I’d have a hard time coming up with a definite opinion, which is in a way an opinion. It’s as if the show was conceived as an idea by a marketing department, tested and refined in focus groups, resulting in a comprehensive series specification that was turned over to a competent production company for execution.

Competent, but not a whiff of genius anywhere I can see.

A lot of series seem to make the mistake of spending too much time up front on character development, at the expense of advancing the plot. I now know all about the foibles and character flaws of the main characters, but I’m still waiting for a plot to develop. There are lots of plot devices littering the show–factions, spies, little girls being cute and teen romance and allusions to crosstime conspiracy–but I’m still waiting for them to be assembled into a story. Not that I think character development should be stinted, but in the real world they c ould run out of time and Fox might pull the plug before they ever start to really tell their story. Whatever it might be.

I’m going to keep right on watching the show…right up until Fox cancels it at the end of this season, I’m betting. Not bad enough to stop watching, not good enough to renew…that’s TV sci-fi for you.