Sarah Michelle Gellar drama "Ringer" debuted this week to solid numbers for the CW, but it remains to be seen how those ratings hold up. Ever since "Lost" captured viewers' intense devotion and became a TV phenomenon, the networks have been trying to bottle that serial drama magic and recreate the ratings juggernaut. Though series like "FlashForward" and "The Event" haven't worked out as expected, writers and producers haven't given up on the formula yet. This season, the CW is hoping it has the right combination of factors to make "Ringer" a serial series hit, but what are the show's chances for success?
What Works
The juicy plot: Gellar stars as Bridget, a recovering addict and prostitute who's caught between testifying in court and the thugs who want to kill her before she does. Enter her wealthy, estranged twin sister Siobhan, who disappears in an apparent suicide on a boat ride, allowing Bridget to take her place to escape her own life. Never mind that Siobhan apparently had affairs and murder plots of her own to contend with. The tangled web leaves plenty of room for dramatic tension and continuous suspense over whether Bridget will be caught, and whether what she's gotten herself into is worse than what she got out of.
The melodrama: The CW, home of angsty, lovelorn vampires and plotting, sex-crazed New York socialites, is the perfect place for "Ringer" and all of its love triangles. Or in this case, a love pentagon--or more. Those twins get around.
It's not that complicated: Serial dramas often fail because they're tough to pick up in the middle of the story, and therefore can't interest new viewers. "Lost" has also made the audience gun-shy of getting hoodwinked by the promises of answers that never come. While "Ringer" will have creepy questions and cliffhangers, it's basic murder mystery stuff and doesn't require much existential thought or science fiction theories. Catching up on a missed episode or two shouldn't be a big deal for viewers, which is good for the series long term.
The redemption: CW targets women in the 18-34 range, and that's the perfect audience for the redemption arc in "Ringer." We gals love the idea of Bridget stepping in to Siobhan's life and possibly fixing the relationships her sister destroyed, while going through a healing process herself.
The cast: Gellar has earned a lot of love with her fame as the title character in cult hero Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Those fans skew a little bit older, adding to the younger audience who will most likely tune in at the start for any new CW show. "Ringer" also has plenty of hot men, including Ioan Gruffudd ("King Arthur," "Horatio Hornblower") and Nestor Carbonell, aka "Eyeliner Man," from "Lost." That should also please that targeted female demo.
Lower expectations: One of the big three networks would expect "Ringer" to win the timelsot every night, but CW will be pleased with a show with much smaller numbers, as long as it does better than what's been tried previously. For the pilot, at least, those numbers look good.
What Doesn't Work
Film Noir: "Ringer" is attempting to go for a sort of noir charm with old school visual effects and cheesy studio shots reminiscent of 1940s classics. This could go either way. The scene including the twin characters standing in front of mirrors, with their images going on into infinity, was the most entertaining nod to noir. The bad outdoor boating shots, however, came off looking like bad production values rather than a cool vintage film. It's fine for a CW series to have a sense of humor about itself, but the audience needs to be laughing with them, not at them.
Gellar's weakness: It's always tough for the audience to suspend disbelief in twin scenarios when the star is a single actress that we all know is playing both parts, and so far Gellar hasn't sold the two different personalities well. This is also possibly why the noir elements aren't working, because the actress can't quite pull off Siobhan's icy, cool '40s blonde routine very well. That said, "The Vampire Diaries" star Nina Dobrev had a fairly weak start and now does an admirable job making us forget the doppelganger characters aren't played by two different people.
Going off the Rails: "Alias" was a great guilty pleasure show about a secret spy organization, but the writers learned you can only push an audience's good-natured suspension of disbelief so far. If "Ringer" stays grounded in more familiar mob hits and relationship drama, it should hold its audience. If it starts introducing too many coincidences, aliens or Rimbaldi devices, it could frustrate viewers and cause them to bail.
What do you think, Yahoo!TV fans? Will you be watching "Ringer," and will it be a big hit?
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