So far, so good for Stumptown and Emergence through 2 episodes.
Stumptown is scratching an itch, in the absence of more Jessica Jones. Smulders' clever, self-medicating P.I. in a leather jacket and bluejeans is less snarky than Ritter's clever, self-medicating P.I. in a leather jacket and bluejeans, but the tenor of the show is lighter. Smulders' version is a war veteran with a heavy case of survivor's guilt, where Ritter's was a sexual assault survivor with a heavy case of survivor's guilt. I don't think I've seen Smulders actually act before, and she has some chops. The show has outstanding fight choreography, focusing as it does on characters who don't really know how to fight. It's a little bit comical but no less violent for it. I notice the show has a separate stunt choreographer and fight choreographer. The latter is Travis Wong, and Smulders' stunt double is Marie Fink. Neither is a name I recognize, but they're doing good stuff. The '80s music soundtrack is beginning to get a little worn, but they've chosen some decent songs and mix it up with both older and newer stuff, and the joke about the jammed cassette deck in the junker car is still making me laugh. Jake Johnson and his character are quickly charming; Michael Ealy and his character haven't found their gear yet, but it's still early. As with the '80s soundtrack, the relationship triangle is maybe a little banal..? But I'm hopeful they can do something interesting with that. Again, still early; we're only in the 'setting the stage' phase.
It's too early to tell whether Emergence is careening towards an actual reveal and resolution of the mystery they're setting up, or will pull an X-Files and yank our chains again and again. Through only 2 episodes, it does seem to be moving along at a clip. I was afraid the main character being a police officer would mean that we would get a lot of "Case of the Week" episodes that have nothing to do with the main story, just to distract and delay. They could still do that, of course. Here again we have a scrappy, canny woman as our protagonist. Do I have a 'type'? Yeah, okay. Like most people, I have several 'types', but there's no question these two shows have tapped into one of them. Allison Tolman has charisma coming out of her pores, and also seems like a decent actor. The fight scenes aren't quite as cleverly done as Stumptown's, although Tolman's resolution to the impound yard scrap made me laugh and say "ow" at the same time. "What happened?" "His face got... broken."
