PILOT REVIEW: Touch

TOUCH

Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Mazouz, and Danny Glover

Created by Tim Kring
Written by Tim Kring, Directed by Francis Lawrence

Touch is an interesting new supernatural drama on FOX starring one of FOX's biggest stars from the early 2000s, Kiefer Sutherland. In this show, Sutherland plays Martin Bohm, a former journalist whose wife was killed on September 11th and whose son, Jake (David Mazouz), is mute. In the pilot, Martin Bohm discovers that his son is trying to communicate with him through numbers and tell him about something that is going to happen. Rounding out the cast is social worker Clea (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Danny Glover as Professor Arthur Teller, who specializes in childrens' unique gifts.

THE GOOD: Top to bottom, this is a very interesting show. It was absolutely fascinating the way every story that seemed hard to connect fit perfectly. To use the idea of a cell phone traveling around the world and affecting so many people could be really contrived but this show made it work perfectly. What made this show great was how many complex elements there were to the story. The pilot had several different situations with the phone yet there was also the overarching story of Martin and Jake and several back stories introduced. With other shows, I may have criticized that for being too much in the pilot but the story was so perfectly crafted here, it worked. Keifer Sutherland is excellent in the lead role and David Mazouz is fascinating in the role of Jake. There are so many emotional dynamics but they were all strong and believable.

THE BAD: There is very little that I didn't like about the pilot. I do wonder if each episode will be able to be as well crafted as this one. If not, the plots could get convoluted or contrived. I'm also not 100% sold on the 9/11 tie-in but they decided to go that route with the back story so we'll see where it goes. Still, those are nitpicky complaints. It was a great pilot.

BOTTOM LINE: This is yet another pilot this season (like Smash, Revenge, Awake, and Once Upon a Time) that is trying to do something no other show is. In this case, FOX has a rich emotional drama that can be a great character-driven show. They just need to nurture it as such and craft their weekly stories well. There is a ton of potential here, I hope it lives up to it.