I am – Hercules!!


What inspired Fox to take the blandly absurd mystery drama “Past Life” to series may be the biggest mystery ever. Ridiculous plotting, snoozy characters, miserable dialogue, and atrocious acting conspire to forge maybe the worst new series in a broadcast season riddled with an unusually poor crop of new series.

A procedural about a team of institute employees – including a beautiful psychologist and a handsome, alcoholic ex-cop – who solve crimes by tapping into the repressed memories of the reincarnated, it was created by writer-producer named David Hudgins, who has written for far better series like “Everwood” and “Friday Night Lights.” It stars Kelli Giddish (“All My Children”), Nicholas Bishop (the Australian soap “Home and Away”), Ravi Patel (the CW’s loan shark drama “Easy Money”) and, rather depressingly, the great Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”). It is nigh unwatchable.

It’s also launching tonight against “Lost” and it’s intended to fill in Thursdays at 9 p.m. during the long “Fringe” hiatus – against ratings giants “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Office” and “CSI.” I think we might need a stopwatch to measure how quickly Fox decides to replace it with “Bones” reruns.

USA Today says:

… Granted, we've all seen many a bad show in our lives. Still, it will have been a while since you've seen anything as preposterously, unworkably awful as Past Life … From cases to characters, Past Life is TV at its dumbest and dreariest. Any fun there might be in this idea, Past Life finds a way to avoid. …

The New York Times says:

… Where “Ghost Whisperer” and “Medium” have fun with their fantastical premises and wrap them in domestic drama, “Past Life” is all business and shows little sense of humor. … A crime drama doesn’t need soft edges if it has crisp plotting and interesting characters, but the first two stories on “Past Life” are startlingly generic …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… it is literally shocking how bad the writing is, with [ex-cop] Whately grinding out such illuminations as "You can't get DNA from a memory" or "It's like all your life you've been playing this game and then someone changes the rules" until you want to scream. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… It all begins to feel like forced gobbledygook - like "Without A Trace" had a bad date with "Ghost Whisperer." …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… a been-there, watched-that program with a supernatural gloss. … Many TV shows require suspension of disbelief; "Past Life" insists on that and a whole lot more. … can't help but feel like the most ridiculous imitator on the Fox prime-time block.

The Boston Herald says:

… Reincarnation, recycling, rip-off. On network TV, it’s all the same. Whatever you did in a past life, you don’t deserve this drivel. …

The Boston Globe says:

… feels overly formulaic from the first moments of the first episode. It’s the kind of procedural that’s stuffed with lightning-bolt revelations and convulsive tears by guest-of-the-week actors and yet still seems bland. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… ranks among the most contrived TV shows ever. … There is some undeniable chemistry between McGinn and Whatley, but it isn't enough to rescue "Past Life." Not in this life. …

Variety says:

… the rules surrounding the reincarnation hokum remain confoundingly fuzzy, so much so that it's hard to believe the series has enough worthwhile incarnations to remain viable very long before dying and -- unlike its unfortunate guest stars -- staying that way. … for those expecting to enjoy a mere single life, time's simply too precious to squander on this.

9 p.m. Tuesday & Thursday. Fox.