★★★★★ 0/5

Ringer

She's on the run from cops and the mob, but in her new melodrama, Sarah Michelle Gellar takes refuge in high society in TEN's new series, Ringer.

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Warning. It’s nigh on impossible to review Ringer without at least a few Spoilers, but I will stick to the ones that occur in the first act and avoid the later turning points.

This series is all about Sarah Michelle Gellar or, perhaps even two SMGs.

It marks her return to a series role following her hit series Buffy The Vampire Slayer. So successful in that role was she that she still holds a passionate fanbase. A lot of vampire blood has passed since 2003 so hopefully they are ready to embrace her in a new role and a new genre.

We open in Wyoming, a state frequently overlooked by television in favor of the backdrops of LA, New York, Florida, Hawaii and the deep south.

Bridget (Gellar) is a recovering addict and ex-stripper, rebuilding her life via therapy sessions with a self-help group. But Bridget is also under a Witness Protection plan run by FBI Agent Victor Machado (Lost‘s Richard Alpert).

Otherwise laying low in a motel room ahead of testifying in a murder trial against a mob leader, she’s not convinced she is safe and makes a getaway to meet her twin sister Siobhan, whom she hasn’t seen in six years.

Siobhan (also played by Gellar) is a New York socialite who’s never revealed to husband Andrew (Ioan Gruffudd) that Bridget exists. When the twins take time out in The Hamptons there’s a lot of mysterioso stuff about what went on in the past and allusions to their sibling rift.

But when Siobhan disappears at sea during an afternoon on a speedboat, Bridget makes a convenient switch by adopting her sister’s lifestyle hoping nobody will notice the difference. Hey presto, new life solved.

Yep, this premise is the stuff of Mills and Boons novels, or even an episode of The Bold and The Beautiful, as we parachute into the lifestyle of the wealthy on the back of a lie.

She’s on the run, dodging killers and cops, walking a mile in someone else’s shoes and doing her best to fake it with Siobhan’s family and friends. In this sense Ringer is an escapist thriller, more soap than action, more style than substance and more aspiration than perspiration.

Nevertheless, Gellar still holds up rather well as a more mature female heroine than her sexy bad-ass juvenile Buffy. You can almost forgive some of the unsophisticated dialogue merely for the fact that she’s back on the small screen. Aside from a few twists and turns in the Pilot episode there’s not a lot of subtlety here. Contemporary pop tunes smooth over the logic.

Having Gellar double as herself in Bewitched-style scenes is passable stuff, but whoever gave a green-screen speedboat scene the tick of approval needs to go back to CGI school. It’s up there with the worst of them.

Gellar does most of the heavy lifting here, with Ioan Gruffudd suitably unlikable as her instant husband and demonstrating that all was not well in Siobhan’s life. Others including Carbonell and therapy-group buddy Malcolm (Mike Colter) look like they will have more to do as episodes unfold.

Hiding out from the mob is hardly new terrain. I remember Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon doing it with hilarious results in Some Like it Hot, or Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act. Ringer has some hi-jinks but there’s none of the humour.

Gellar is also an Executive Producer of this story, created by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder (Supernatural, Love You to Death). I’m not convinced it will enjoy the same success as Buffy, but it’s good to have her back.

Ringer airs 9:30pm Sundays on TEN

33 Responses

  1. This is my favurite show of this new season. Im upto ep 4 and it just gets better and better. Unfortunately the clowns at 10 won tlet this flourish. And I doubt they banish it off to 11. Either watchit online peeps, or wait for the DVD’s its an excellent show and 10 wont give it the respect it derserves.

  3. Jerome, 90210 is sitting on a 0.6 for it’s latest episode, not 0.7. If you’re going to be pedantic about ratings at least get your facts correct.

    Anyway I couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether or not it’s doing well in the demo, it’s a quality show and people who are interested will watch. Others like you will just sit back and be a ratings critic. What a joyful existence you must have.

  6. I love this series. It’s my favorite drama of the new season and my 3rd favourite new show behind New Girl and 2 Broke Girls. The bad thing is this is on CW and the ratings don’t truly show how good this show is. Sarah Michelle is back and back with a vengeance. I hope it does well here

  8. Ringer is my favourite new US show this year so far. Episode 1 got me hooked, eps 2 and 3 were a bit slow with not much extra happening. But I’m trusting that it’ll pick up pace soon.

  9. TvbytheNumbers has Ringer listed as the 3rd most successful show on the CW, and it’s certainly doing better than 90210 and Gossip Girl.

    I wouldn’t worry about it being canceled any time soon. At least not before Supernatural, Nikita, Hart of Dixie, and half the other shows on the network

  11. @Joel @Josh.

    anyone suggesting it is doing well really needs to check the ratings again. a 0.6 is not acceptable for any show on any network. last year Life Unexpected was axed while it was getting 0.5 and that was in its 2nd season. Ringer could easily be below that next week considering how sharply audiences have declined in just 4 episodes so far.

    As Josh pointed out it was predicted to do big things, and was hyped up a lot, only makes its case a lot worse. cant blame it on audiences not knowing about it and are yet to find the show.

  12. I’m loving this show (though a biased Gellar fan) and will be re-watching the episodes from start on TEN.
    I’m just worried the show’s not going to last much longer in the US. Ratings dwindled to below half it’s original audience this week.
    CW have already cancelled H8R, I’m hoping Ringer isn’t next! (At least not before a satisfying conclusion)

  13. Thanks for the review David. I was wondering what the show was about. Back in the day I was a major Buffy fan. I saw the bad CGi green screen in the ads. Must of been the same person who did the one for Tom Ballard on 7pm Project last night. Anyway I’ll give this show a go. Sounds interesting..

  14. I’m so glad to see this picked up by an aussie network. I have been watching this show since it premiered in the states and i gotta admit, as a 19 year old male, I didn’t expect to get so glued into a show like this. It has to be my favourite of all the shows that have premiered this fall.

    For those who have instantly ruled out watching this show because of the shows synopsis, please don’t! You have to literally watch the pilot episode to really get a grasp of how good this show is. Trust me, you will be addicted to it by the end of the first episode.

    Speaking of ratings, its actually pulling a decent amount considering the network it is on and its competition on rival networks during its timeslot. You have to realise that US ratings are more concerned with the 18-49 share, and it is doing great in that department. Also, if you remember an earlier post by David, it actually came second, behind X Factor (US), in odds of failing according to a US critic. That must say something!!

  15. I agree with others – I think that I will prob enjoy this but it won’t rate. Ten should just put this on Eleven rather than jerking us around later.

  18. This show is great, good to have Sarah Michelle Gellar back on screen. And yeah it does get better each episode. I really doubt this will rate on Ten though. And they’ll prob move it or take it off after a few weeks.

    Side note i hate the spelling of Shevaun as Siobhan. When i was younger and before i knew, i use to pronounce it Sio-barn lol

  19. Sun 9:30 is way too big of a timeslot for such a low rating show in The US. definitely should be on 11. Even if it does premiere well it’s not going to last. Its already lost 50% of it’s premiere audience in the US.

  20. I agree, it won’t bring in the rating numbers Ten will be demanding of it, who are stupid to think that it will and Eleven will be the better place for it. Plus is there enough in the premise to be interesting for multiple seasons and not just season 1, as there probably enough isn’t in the Revenge show.

  22. Yeah well I just hope TEN don’t put too much hope on it winning it’s time slot or something because 9.30pm on a Sunday is difficult for all the networks.

    Camelot anyone?

  23. This should be on Eleven. It’s on the CW in the US and gets roughly 1% of the television audience. Don’t expect it to last to long at 9.30 on a Sunday.

  25. I just finished episode four and this show is getting better with each episode!

    Episodes 1 and 2 have some slow points but by episode 3 I was hooked. I highly recommend this series – definitely my favourite new show this year, followed by Person of Interest and Revenge

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