3 out of 5

Created by: Les Bohem

covers season 1

Hulu, like other non-Netflix streaming providers, is still playing catch up with the original series game, continually stepping up to the plate with tweaked form in order to nab their own big hit.  Not that there hasn’t been some valuable content produced, but thus far it still carries the taint of looking slightly off; things that could probably be mostly put down to budgetary constraints: less patience for slow burn titles, less star reach, cheaper production values.  Out of the Hulu shows I’ve sampled, Shut Eye has been the first to feel like it establishes its own identity, not outright bearing the mark of whatever element normally gives off that ‘Hulu show’ vibe; the script, the pacing, and the shooting style have the creator-helmed sensibility that’s been populating non-basic cable TV – and producing several of its better shows – and the series constantly dodges what would have been formulaic ways of serializing its pitch.  Unfortunately, by the same token, that it never seems to actually embrace its pitch makes for an odd season.  It’s compelling TV, but as it rolls into episode ten it’s a question of whether or not anything of consequence has actually happened yet.

There’s been a lot of hybridizing in describing the show – e.g. calling it Breaking Bad meets something or other – but I do think Shut Eye makes a fair play at establishing its own identity.  There is a ‘behind the scenes’ vibe that digs into a Roma-run enterprise of hucksters – psychics, palm-readers, etc. – all of varying skill but all equally out to scam (more on this Roma aspect momentarily), and this can certainly call out to other such curtain-parting series like The Sopranos, but the show smartly never dresses it up all that much and instead shifts our focus squarely to Charlie (Jeffrey Donovan) and his wife Linda (KaDee Strickland), who work for their Roma overlords and run a variation on schemes where wifey spots the marks, talking up her husband’s ‘intuitions,’ and then Charlie distracts by explaining tricks of the trade – cold reading and such – while simultaneously roping in the client with personal details (dug up by research, of course) and some minor sleight-of-hand learned from his surely-this-will-later-be-an-important-detail past as a magician.  Their day-to-day dealings are interrupted, however when a disgruntled boyfriend of a client clocks Chuck upside the head and soon after he has… visions.  Which seem to come true.  Fake psychic, real visions, yadda yadda.  But not a bad setup.

But here’s where the show veers.  The easy route would of course be to hero-ize Charlie by having his visions give him save-the-day portents, solving Gypsy crimes episode to episode.  Instead, Shut Eye drifts deeply into a ‘one final scam to start fresh’ plotline that goes deliriously noir with double dealings and knife twistings and things going wrong at every opportunities; Charlie’s visions rarely seem directly helpful, and bounce back and forth between theatric and cryptic, but nothing that he immediately responds to with a clear decision.  And often enough the visions lead him astray.  It’s an interesting dodge for what was probably the series’ elevator pitch, but it ends up being for the best: Different characters get a fair shake instead of acting exclusively as subplot dressing, and the stakes of the big scam feel more realized as we can’t just expect Charlie to vision his way out.  And in taking the ten episodes just to evolve Charlie to a point where he’s trying to understand what he sees, it actually ends up being a pretty worthwhile origin story, back-ended onto a thief’s tale.

Again, though, it’s oddly unclear if that’s satisfying.  The various Other Things going on effectively weave in and out of each other, influencing different aspects of our main story and preventing any episode from feeling like buffer, but what exactly are we watching?  It’s not so deeply entrenched in Romanian culture to consider that a defining element (despite some last minute attempted restitutions of its one-sided point of view), nor does its cable-channel bids via boob-flashing sex scenes and occasional violent splashes edge this into popcorn entertainment, nor does it do much with its behind-the-scenes potential, and as it continually runs away from the psychic thing but then slowly bumps the ball back into play, it feels half-in half-out on its fantastical elements.  It is thus unintentionally meta in that it (mostly) distracts us from this emptiness of focus, but puts on a good show even while we still suspect we’re being bilked.  This sounds like a criticism, but it’s an effect not achieved by most shows (which are, at the end of the day, equally empty) and so though that magician thing really did end up being a pretty lame Checkov’s gun, I actually enjoyed the series and looked forward to next episodes.

However… there are a couple of elephants in the room to address, and which definitely tainted my opinion.  Spoilers follow.

Overall, Shut Eye proved to have an unfortunate blend of modern sensibilities with outdated awareness.  While Strickland brings a hell of a lot to her role, balancing a tough-as-nails front with a grounded and believable sense of care for her family and bouts of tense what-do-I-do-now when she finds herself epicenter of some of the crazy going-ons, the whole illicit lesbian affair thing has become a tired trope.  Not the lesbian part – although that’s trope enough; can’t remember when we had an illicit gay affair for an otherwise straight male character… – it’s the illicit bit.  The sex has always gotta be dirty and sweaty, because it’s Hollywood but also because that’s how lesbian affairs apparently always have to be.  It’s a shorthand way of giving characters a reason to doubt their marriages or significant others, and that’s real enough (good sex is a powerful motivator), but when the is shifted into characters feeling a “real connection” with their affair-ee, it never feels earned.  I realize this is tough to accomplish in an episodic structure, but it can be done.  I’d even accept the shorthand except for how the series shames the character for her indiscretions, as they end up being, essentially, the cause of everything bad that follows.  And it gives Charlie the opportunity to give the ‘enlightened’ speech of ‘I don’t mind if she bangs chicks but she’s not allowed to fall in love.’  In a show with a deeper sense of consequence, maybe this mentality could be explored more, but Shut Eye is presenting it at face value: Sex positive and sex negative at the same time.  As with the general’s general structure, I think it does a fair job of drawing your attention away from this, but the final act twists where Strickland’s girlfriend turns on her left a sour taste in my mouth for its implications.

Secondly: The treatment of Romanian culture.  Now, I’ll expose my ignorance: I didn’t even really know Roma culture was a thing until some kerfluffle this past year (2016) with a comic creator making some slanted statements about it.  I understand that linking Shut Eye’s psychic operations to one specific cultural group allows for adding in some extra flavor and drama that just treating it like a criminal operation might not’ve encouraged, but it feels short-sightedly willing to paint the entire culture as money-hungry faux-gypsies.  I did a light search to see if there’d been any Romanian responses to the show and didn’t see any – maybe it’s actually super accurate and respectful, I dunno – and I am by no means an expert or trying to crusade for anything in particular, but at any point when the series dove into ruling family drama / politics, it just felt off – going with a stereotype and then trying to backtrack it into reality.  Again, a sour taste.

But I watched the show.  And I feel like these issues can be easily fixed with some more self-aware writing in – if there is one – a second season.  While Shut Eye doesn’t offer too much related to its tv-ready setup, it uses the slow-burn modern TV mode to give us some surprisingly fleshed out characters, a pretty good noir tale of theft, and what could end up being a worthwhile prologue to more fantastical stuff to come.