Goodbye Eureka
9.5
Ever since I started watching Eureka I've loved it. It has always been equal parts funny, smart and over-the-top technological drama, and it's the mixture of these elements (plus a little bit of heart) that has made it so fun to watch. I've found it hard to hate any characters on the show. They've always been portrayed well, and for the most part have been done with tongue firmly in cheek. The characters are what made the show so watchable and have held it up through what I would call some weak story writing and desperate attempts to liven things up.
I would never attempt to disparage Eureka on the whole, because I've enjoyed it over the years, and I'm sure plenty of other people have as well. I can't help but look back, though, and lament the poor decision making that has been employed over the seasons of Eureka. I would start that the first season (and our first foray into time travel which was pulled off to perfection) was in my mind how I will remember Eureka and for me, when it was best. Too many attempts, since then, have been made to escalate the level of danger and weirdness in Eureka that was really unneeded considering how much fun many of the standalone episodes could be. The two timeline shifts have been the real tipping point for me, as it effectively said 'OK, do you remember everything that's happened so far? Well forget it, because it didn't actually happen.' I deplore that sort of trickery from television shows, especially one where the characters and their relationships are so important, and the tactic that you employ is going to damage those relationships, some irreparably. For me there is no real difference as far as the whole television show goes, between Eureka's timeline shifts and Dallas' 'lost season'. The problem is that you always have to second guess yourself whilst watching as to whether what you think the characters are talking about is what they're actually talking about, and other such situations. It always draws a very strong line between those characters involved in the time shift and those not. It's difficult for me to watch Vincent or Zane (for a time) sitting there clueless that everything they know means nothing to the viewers.
But I did say that I love Eureka. And it's the characters that make it special. Jack, at the heart of the show, has always been the everyman, and he's played his part well. It's never been hard to love Jack, and his bewildered looks and simplified speeches about 'death lasers' and the like. Truly embodying the unlikely hero of an uber-smart community, he's never short of bravery for entering a perilous situation that he doesn't even understand. I've had a problem, though, with his relationship with Alison since the untimely death of Nathan Stark. It struck me then, that their relationship from that point, which was obviously going to happen, would always have an asterisk next to it, especially considering she was pregnant with Nathan's baby at the time. Not to take anything away from their interactions with each other, which have always shown their strong bond, but it seemed to take some sort of legitimacy out of it. Despite it ruining their relationship, though, I found Nathan's death to be a truly beautiful part of this show. Nathan was always one of my favourite characters, and his banter with Jack was always entertaining. I thought the way he sacrificed himself was brilliant, and really underlined the point that he was, despite all appearances, a really good guy. I always saw that he and Carter had a lot of mutual respect, and when he left, there was truly a hole where Jack's foil should have been. Of the other characters I think that they were all very well written and formed the community perfectly. Henry, perhaps the most intelligent of all of Eureka's residents, but always with his feet firmly on the ground, was a perfect role for friend of Carter and reluctant saviour at seemingly every turn. I feel that Henry took more hardship during the course of the show than anyone else, and for that he will be remembered more sympathetically than anything else. Jo, who always played the tomboy and reluctant-to-feel deputy to perfection, was a rock of reason through the show, though towards the end of the show, it felt like her relationship with Zane was becoming her defining feature (which is unfortunately a plight that plagues female characters on TV). Zane was an addition to the show who I always liked. He had the quips and smarts to make any conversation a joke, and he was definitely a big source of comedy for the show once the Jack-Nathan banter was gone. Zoe was a nice outlet for Jack in the early days when he was a fish out of water, and later she started to develop well in her own right. I massively back her eventual exit and success, as the writers of the show seemed willing to let go (I wish they'd felt the same about Holly). Andy was always mostly annoying to me, but I guess I was happy that he was pretty consistent throughout his run (though his 'romance' with SARAH was equal parts creepy and strange). Fargo was very much a comic relief character early on, but he levelled out towards the series' end, and it was a welcome sight to see so much growth in the character. I will always love SARAH, and proclaim her to be my dream house, though she was the central part of one of my main gripes with the series finale: Why was no-one talking about her? If they were leaving Eureka, they were leaving her! That was a damn fine house, and no-one even batted an eyelid? Rant over.
I guess my only other point that I can think of is the final scene of Jack and Zoe driving down the same rainy street they had 5 seasons previously. I liked the symmetry and it underlined a certain nostalgia to me about the show, but I would like to point out that seeing as there were two timeline shifts since then, would that event have actually occurred? Am I just being too disgruntled? Maybe. Probably. I'm almost certainly picking holes too early in a show that brought me great enjoyment. I can't deny I would've enjoyed more Eureka, but I can also not deny that the television purist in me would've wanted it cancelled a while back before things got all mixed up and jumping into bed with someone soon after their ex-husband/fiance and baby daddy died became fine. I'll remember all these things, but I'll also remember that Eureka was great, and I loved it.
