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'Threshold' on the edge

The switch to a new night could signal a fresh start for the CBS series or result in its demise.

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published November 22, 2005

When they washed ashore this television season, there were whispers: How many undersea sci-fi shows are too many?

Network types scoffed. Each show should be judged on its merits, they claimed.

Two months into the season, it appears the answer to how-many-is-too-many is "three." CBS is the first network to blink, shifting Threshold to a new night and time, 10 p.m. Tuesdays starting tonight, swapping its Friday time slot with legal dram a Close to Home .

CBS, which has had tremendous success with the CSI franchise's episodic format rather than the serial style championed by AB C hits Lost and Desperate Housewives , has yet to extend Threshold's order through the full season. A lot is riding on the next few episodes, and producers promise change is ahead.

"The network's been enormously supportive of the show," producer Brannon Braga said last week during a conference call with reporters. "You can call this a second chance. Our (audience) numbers have been decent - it's not as if we've been tanking on Fridays - but they want the numbers to be better."

Sparked in part by the popularity of Lost, television this fall delivered Surface (NBC), Invasion (ABC) an d Threshold . The trio of hourlong "creeps from the deep" series had TV critics confused during a summer press gathering. Each show promised mystery, monsters and the sea.

But on closer inspection, each takes a different path, and all three are surprisingly good in their own way.

Surface is a family-oriented romp starring teenage Tampa native Carter Jenkins as a boy who finds a baby sea creature with mysterious powers. Sort of a Hardy Boys adventure with sea monsters.

Invasion delivers a cerebral look at relationships and change as survivors of a Florida hurricane struggle to rebuild while coming to understand that something other than rain came out of the storm, possibly body-snatching aliens. It's deep but has drawn complaints for moving too slowly.

Of the three , Threshold is the pure thriller. A secret group of government operatives tracks a spreading epidemic that mutates humans into space aliens by shifting their DNA. There's intrigue and near disaster in every episode for the team of scientists and agents, led by Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey (played by Sarasota-born Carla Gugino of Karen Sisco fame).

Invasion is the 34th most popular show this season, averaging 10.7-million viewers a week. Surface is 40th at 9.7-million. And Threshold limps in at 64th with 7.8-million viewers, right behind the rumored-to-be-canceled Three Wishes and just ahead of the doomed Apprentice: Martha Stewart .

"Ultimately the good shows, the best shows, will survive," Threshold executive producer David Heyman said this summer. "Our challenge is just to make the very best show that we can."

Last week, Heyman said he's cautiously optimistic about Threshold's future.

Braga admitted to some story problems early on, in particular a meandering episode about saving Miami from aliens, requiring the team to shut down the city's power grid. With the move to a new time slot, Braga vows to take the show beyond crisis-of-the-week mode.

"It was a little tough to get a handle on the show," he said. "Now that we have the plotting of the episodes down, what an episode should look like, we do want to get inside the characters more."

Ahead, Dr. Caffrey becomes romantically involved with a possible infectee and viewers learn more about the characters' personal lives, Braga said, taking a page from Lost, in which the characters are the stars and the mystery only provides the stage.

Tonight, the future of mankind again is in the hands of Dr. Caffrey and her team.

The future of Threshold will be in the hands of viewers.

[Last modified November 22, 2005, 09:56:25]