Eleventh Hour
The Complete Series
(Warner Bros. Home Video)
When CBS first rolled out “Eleventh Hour,” their latest Jerry Bruckheimer-produced TV series last year, critics were quick to compare it to “X Files.” You had the mysterious, often freakish occurrences, the attractive, yet uptight female FBI agent pared with an equally attractive male partner plus plenty of ominous music.
Though an easy comparison, it was a little off base. All of the cases in “Eleventh Hour” ended up being solved by science. Freaky, yes, but no alien involvement in this one. “Eleventh Hour” also lacks the playfulness that was apparent in the earlier “X Files” episodes.
The hour long drama follows Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell), a biophysicist and science adviser for the FBI, partnered with his handler agent Rachel Young (Marley Shelton). Hood is brought in to investigate seemingly unexplainable crimes.
The set up is predictable, the dialogue is a bit stilted and there is very little chemistry between Sewell and Shelton, but like CSI before it, the science and the effects are the real draw to this series. That and the surprisingly original scenarios, like the girl that freezes overnight and turns to stone or the food-related paralysis.
The series, finally out on DVD, includes all 18 episodes that ran last year before getting the axe from CBS.