Last week in the UK they showed a 90 minute promotional episode for Seven Days, a time travel show.

It was OK; nothing special IMNSHO.

What I was wondering was this.... I'd never heard of the show altho' it appeared to have aired in the US from 1998. I can't see how they could sustain the series with just seven days to play with i.e. it seems to have less scope than did Quantum Leap or Sliders each of which had to play around a little to keep their formats fresh.

I did a quick Google search but wasn't left all that much better informed.

Anyone hear got any feedback on Seven Days? Did it get "old" really fast? Anything?

Thanks.


<small>(OK, clicking here it looks as if UPN may have just pulled it and that there were some 50-ish episodes).</small>

I think it only lasted a season (most likely 2 if there are 50 eps). I just don't think it really caught on. Hard to say why, could have been the silly plots (I mean w/ only 7 days to deal w/ there are only so many variations you can do), the so-so acting and fx. IIRC it was a UPN show and they put it on right before Voyager just as people were starting to give up on watching that show as well.

[Edited by nemein on 05-27-01 at 04:46 PM]

This past season was the show's third. It was finally cancelled by UPN this month after the ratings started getting really bad and they realized that the show cost way too much. I watched it occasionally, but not that much. Always waited until 9 for Voyager.

Matt

The show lasted three seasons. The cast is phenomenal. Unfortunately, the writing is SO BAD after the first season, that I would recommend you avoid this show. God knows I wish I had been given that advice.

Essentially there is no character development. The only ongoing storyline is "Will Parker do Olga?" This has been the storyline from the first episode. It's in the exact same place at the series' end as it was in the beginning.

In addition, the supporting cast is grossly mishandled. LaPaglia is in essentially EVERY scene (except when he is talking to people via phone, then he's only in 1/2 the scene). The rest of the cast does almost nothing, except for Olga and Donovan, who occasionally escape the base to help Frank. Usually the guest stars get more screen time.

Finally, the writing is god-awful for much of the series' run, especially the last two years. After the first season the SF part of the show is de-emphasized in favor of broads with big boobs. For example, the President is seeing a 25-year old psychologist who makes tapes of their sessions, these tapes fall into the wrong hands, Parker goes back to undo it, the psychologist is quite uptight, Parker pacifies her by kissing her, etc. Just one example of the complete idiocy of the writing.

Basically, great acting + terrible writing + even worse production decisions = crappy series that never ever lived up to its promise. (Contrary to some I think it could have been quite good...I watched largely because there was nothing else on I wanted to watch, and the acting is good, even if the rest of the show is utter sh*te.)

If you go to the newsgroup for the show (alt.tv.sevendays I think), you'll see the actor who plays the head of security has posted there with some regularity, and I think you'll see that the opinions I gave above are strongly held by him as well, and if you believe him, the rest of the cast as well (including LaPaglia, who purportedly wanted less of a role so he wouldn't be so exhausted...)