1+1=3

(Touch, episode 1.2, originally aired March 22, 2012)

One of the midseason shows I was most looking forward to was Touch. I was intrigued by the idea of a genius child trying to communicate with his father and making connections all over the world. Then again, I do love anything that reminds us that we are living in such a small world and are truly all interconnected.  And I watched 24 from the beginning and kind of miss Jack Bauer sometimes.

We recorded the pilot of the show when it aired during the January "preview" but didn't end up watching it until the show was almost back on the air. We liked it but weren't sure where it would go. Then we fell behind between packing and moving and the second episode disappeared from on demand. I finally caught it online a few days ago but since A didn't have time to see it, I recapped it for him yesterday morning. I still haven't decided whether to stick with the show for its run - there are things I like about it and some things I don't - but it occurred to me how ridiculous some of the plot points were. I can suspend disbelief but only so much.

For example (and apologies if you haven't seen the second episode of Touch, but it's been over a month since it aired, so I will talk about it freely):

- Kiefer/Jack Bauer (what's his character's name? Martin? He'll always be Jack to me) sees a dog for a few minutes while transporting him. Yet at the end of the episode when he sees the dog he immediately knows it's the same dog and recognizes it. Seriously? There are no other dogs that look like Lyov?

- No one can just waltz onto the field in the middle of the day at a baseball stadium and scatter ashes. That guy would be tackled by security in seconds.

- The Russian mobster grew a heart? Really? Because his kid thinks he hurts people? I watch enough crime shows on TV to know that he would have just postponed the beating while on the phone with his kid, not let the guy off with all of his debts paid.

- I still can't get over the fact that they took the kid away from Kiefer because he was "unfit" to care for him when the school is the one that keeps losing him (or the social worker) and the kid has a perfectly nice home to live in. I know it's the premise, but it makes absolutely no sense that he would be an unfit guardian when he can clearly take care of his kid!  This is probably the toughest part of the show to me because the storyline of taking him away just feels so contrived. I am willing to be spoiled if you tell me they dropped this plot point because the ridiculousness of it is taking away from the show.

- The dog ran from the airport (which I think is supposed to be JFK) to the baseball stadium? I thought they had said it was the Yankees but maybe I was wrong. Either one, you want me to believe the dog ran there and was there when you got there on public transportation. It's like they're using Castle's map of New York in all of its screwed-up-ness.

- Jack kept pace running with the bus his kid jumped on until the bus stopped to let him on. Right... I know Jack Bauer is kind of superhuman but he can now run as fast as a bus?

I'm sure there were more things but that's all I could think of right now.  I will continue to watch for now to see how I feel about the show.  The timeslot is tough because Person of Interest is much better, The Secret Circle is a guilty pleasure, and Grey's Anatomy has been better lately than in recent years.  Luckily, other than Person of Interest (grrrrrrrr CBS), the other shows can all be watched in some alternate format (online, on demand).  I haven't paid attention to how it's doing in the ratings and whether people think it will be back, but so far, I'm still curious to see where it goes.