Quickie Review: "The Phone"
Now you see him...tonight, you won't (Getty)
Let's clear this up right now - Justin Timberlake does not, repeat not, star in "The Phone," premiering tonight on MTV, at 10. Doesn't sing or perform either - nothing to do with the sountrack. If you blink, you'll miss his name on the credits at the end...And that's it. He's the front man, the big name, the hook. Beyond JT - who isn't even here - what's the reason to watch another reality show?
Because this one's good - surprisingly so.
Quick premise: Cell phones ring, and four strangers at separate locations in Seattle pick them up, where a voice - a melodramatic one with an Irish lilt, supplied by Emmet Scanlan - tells them about the game they have signed up to play .
Oh yes, I forgot - a car blows up too.
The four must pair off in teams, then go after the mad bomber, before the bastard strikes again! (The bomber? He kinda reminds me of Billy "Bomb" Thornton, in maybe, "The Apostle," but definitely not in "Bad Santa...") So...the kids are told to perform tasks - stuff like find the "suspect," or climb the Space Needle (or crawl around its halo); or...whatever. And with each task performed successfully, or semi-successfully, our mysterious caller puts more money in each teams' joint account. Game wraps by episode's end.
You'll wrack your brain for various antecedents - as I did, but couldn't really come up with any one thing that was a precise match to "The Phone." Maybe there's a bit of "Murder in a Small Town X;" maybe a bit of "The Benefactor;" maybe a bit of "The Mole," and seasoning from a dozen shows I couldn't think of.
But here's the point: "The Phone" knows it's hokey and knows it's a bit of a lark. But it is so well produced - credit to vet reality man, Craig Armstrong - and the various tasks are so well staged that you'll forgive the occasional lapses of clarity or logic. (And the fact that clearly, the show seems to be aiding our contestants in their mad and merry chase because, of course, Justin wouldn't have a show if they belly-flopped.)
This one, I do believe, is a keeper - or at least through it's six episode run.
Grade: B +
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