Ever since the huge success of "Lost" (2004?2010), major broadcast networks have been working to find another science ?fiction drama capable of garnering the same type of acclaim. The past few years have seen numerous attempts at shows with overarching, complicated plots and interconnected storylines, including ABC's "FlashForward" (2009?2010) and NBC's "The Event" (2010?2011). The series that came closest to replicating such levels of success was "Heroes" (2006?2010), which fizzled out gradually after a successful first season. Now, the creator of "Heroes," Tim Kring, returns with another serial television drama, the new Fox series "Touch.".
"Touch" features Kiefer Sutherland as Martin Bohm, the father of a mute boy with autistic tendencies and an obsession with numbers. Martin is a widower whose wife died in the Sept. 11 attacks, and he struggles to balance his job as an airport baggage handler with raising his son, Jake (David Mazouz). Jake's narration of each episode's opening and closing monologues ironically reveals that he has never spoken a word but can use numerical patterns found in nature to predict events and understand how people will interact.
In the series premiere, Martin encounters a social worker named Clea (Gugu Mbatha?Raw), who informs him that Jake must be institutionalized so that the state may evaluate him. Shortly after, Martin seeks out the advice of Professor Arthur Teller (Danny Glover), a specialist in numerical clairvoyance, who informs Martin that his son is trying to communicate to the world through his use of numbers. From this point on, the three main adult characters attempt to decipher Jake's messages and figure out who he is trying to help.
The first two episodes of the show follow a similar plot setup, giving the show a procedural?like feel to its events. Jake communicates a specific set of numbers to Martin - typically a phone number or a significant date. Martin then takes this info and blindly follows the resulting trail of clues until he runs into the particular person that Jake "intended" him to find, whether that is a man attempting to commit suicide or a man simply starting a fistfight with someone over the use of a pay phone. This one action usually creates a chain of events that tie up the episode's secondary storylines into one convenient ending for all the plot threads and characters involved.
One of the major flaws of the show is simply how ridiculous the premise is. Given how early it is in the show's run, perhaps some mythology will be explained in later episodes to account for Jake's inexplicable clairvoyance. But for the time being, the show uses the logic that, since Jake can see numerical patterns that constitute our universe, he can predict all future events and interactions. While the idea of utilizing a science?fiction ability is not bad in and of itself, the show's execution of Jake's ability is extremely vague regarding the limits of his "power." Even some of the smaller inconsistencies plague the show: how can a ten?year old boy escape from a heavily locked and guarded institution three times in the span of two episodes?
"Touch" also suffers from a lack of character development that essentially reduces most supporting roles to basic plot devices. Save for Martin and Jake, viewers have little to no background knowledge on the rest of the characters, nor any insight into their motivations. As a result of featuring such thin characters, the show is left to manufacture emotional payoff in scenes rather than allow such payoff to occur naturally. A perfect example of this fabricated sentiment is showcased when Martin stops a man whom he has only met once from jumping off a bridge. Martin's argument to coax the man to stop is that he will volunteer to be his friend, and his speech is replete with some rather contrived lines of dialogue.
Not all is bad about "Touch," though. Sutherland delivers a convincing performance as a father who is desperate to connect with his emotionally distant son and will do anything to achieve that connection. His tender role is a far cry from his famously aggressive character, Jack Bauer, from the series "24" (2001?2010). While the show's premise does have potential to create an intriguing story, poorly developed characters and a weak script prevent "Touch" from being an engaging drama.
