Chaser | Through the Shattered Lens

Other than the shows that I watch for my retro television reviews, I didn’t watch a lot this week. I was busy with other things. (Luckily, I did get to watch a few movies.) Here’s a few thoughts on what I did watch.

On Wednesday, I watched a screener for Chaser, which is a thought-provoking and surreal science fiction series that can currently be viewed on Prime. I was flattered to get a chance to watch it for free and to review it. I posted a review of the show on Friday so read the review and watch the show and leave a comment detailing how much you liked my review.

Abbott Elementary returned this week. Janine was offered a full-time job with the District and she accepted it, much to Gregory’s disappointment. To be honest, I’m kind of bored and more than a little frustrated with Janine and Gregory. Gregory’s inability to act on his feelings has crossed the line from being an sweet example of social awkwardness to just being annoying. My hope, as it has been from the start, is that Janine will realize that she is meant to teach and we’ll finally be done with all of this District nonsense. That said, I did enjoy the AI storyline and Jacob’s shock at discovering that no one was reading his emails. We’ve all known someone or had a friend like Jacob. I would totally subscribe to Mr. Johnson’s newsletter.

I watched an old episode of Night Flight on Friday. It dealt with androgynous rock stars so, not surprisingly, the majority of it was made up of videos from David Bowie and Queen.

Today, I binged the new Netflix reality show, Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. Shot in Little Rock, Arkansas, the show dealt with a sheriff who decided to give one cell block a good deal of freedom to see if they could handle it. It was an interesting show, though a lot of it seemed to be staged. It was hard not to notice that the camera was always in the perfect position to pick up the most drama. I also had to laugh at the inmates who said they were worried about getting caught doing something illegal but who then proceeded to make a shank or brew jail moonshine while the cameras were pointed straight at them. I mean, when Miller was making his shank and bragging about how he was going to use it against anyone who got on his nerves, did he not realize that show’s footage could probably be used in court? Unlocked was a slightly more amusing version of 60 Days In. Speaking of which, the sheriff on this show was surprisingly likable, especially when compared to the majority of the law enforcement people who have appeared on 60 Days In.

And that’s that, with the exception of the retro shows that I watch every week for this site. As I said, I didn’t watch a lot this week. I’m running behind on both Survivor and The Amazing Race. And, at some point, I’d like to watch the latest seasons of The Bachelor and Farmer Wants A Wife. Hopefully, I’ll soon be caught up.

Over the course of 8 episodes, Chaser tells the story of Eddi Sebastian (Russ Russo).

Eddi is a film editor, someone who spends almost all of time looking over different takes of different scenes and trying to arrange them into the perfect story. Eddi is also shy, awkward, and so broke that he’s about to get kicked out of his home. He has a hopeless crush on B-actress Annabel Ruysch (Gia Bay) and he regularly finds himself being bullied by Annabel’s arrogant (and married) boyfriend, Gar Madden (Daniel de Weldon).

When Eddi’s laptop stops working, his replacement comes with a special bonus. Eddi can now use the laptop to not only edit the movies but also to edit real life. As he learns via the mysterious Hal, he can edit anything that happens as long as he does so within a 24-hour period. Anything that he changes becomes his new reality but the editing must be done with a 24-hour period and the laptop must be connected to the internet.

Considering that he is lonely and broke, it is not surprising that, at first, Eddi uses the laptop to his advantage. Soon, he is waking up next to Annabel and heading off with her to Ohio in hopes of helping her shoot a film that will get into South by Southwest. Also in Ohio is Fran Rosemarin (Haley Noel Bedocs), a former actress who beat Annabel out for a role and then, after the film was made, abandoned Hollywood and returned to the anonymity of middle America. While Eddi continually tries to edit his life and Annabel obsesses on what could have been, Fran seems content to plan her wedding, which is also going to be combined with a football watch party.

However, when Gar shows up in Ohio, Eddi is forced to confront the fact that editing life is not as easy (or as harmless) as he assumed.

Directed by Daniel Roemer, Chaser is an intriguingly ambitious series. Starting out as a comedy about a nerdy editor who uses his powers to change a bad date into a good one, the series branches out to consider questions of free will, morality, destiny, and even the struggle of Middle America to survive in a changing world. For all of Eddi’s problems, they’re nothing compared to the old man who is seen standing on the side of the road and holding a sign asking for money. The more that Eddi edits existence, the more complicated things become.

It’s an interesting question, really. Would you edit your life if you could? One of the things that sets movies and television apart from real life is that, while filming, you get multiple takes. The performers get more than one chance to deliver their lines correctly and, if someone says the wrong thing, the director can yell “cut” and call for another take. Ideally, the editor uses the best takes. Sometimes, the editor even combines several different takes, mixing them into something that appears to have been shot all at once as opposed to multiple times. One could argue that the editor becomes almost God-like in their power to decide what will be seen and what will be left on the cutting room floor. In the movies, everyone always knows the right thing to say and they always react in the most cinematic way possible. Every failure can be edited out. That’s one reason why, especially in troubled times, people turn to the movies. But some would argue that it’s the unexpected and the spontaneous events, the ones that we can’t control, that make life worth living. In Chaser, Eddi gets to live the dream of every movie lover. He gets to treat his real life as a film but, as quickly becomes apparent, there’s a difference between editing events and actually living with the end results.

As I said, it’s an intriguing story and it’s one that plays out at a brisk place over 8 episodes. The visuals are often wonderfully surreal and the cast does a good job of bringing the multi-layered story to life. One thing I really liked about this show is that no one was mere caricature. The character of Fran could have easily been one-dimensional but instead, as played by Haley Noel Bedocs, she became one of the most interesting characters on the show.

Chaser is available on Amazon Prime so be sure to check it out.