Haven – Season One Til Now

*No plot spoilers*

Despite Syfy’s rebranding in an ostensible attempt to expand beyond science fiction programming, they appear to be committed to bringing original series with a dash of the deliciously weird, and Haven is this year’s summer debut. Lead character Audrey (Emily Rose) is an FBI agent who goes to the Maine seaside town of Haven following up on a regular investigation, but finds things in Haven to be more than a little freaky – as in, people who create massive storms when they get angry or whose dreams turn into very destructive realities.

She stays around firstly because she’s a little bit fascinated by the crazy stuff going on, but also because it seems her long-lost mother came through Haven decades previously and she has something of a personal quest to find out what she can about that. Meanwhile, she forms a de facto partnership with Nathan (Lucas Bryant), the junior member of the father-and-son police force in town (who has his own oddities, including an inability to feel pain).

Haven is up to five episodes now, and a few longer arcs are already coming to play, notably the rivalry/feud between Nathan and Duke (Eric Balfour), the town’s excuse for a criminal element, which is largely confined to black market trading and pissing off the constabulary whenever he gets the chance. There’s also increasing mention of “the troubles,” apparently a previous outbreak of strange events that seems to be cycling back again.

I hope that the ongoing “troubles” arc addresses at some point what causes all the strange things to happen, because I’m all for weird and unexplained things, but Haven takes its weirdness a little too much in stride. There’s no Scully character here to try to find the logical explanation, yet the show also feels like it’s trying to take place in a “real” world in which the things that happen would be at least looked at askance. The only explanation for why they’re not is that people are used to such things in Haven, but why – and why does Audrey jump so quickly into that mindset when she’s the token outsider? The mundane and the unnatural can meld into some pretty great television, as many sci-fi shows have taught us, but the mix seems unwieldy in Haven.

I’m also not drawn in as much by Audrey and Nathan as characters as I’d like to be – Duke is a much better character both as written and as acted, and I find the part where he’s on-screen much more compelling. Audrey’s not bad, and does have her moments when the dialogue helps her out a little bit (and she’s better when she’s playing off Duke), but Nathan is much too flat and bland for what his role in the show ought to be. He seems to be the main connection to “the troubles” (he’s the one who senses first that they’re back), but he’s so uninteresting that I’m only barely interested in finding out what “the troubles” are.

I’m still watching, but if this weren’t a summer show and had more competition for my time, I doubt I’d keep it up for much longer. That said, I do enjoy the almost lackadaisical quality of cable shows – I’m not sure how to describe what I mean by the difference between cable shows (especially Syfy and USA ones), but they just feel a lot more fun and less stressed than basic network shows. It might be the shorter running time, 13 episodes rather than 22, or it might be the lowered fear of cancellation, or the lack of pressure to appeal to everybody in the world, but I seem to be much more willing to keep watching cable shows lately, even when I have issues with them. I dunno. Maybe that’s the summer talking.

Haven on Syfy.com
Haven on hulu (all five episodes so far still available, but the pilot expires in 2 days, on August 13th)