The series Somewhere Between, originally broadcast on ABC and then on Netflix, tells the story of Laura Price, a journalist who investigates a serial killer. She learns live on television that he has kidnapped her daughter and is going to kill her. The basic story seems rather simple, but the initial scenario is upended when Laura Price tries to commit suicide, but survives by returning to the past, a week earlier. Against a backdrop of obscure predictions and time travel, she has a way to save her daughter, however, without knowing who the killer is. She investigates to discover his identity.
The pilot translates a desire to say a lot of things in a single episode to convince the audience. The beginning is busy, and often even messy. The stories are intertwined, because we do not only follow Laura Price, but also Nico Jackson, whose brother is on death row, after the murder of his fiancée. It was the city attorney, Tom Price (Laura's husband) who put his brother in jail. Nico should also have died on the same day as Laura Price, but he also survived: both have a goal to accomplish. The first episode is marked by a desire to show as much as possible, which makes it almost indigestible.
However, after persevering until the second episode, we can see the connections are established and the story is built over the minutes. The production has managed to set a rhythm that allows the pressure to increase crescendo. Indeed, very quickly, we learn that there is much more to the story than what Laura and Nico think they know. We can follow their discoveries through the episodes.
Acting difficult to salute
The story remains interesting, but the acting appears half-hearted. Laura Price, played by Paula Patton, exaggerates emotions to the point of sometimes becoming annoying. The other characters, meanwhile, do not push their acting enough: JR Bourne (Teen Wolf), who plays Tom Price, has a very promising role, but it seems to fall by the wayside because it does not exploit the depth of the character and makes it almost useless. The same goes for Devon Sawa (Hawaii 5-0), who plays Nico Jackson and remains on the surface of the role.
History has very untapped potential. The writers wanted to deal with too many elements in so few episodes. It would surely have been smarter to lighten the episodes to make it a longer season or otherwise, to maintain the interest of the viewers, to create a cliffhanger to announce a season 2. The entire series is contained in a single season of ten episodes, which seems far too short to summarize such a dense story especially with different stories intertwined.
Episodes too busy
The particularly short duration of the season does not allow to dwell on events or to push different tracks. The plot remains correct to attract the attention of the viewer during a few episodes, but it would be difficult to do more by keeping such a superficial realization.
Their investigation is what raises the level of the series and keeps us almost in suspense throughout the season. These are the moments of action that revive the story and catch up with the passages sometimes made of nonsense as well as the incoherent editing. The season contains many empty moments where we notice a real disconnect between events.
However, it remains a decent series to watch for entertainment. It is short with only ten episodes, which does not require much commitment. The end, meanwhile, leaves no doubt about a second season, which will never see the light of day. It is therefore a shame to see that a series with so much potential, ends up failing because of a lack of risk-taking on the part of the ABC channel and the director.
