Warning: Spoiler Alert
This year the date of February 3, might rival or surpass Valentine’s Day On February 14, in anticipation, as the ABC freshman series “Forever,” returns to the airwaves, coming back from the show’s hiatus. That alone would excite its zealous fan-base, however expectations are stoked, as the episode features the return of Dr. Henry Morgan’s stalker “Adam,” returning to New York City and Henry’s life. The man who lives under the guise of Dr. Louis Garber, a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital in New York, shares Morgan’s gift/curse of regenerating after getting killed, however he’s stated that he’s walked the planet for 2,000-years.
Reports state that “Adam’s,” story will get featured more prominently in the second half of the season, as he attempts to become a mentor of sorts to Henry and we’ll gain greater knowledge of the character via his flashbacks of his 2,000-year journey. One question that I’m looking forward to learning the answer for, is how long has “Adam,” known that Henry was like him and exactly how he made his discovery.
The odds of two British ex-pats meeting in New York City’s likely very high for most of us, however logic tells us that the odds have decreased for these two men. If the lifespan of an average man of our era’s 70-years, then Morgan whose lived for 236-years, has lived three times as many years as an average person. “Adam,” living 2,000-years has lived nearly 30 times, the life expectancy of an average man. Factoring in all the traveling both men have done, the odds are far greater that “Adam” and Henry made contact during their lives. The questions that remain are when and how. It’s possible that “Adam’s” had Morgan in his sights for a century or more and just decided that the series pilot was the time to finally reach out to him.
Another question that I’m looking forward to having answered, is exactly why in the year 2015, Henry Morgan’s got such a dreaded fear about his secret getting discovered. We’re aware of the pain and punishment he went through after revealing his secret to his first wife in 1815. She committed him to an insane asylum and subsequently got transferred to a London prison. He also had valid reasons to keep his secret under wraps during the forties and throughout the next few decades, as not to disturb his family life with his wife Abigail and son Abraham.
Those reasons aren’t valid any longer for Morgan, we live in a far more enlightened society, than our ancestors lived during the early years of the 19th century. His wife Abigail’s gone and Abe’s now an elderly man in his seventies, looking for more like Henry’s father than his adopted son. Are his fears just paranoia, or do they have any validity? As the series resumes next Tuesday, my guess is a little of both.
No matter how long one lives, the traumas that Morgan went through after sharing his secret with his first wife would be tough to overcome. To feel his wife’s betrayal, to see the fear in the eyes of the woman who once loved him with all her being, along with his subsequent incarceration makes his fears universally understandable. However Henry, relies too much on logic in his existence, for him to believe in baseless fears.
He could easily prove that he’s telling the truth, by dying and then regenerating, so his fear isn’t of people believing he’s gone insane. However, there are some in our government and other governments through out the world, that would choose to imprison Henry, to poke and prod, try to come up with the thing that gives him immortality, then replicate it for their own use. There are also a miles long list of corporations, public and private that would love the chance to do the same things.
Does “Adam,” possess the same fears of being discovered? It’s tough to say at this point, while life’s still fun for Henry Morgan and his ego feeds on the compliments he receives and the looks of amazement he generates, I know that I’d feel the same way under those circumstances. However “Adam’s” jaded and bored with life being around ten times longer that Morgan’s existed, so perhaps he’d be amused with being a lab rat. However I don’t believe that “Adam’s,” going to threaten to blow both their covers.
Life at this point means little to “Adam,” it must have been a gas at first; getting eaten by a lion in the Roman Coliseum, coming back the next day to the Roman Emperor and saying Hi Pal. He likely would attain God status and live like a king until the Empire collapsed. He could have gotten some kicks during the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials, freaking some of those folks out. Maybe he even pulled a trick or two on Adolph Hitler. However as B.B. King sings, “The Thrill Is Gone.”
Life however has little meaning for Henry’s stalker, so he felt no remorse with his killing spree to gain Morgan’s attention, causing Henry to take the first life of a fellow human during his time on the planet. The incident’s caused agonized feelings of remorse, as well as anger and hatred towards “Adam,” for manipulating Henry so well, a fact that Morgan’s deeply embarrassed about.
At least some of these questions should get answered in the upcoming episode, an important episode for two different reasons. The first reason pertains to the series’ storyline and how the rest of season one starts to play out. The second reason’s equally important, to send a message to the ABC network to #RENEWFOREVER for a second season. Despite the shows zealous, rabid, fan-base, the network’s yet to decide the fate of the series for a second season, a move the network should have finalized months ago. The only problem with the show is its time-slot, being stuck on Tuesday nights at 10:00 pm, a night owned by CBS. That fault lies on the network itself, run it at 10:00 pm on Sunday nights, as they did with the dreadful series Resurrected and they’d have a Quality Top-Ten Nielsen-rated show.
I’ve written previously that Forever’s the best new series of this season, no small statement given the competitions quality, many that we Recap at Not Just Another TV Site. The acting’s among the best on the medium, starting with the wonderful regular cast, radiating down to the smallest guest role. It’s not exploited the character’s ability to regenerate after death, using it tastefully and when needed. Instead it’s relied on a far superior component of the story, the flashbacks as we witness what Henry Morgan’s seen in the last 200-years. The show’s creator Matt Miller’s taken a clever concept, presented as a Quality story, gaining a very dedicated, intelligent, audience in the process. He’s also a truly nice guy, as he sent me a Facebook message, following a previous story, a gesture that shows he appreciates those who support his show and personally meant a lot to me.
Our Mission Statement’s to bring our readers Quality Programming and Forever’s near the top of that list. There are some excellent shows on Television currently, a point in time that we may look back at someday and compare it to the great era under NBC in the eighties, or the groundbreaking era for CBS in the seventies. The Television pie’s far more sliced up in 2015, than it was in those earlier eras, many of the mediums best shows are telecast on Cable Outlets. However the Original Three Networks can still provide great TV, as NBC proves with “The Blacklist,” CBS shows with “Person Of Interest” and ABC does with Forever.
During the eighties, NBC showed patience with “Hill Street Blues,” the series that went on to set the standard for all future shows about the police and dramas in general. In the seventies, CBS took a huge risk in airing a very controversial comedy “All In The Family,” then had patience until it found its audience and it went onto rule the Nielsen Charts for a long stretch. ABC can do the same thing by renewing their first year series, this show has far too many stories to tell to cut its wings this early.
Forever Returns Tuesday February 3, at 10:00 pm on ABC.
