Early Edition
The premise of the show is very easy to understand: a guy gets tomorrow's news today. And they had that awesome introduction music that you can't get out of your head. They don't ever "explain" how this process works, but they definitely give out a series of hints to how the rules work for the program. The show does a splendid job throughout all four seasons by consistently evolving the tone of the program while still managing to balance out certain cast members. The main problem I had with the series is that they aired way too many cute girls who fell in love with the protagonist. Almost every episode had someone with lips fawning head-over-heals over the guy.
That isn't to say that there is some mysticism. The main character might be Gary Hobson, but there is most definitely something else running the show. The first season brings out how the previous newspaper owner, Luscious Snow, lived his life. He even momentarily shows up in Season 3 Episode 18 to give Gary comfort over losing someone. They hint at a mysterious blond woman in Season 1 Episode 4 but later decide to focus on a form of red-haired spirit woman that uses the wind to manipulate the pages. The cat goes through several renditions but acts as some sort of guide that brings the paper at 6:30 AM every morning (unless the news piece demands an earlier wake-up time). It will direct Gary's attention at certain articles or people with a meow. There also seems to be some sort of spiritual connection like when it gives Marissa sight for a few seconds in Season 2 Episode 22 or hooks up with a little girl in Season 4 Episode 13. Gary also starts experiencing bad dreams that are somehow linked to the day's activities starting around Season 2 Episode 9. Season 2 Episode 21 also pitches this weird idea of him traveling to the past to solve a problem.
Season 1 (First Half): The first season introduces the characters and their opinions over what to do with this mysterious paper that predicts the future. Gary Hobson thinks he should use it to rescue people while his unusual buddy Chuck Fishman thinks you should use it to make a fortune. Marissa Clark, a blind woman, seems to be the sound of reason between the two of them. She carries around a German Sheppard named Spike for most of this season, but the dog disappears entirely until she picks up a golden retriever in season 4. Gary's wife files for divorce and shows up for around the first six episodes. She leaves Lost Chicago with him at his hotel that shows Luscious Snow typing out the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper with an orange cat. So for around 13 episodes, he makes "friends" with Detective Crumb. The paper lays down the rules by making sure Gary Hobson does exactly what he is supposed to by issuing road blocks anytime he tries to go outside the boundaries. Oh and Chuck also gets in trouble trying out his methods in Season 1 Episode 9.
Season 1 (Second Half) - Season 2 (First Half): After the convoluted 2-parter in Episodes 14 and 15 going on about destiny and fate, things don't exactly improve. The episodes only get worse as it turns even more into a Hallmark Special where Gary has to learn about this one specific person's lifestyle and turn it around. There is also a huge chance he will meet some cute girl that needs an assist. The camera will zoom into their face to try and enact some emotion from the audience. Although amusing, Season 2 Episode 12 proves my point by having a real princess sleep over in his bed. Marissa decides to take classes around Season 1 Episode 15. There were also some drastic changes when the set was moved from the hotel room to McGinty's Bar. They play around with the idea that Chuck Fishman tries to turn it into some fancy restaurant up until around Season 2 Episode 9. Then it sort of just turns into a general restaurant and bar establishment. In fact, they use the van with its logo on the side in Season 2 Episode 12 and various other later episodes.
Season 2 (Second Half): Things improve drastically after Season 2 Episode 13 when the episodes start to revolve around certain events. I noticed less chances that the camera will pan in on a person's face and more action-oriented sequences. There is a new waitress that appears around Season 2 Episode 16. Season 2 Episode 17 gets both of Gary's parents involved with the newspaper in a more light-hearted episode. The general tone of the episodes are fast-paced and involve certain genres you might see in movies. Detective Crumb sort of becomes the bartender for the rest of the season. Chuck Fishman sadly leaves the show in the season finale, but does sporadically come back here and there in future episodes.
Season 3 - Season 4 (First Quarter): The 3rd season is an enigma. Without Chuck Fishman, the show decides to bring in a mother and his little boy to fill the gap. I got so bored of an episode every time it revolved around either of these two characters. The kid quickly learns about the newspaper and throws a monkey wrench into Gary's plans. The mother avoids the whole thing until Season 3 Episode 14. Detective Crumb gets replaced with Patrick Quinn, a "quirky" fellow that is pretty dense when it comes to personal space and sharing too much information. The interesting part is how many new characters get introduced. You get a robust news-reporter, an FBI agent, and a new police detective. After the mom and kid leave in the season finale, they never really do anything else to the cast. There was this brief moment I thought Gary would have teamed up with the detective, but it ends up being just Gary and Marissa to the end. Even the restaurant feels like background noise at this point.
Season 4: I'd have to say that they kind of ruined "the magic" of the newspaper by bringing in another guy that didn't "follow the rules" in the first episode. They also brought in "the people" behind the newspaper in Season 4 Episode 14. Things only get worse as every episode throws out anything that was established in the previous seasons by building upon its established lore in a funkiest of ways. First six episodes were so cringy to watch as things kept going badly for Gary. There was one good thing - the two-parter for Season 4 Episodes 7 and 8 was really good. The rest of the season felt like the writers were shooting out ideas left-and-right with mixed success. Ugh, and they just had to end the show with the most awful episode too. Absolutely no closure whatsoever.
Review
I thoroughly enjoyed Early Edition. The show made use of mixing up the cast and having multiple characters continually show up inside various episodes. There is definitely a wide-range of good and bad episodes. You can identify the good ones when the A Plot and the B Plot converge by the end. Whenever the newspaper is used more as a plot device to keep the protagonist with a certain person away from general events, that's when it starts to drag. Whenever you see Gary Hobson meet some girl that shows up for more than half the episode, that's when you know it is a bad episode. Despite all this, I would definitely consider this show at the very least watchable.
10-10-2020