (already) seen her at her most natural, at her most essential, at her most basic." Since it's been widely rumored that she's been in negotiations to continue on as Dr. Kim next year on ER, it remains to be seen (no pun intended) if The Beast will take her away from County General.

US Magazine -- June 11, 2001

The Beast

The over-the-top permiere episode of this ensemble drama really piles on the goodies: a mad bomber, a televised execution in the electric chair, an NYPD Blue-during-sweeps-quality nude scene featuring Elizabeth Mitchell (the lovely lesbian from both ER and HBO's Gia).

She plays Alice Allenby, a magazine writer who is persuaded by mogul Jackson burns (Frank Langella) to work for his new 24-hour news channel. As one character explains, they call the channel the Beast "because it's always hungry."

You can tell the staff is hip because anchor Reese McFadden (Jason Gedrick) doesn't shave, drinks whiskey at office meetings and talks like Dennis MIller with worse gag writer. The premiere is so frenetic that you can overlook the yadda-yadda about media power ("The camera is God"). Adding to the journalistic nave-gazing is the channel's add policy of broadcasting its inner workings live on the Internet via feeds controlled by a mysterious figure named Harry. ("Harry is God," says Burns, which means logically, that Harry is the camera.) Unfortunately, ABC also sent out for review an under-the-top subsequent episode with subplots involving a career woman's inability to "have it all" and a Touched by an Angel coincidence that helps a widow find closure- in other words, stuff that's already available on plenty of less pompous dramas.

We won't be CNN this show for long.