HUMAN TARGET 1.11 - "Victoria"

WRITERS: Kalinda Vasquez & Sonny Postiglione (story by Zak Schwartz)
DIRECTOR: Paul A. Edwards
GUEST CAST: Christina Cole, Sean Carey, Mackenzie Gray, Christopher Heyerdahl, Jarod Joseph, Robert Lawrenson, Chris Moon, Kavan Smith & Rey Valentin

[SPOILERS] I can only muster a few thoughts on this fun but formulaic action show's penultimate episode. It doesn't help that I could copy-and-paste my review of "Run", change a few of the names, and essentially have the basics of "Victoria" covered.

Chance (Mark Valley) is tasked with protecting royalty this week, in the attractive shape of Victoria, Princess of Wales (Christina Cole). What, you expected a jug-eared prince to be Chance's client? He seems to choose his jobs based on how sexually attractive the person asking for his help is. Victoria was an obvious analog of the real-life Princess Diana, too. Like Di, the fictional Victoria has fallen in love with an ethnic man, paramedic James (Sean Carey), so a faction of the royal household are plotting her demise. Ooh, conspiracy. Where's a Parisian tunnel when you need one, huh?

Written by veterans of Prison Break (Kalinda Vasquez) and the US remake of Life On Mars (Sonny Postiglione), "Victoria" was what you'd expect from that meeting of minds: fast-paced and ridiculous with some British references ("pints", "The Sun", "The Telegraph"), and Irish clichés thrown in for good measure ("top o' the mornin', to ya!") Of course it guest-stars character actor Erick Avari as self-sacrificing butler-type Gerrard. Of course the Queen's been transformed into a svelte, red-haired MILF (there's no room for wrinkled octogenarians on Human Target.) And of course the bad guy was a dull cipher with a rakish name like Templeton (Mackenzie Gray). In fact, too many of Human Target's villains are tedious blanks, which is a shame because that means you never doubt Chance will prevail. Human Target's best episode has been "Baptiste", the one story that actually took the time to craft a decent nemesis. That wasn't a coincidence.

There were a few good scenes and moments, as always. I liked Chance and Victoria's escape from a hotel room by fooling the bad guys with a fake-out escape in a food trolley, for instance. And in one hour it did a better job convincing you they'd filmed in New York City than the current season of 24 has managed in a dozen. Plus it's still fun spending time with the comic double-act of Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) and Winston (Chi McBride), who here had to protect Victoria's secret boyfriend from a sniper in a garage.

Overall, middle-of-the-road entertainment that coasted by, helped by a few dievrting action scenes and a classy performance from Cole (looking like Amy Smart's hotter British cousin.) But I'm tiring of how every episode feels near-identical to the last, and the fact most of Chance's sexy clients are in situations that echo something from his own past is already a big cliché. And was the big "shock" of the epilogue, that Chance's lover Katherine Walters is dead, supposed to be a surprise? It was filmed like it was a big reveal, but didn't Baptiste already make it clear he'd killed Katherine three episodes ago?

There hasn't been much comment on Human Target around here, so I take it not many of you are watching, but let me know if you are. Are you enjoying this show? Are you excited for next week's finale? Do you think the show will be back next year?

7 APRIL 2010: FOX, 9/8c