After two failed attempts to by the major networks to do a successful series about an invisible man, cable TV got in on the act in the year 2000. Their version differs from the other two (as well as the movies) but often in the wrong ways. First, the invisible man is louse, a professional thief, named Darien Fawkes. Turns out he's not very good thief either. After getting caught and convicted for the third time, Darien faces life in prison with no parole. His brother, a scientist, offers him a way out-let him put an experimental gland in his head that makes him invisible. This moron actually has to think over which is preferable--life in prison or becoming a sometimes invisible man. I'm sure the idea was to give the show an "edge" and make the invisible man a "cool" and "macho" anti-hero. Given that his favorite expression is "Aw crap," I'd say they missed the boat on that one.
The gland in his head causes him to secrete a so-called, light-bending substance called "quicksilver." The first time he transforms is admittedly eye-opening. It reminded me of the liquid metal effects used in Terminator 2. Because of the show's budget limitations however, he fades out much quicker thereafter. I've always had problems with the notion of quicksilver. Since light travels at over 186,000 miles per second you need the gravitational pull of a black hole to alter its course. If this was possible, it seems that "bending light" would distort the appearance of objects directly behind the "invisible" man, since the bent light rays would be hitting the objects behind him at irregular or unnatural angles. Quicksilver is a mercury-like liquid so why doesn't the stuff wipe off on bad guys when he smacks them? Why don't the soles of his shoes become slippery on freshly waxed floors when covered by quicksilver? In one episode, quicksilver was cold enough to freeze the mechanism of a time bomb. Yet, we can see him with thermal imaging devices which register heat.
I could easily go on questioning how quicksilver allegedly works but why bother. What it really does is save money on special effects. You eliminate the need and hassle of showing objects being carried by invisible hands by having Darien simply make them disappear. You don't have to film challenging and time consuming scenes of him unwrapping bandages to reveal an empty head. There is no need to come up with imaginative ways to maintain the star's identity. Since Darien gets to keep on his clothes, he can enjoy all the advantages of being invisible without any of the hardships that Jack Griffin faced. To pay homage to H.G. Wells' creation however, Darien will go mad without regular injections of quicksilver "counteragent" supplied by an impoverished government agency whose budget is so low they can't even afford a name. This supposedly forces Darien to work for these losers who handle foreign and domestic problems the FBI and CIA apparently care little about.
A better name for this series however, would have been "Vanishing Man," as invisibility, per se, has little to do with the stories. It's simply a deus ex machina enabling the heroes to triumph over the bad guys. Darien spends most of his time in a very opaque state, bickering with that grouch of a partner he was paired with. As a result, I often found myself cheering for the show's recurring villains--Arnaud and Stark. I found them to be much more interesting characters than the folks chasing them. The Invisible Man was canceled following its second season because the ratings, though good by cable TV standards, did not justify its high production costs.
The gland in his head causes him to secrete a so-called, light-bending substance called "quicksilver." The first time he transforms is admittedly eye-opening. It reminded me of the liquid metal effects used in Terminator 2. Because of the show's budget limitations however, he fades out much quicker thereafter. I've always had problems with the notion of quicksilver. Since light travels at over 186,000 miles per second you need the gravitational pull of a black hole to alter its course. If this was possible, it seems that "bending light" would distort the appearance of objects directly behind the "invisible" man, since the bent light rays would be hitting the objects behind him at irregular or unnatural angles. Quicksilver is a mercury-like liquid so why doesn't the stuff wipe off on bad guys when he smacks them? Why don't the soles of his shoes become slippery on freshly waxed floors when covered by quicksilver? In one episode, quicksilver was cold enough to freeze the mechanism of a time bomb. Yet, we can see him with thermal imaging devices which register heat.
I could easily go on questioning how quicksilver allegedly works but why bother. What it really does is save money on special effects. You eliminate the need and hassle of showing objects being carried by invisible hands by having Darien simply make them disappear. You don't have to film challenging and time consuming scenes of him unwrapping bandages to reveal an empty head. There is no need to come up with imaginative ways to maintain the star's identity. Since Darien gets to keep on his clothes, he can enjoy all the advantages of being invisible without any of the hardships that Jack Griffin faced. To pay homage to H.G. Wells' creation however, Darien will go mad without regular injections of quicksilver "counteragent" supplied by an impoverished government agency whose budget is so low they can't even afford a name. This supposedly forces Darien to work for these losers who handle foreign and domestic problems the FBI and CIA apparently care little about.
A better name for this series however, would have been "Vanishing Man," as invisibility, per se, has little to do with the stories. It's simply a deus ex machina enabling the heroes to triumph over the bad guys. Darien spends most of his time in a very opaque state, bickering with that grouch of a partner he was paired with. As a result, I often found myself cheering for the show's recurring villains--Arnaud and Stark. I found them to be much more interesting characters than the folks chasing them. The Invisible Man was canceled following its second season because the ratings, though good by cable TV standards, did not justify its high production costs.