I Miss Eureka

It’s been six years in a row at Comic Con and I still enjoy it as much as ever, but there’s one thing I miss — my ritual attendance at Syfy’s Friday night screening of Eureka.

I’ll be the first to admit that Eureka is not the perfect show. I’d be hard pressed to even call it a great show. The writing is not at the same level as Battlestar Galactica or The Sarah Connor Chronicles or most Whedon series. The episodes are mostly of the mishap-of-the-week variety (for a pro-science show, they do threaten planetary destruction an awful lot), some of the jokes are obvious (I can’t think of any other show with as many boner innuendoes), and the season arcs are not that compelling, mostly adequate as platforms for developing the relationships among the characters.

But that’s where Eureka shines. I wouldn’t say there’s any level of sexual tension, but the fun bickering and bantering somehow leads up to pairing up that’s both fun to watch and tugs at the ol’ heartstrings when our heroes run into both personal and scientific challenges. It’s easy to feel for these characters (in contrast to the Revenge-of-the-Nerds vibe of The Big Bang Theory) And it’s all very PG.

That’s another thing. I enjoy the edginess of the aformentioned BSG and Sarah Connor Chronicles (by the way, would have oved to see Joe Morton working with Terminator Summer Glau, but his character in Eureka is one of my favorites), however, sometimes you just want to watch something that’s not bleak, and if Eureka is not one thing, it’s bleak. It’s peppy. So the addition of Felicia Day in the final seasons was a perfect match. Zane, I could have done without, but let’s not be mean. There are no bad guys here.