[The fourth season of SyFy's Eureka airs this Friday, July 9th at 9/8C]
With each new season of Eureka I used experience weird mood swings. I really like the show and anticipate each new season but with it came the grumblings. It's so neat and tidy. Everything works out well in the end. Oh, I wonder how they're going to get themselves out of this week's conundrum. Yet, I fully knew what kind of show Eureka is intended to be I still wanted there to be something more substantial. The first season had that secret conglomerate lurking in the background working with Beverly Barlowe that didn't amount to anything. Then the season when Eva Thorne came to Eureka charged with the task of streamlining Global Dynamics but her ulterior motive was to find the secret military base hidden beneath the city. Again, it was a touch anticlimactic.
I don't know. Perhaps I was dealing with impending absence of BSG and the thought of not having something darker and broodier in my weekly repertoire. But thankfully, that has been quelled by a rather good first season of SGU. Surprisingly good in fact. It is dark enough to fill that void and I can go into my Summer viewing schedule basking in the glow of good and sincere entertainment baking under the hot Summer sun. I can visit the town of Eureka once again!
The draw of Eureka has always been the entertainment value. The writing is good. It always manages to get a few guffaws out of me each episode. And the characters are really likeable as well. As baseball loving Sherriff Carter will appreciate, you 'root, root, root for the home team'; that someday he and Allison can be together. But with last season's love interest Tess Fontana we were happy for Jack Carter, though probably still pining for that other romance to blossom. And at the end of Season 3 it looked like Fontana was leaving Eureka. But don't be so sure about that. But back to the point is that the draw of Eureka has always been the characters. Without them Eureka would be nowhere near as interesting as it is. I don't come for the stand alone episodes and the neat and tidy wrap ups. The overall character story arcs and entertainment value are what draw me back to Eureka each season. Which brings us to Season 4.
Season 4 opens on Founders Day in Eureka. The town is getting ready to celebrate the founding of the city back in 1947. Main streets bustles with preparation and everyone scurries about getting ready for the big day. It is an auspicious occasion. Fargo has even gone as far as donning an Einstein costume. And because crazy things happen on almost a daily basis in this town it is to no surprise that we find several of the key characters whisked back to 1947, back when Eureka was just a military base preparing to become what Eureka is in the modern century. Here we are introduced to one of the founders, Dr. Grant, played by James Callis from BSG fame. So the cast find themselves back in 1947 standing face to face with one of the founders of Eureka, Grant, and they want to get back to 2010. And because Eureka is supposed to be neat and tidy they do. Yes. Supposed to be neat and tidy. Thus begins one of the more interesting story arcs in the show's brief run but one that I find the most compelling of all.
Eureka is fluff. But it is good fluff. For once I am compelled by the direction the writers and show producers are taking the cast. Even if this wraps up by the common SyFy mid season break I am sincerely interested in this new development.
I come to Eureka for the entertainment value. I stay for the characters and their stories.
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