As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is difficult to find good series to watch on DVD and I was puzzled by one I never knew existed in Sliders from FOX and later the Sci Fi, but in coming across it, I thought I would give it a try as John Rhys Davies stars.
Davies is known by all, and is every bit the John Thaw and Brian Blessed in the strongest of British actors. He really should be knighted and it should be known that he is really a nice man in real life with the highest of morals.
The thing is with Sliders is it ran 5 seasons, but each season was different. The show was cast wrong and Season 1 feels like British Dr. Who in bad production.
The original cast of Cleavant Derricks, Jerry O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd and John Rhys Davies never seemed to click.
Jerry O'Connell
O'Connell was the star, but by season two he looked 40 years old and was hard to believe as a college student who was a genius who created a device to open a portal to other dimensions in which you could slide into them.
The story was sound and a good basis for a weekly series, but as I stated, the casting was not great, as Sabrina Lloyd was supposed to be the cute young girl who liked O'Connell, but was more the frigid bitch who dressed like a guy all the time.
None of this helped Cleavant Derricks, who has real talent, as he was the token black, but was stereotyped as the "Mammie we all turn to for morals and advice".
By Season 2, FOX had gone cheap production in being Canada, and featuring only Canadian actors, who are ALL BORING AS HELL WHEN YOU GET THEM TOGETHER. Every series shot in Canada always lags when they use too many Canadians or extras. The show just went limp in Season 2.
John Rhys Davies
Season 3, brought about a change as it moved back to the United States, and the acting picked up greatly, but the stories were not that great, as I have forgotten them. It was in Season 3 which the show changed for Season 4, where John Rhys Davies left the show, and Jerry O'Connell brought in his brother, who played an Amish genius, who was pleasant enough to watch, but O'Connell began producing here, and this is where changes were made.
Sliders alienated it's right wing audience with constant attacks at people like Margaret Thatcher. In trying to undo the O'Connell damage the attacks came against a Bill Clinton type character whose ive tried to murder the coming star Kari Wuhrer in Season 4.
Kari Wuhrer
To inflate ratings for a lagging FOX show, they brought in Kari Wuhrer who had no problem showing her cleavage. She was hot as a blonde and a rivalry was produced in the plain jane Sabrina Lloyd could not keep up. With a change in production ,writers, story direction based on cleavage, two of the best shows of Sliders appeared.
The first was Kari Wuhrer whose body was taken over by a reptilian like on Alien. Wuhrer who was weak in acting deliverance, hit it out of the park with this performance. This was followed by Lloyd playing a Vampire's vixen, where she had one thinking, "This should be Wuhrer", but the damage was done. Wuhrer had made catty remarks about marriage choices in Lloyd, the producers did not like the plain jane, and Lloyd was booted, it would now be the O'Connell boys, Cleavant Derricks and Wuhrer for season 5.
Clevant Derricks
Season 5 was short as it was on Sci Fi, but the production, casting and acting elevated immensely. The problems though appeared as the McConnell boys left the show, and as they disappeared, it is a reality they were not as wonderful as they thought. As I stated, the younger brother was good as a dupe, but Jerry O'Connell was lackluster as the lead. He had flashes of very good acting when he was portraying alternative universe types of himself, but he just is not a lead man. Nor was his replacement in Robert Floyd. Sci Fi has wonderful production, but it fell back on the Star Trek Next Generation bullshit of the "hologram and Sam Spade" as story filler which is boring as hell.
That is what the short Season 5 degraded to, a series of fantasy situations like cowboys or re enactments. It also produced the two most horrid shows in the series, in Floyd in one has mad sex with this dirty biker bitch with a harem of husbands, and he duels with her at the end on motorcycles, which is just lame. The other program was Kari Wuhrer having the hots for the Dirty Pirate Man and hot sex. Yes it was grubby porn of the sick fantasy, as even the Jazz Club fantasy appeared in one episode which is just boring as all Jazz Club stories are in those who get off on saxophone music, and the rest of the world does not.
A Floyd whore and a Wuhrer whore really killed everything in this series, as it was in self suicide from the start.
Tembi Locke
The show ends with Cleavant Derricks sliding home, but no one knows if he is alive. That is not a spoiler, as the show was spoiled, but I do want to mention something which makes some of this series watchable and good. It is the part of Tembi Locke, who is Black, just as Derricks is. For most Blacks they can not act and are there just as lures to get Blacks to watch shit they never would. In Locke and Derricks, they actually propelled the show forward. Derricks was visibly not wanting to be on the program after Lloyd was fired and tried to seek her revenge on Wurher and the producers in being paid 40,000 dollars for one episode in which she would be featured, but the idea was canned, and when the O'Connells were booted, Derricks was the last man standing as he did like Davies. It was in this though that he came into his own as a lead, and he did very well. He carried the series and Tembe Locke performed up to Derrick's level .Wuhrer by Season 5 had developed attitude and she was off putting. It was odd though that Season 5 had the best cast, they were strong, but the writing was weak, and Wurher and Floyd, lost the audience connection or never completed it. There was too much posing, and even Wuhrer with her Daddy Catharsis feature, was too much whining in a woman who originally appeared as a Marine.
Sliders was good filler for 3 months of viewing in rationed watching. I was though ready for it to be over by the time it was done. There is talk of a revival, but who wants to watch a geezer Jerry O'Connell and John Rhys Davies is too old to be slamming into the turf on every slide.
Kristanna Loken
I do believe that this show was a good premise. Derricks and Rhys Davies were good casting, Lloyd and O'Connell were not. The series would have been better to have had Wuhrer in the original roll or they should have cast the future Terminator, Kristanna Loken, who guest starred, and was doing well before she went lezbo in life, and there were a host of soap opera boy wonders like Christian LeBlanc who would have played a vulnerable kid for Professor John Rhys Davies.
TL suggested those two boobs from Lord of the Rings, English lads who make fun of Orlando Bloom as college kids, hell Pauly Shore would have done better than Jerry O'Connell.
Cromags
It all comes down to though how this show never fired on all cylinders ever and it was another FOX tragedy. It is watchable, and better than most series, but it is weak stereotype of people and when you have to introduce Cromags, who are better in costume at acting than the actors, you simply have another series which failed.
Nuff Said
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