The CW’s “Frequency” looked to me like it might be okay, when it first came out this last fall. But it didn’t excite me enough to jump on the premier bandwagon and wait to watch an episode faithfully every week. Then it quickly came to Netflix, and it was trending (which, incidentally, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any good, see The Matchbreaker – apparently, some serious crap can trend). Luke and I were in a show-hole*, so we decided to give it a shot.

It’s based on a movie, which I’ve never seen, and is about a female detective in her mid-twenties who discovers she can talk back in time to her dead dad before he died, using an old ham radio.

Okay, I’ll bite.

A Decent Start…

Decent, but not great.

This wasn’t really a show that made us eagerly anticipate the next episode. This was more a, “What do you wanna watch? That ‘Frequency’ show again? Eh, okay.” At least in the beginning.

It’s a short season, only thirteen episodes, and we did watch the whole thing. Now, granted, by the last few episodes, we were getting hooked. Throughout the season, the father-daughter duo-through-time had been working to catch a certain serial killer and save her mom from being killed at a point in the time somewhere between them, and things get tense in those last few episodes.

It’s just that, most of the earlier episodes you could really take or leave.

A little cheesy here and there…

I’ve come to expect a certain amount of cheesiness in most network shows. When we watch a Netflix original or something from, say, AMC, we have a little higher expectations. But most network drama or action shows (the hour-longs, or for everyone who watches online only like me, the 42 minute shows) have some bad dialogue, some cardboard characters, some cringe-worthy character interactions.

For this show, I think it was a little bit all of the above. Nothing glaringly terrible, but some flaws present, nonetheless. The main thing that sticks out in my mind is the characters’ constant use of the phrase, “Look, I get it.” Do you? Do you really get it, guys? Why, you’ve said it so often, I think I just might believe that you do get it (“it” being whatever difficult or trying circumstance was getting in the way of things wrapping up easily).

Morally speaking…

So, there was a little bit of language, a little violence, and there were a few sex scenes in this season. A few being somewhere in the range of like 3 or 4, mostly pretty brief, standard 14 rating stuff.

Honestly I was a little more put off by the main character’s attitude toward hooking up. It wasn’t so very out of the ordinary in our day and age, it just seemed kind of callused and… manly I guess? She didn’t seem super emotionally invested. I guess I just don’t know a lot of real-life women who behave like that.

Over All

The show is fine, and just that.

It gets exciting toward the end of the series, but even then I wouldn’t have called it excellent.

Nothing too terrible, morality-wise. But nothing outstanding either.

You could watch it. Or you could not.

Instead…

If you’re in the mood for an action-y procedural type show, I would more highly recommend something like the British show “Broadchurch,” or the action-comedy “Chuck.”

*Show-hole: That deep dark place one finds himself upon completing a Netflix series and having no good idea of what to watch next.