Hysteria, Ep. 1.01: “Pilot” predicts an un-engaging series

Hysteria, Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”
Written by Shaun Cassidy
Directed by Otto Bathurst
Released August 28, 2014 by Amazon

A veteran of television writing, and known mostly for having created the ABC science fiction drama Invasion, Shaun Cassidy’s next foray to the small screen comes courtesy of Amazon. Titled Hysteria, the series follows a medical investigator in Austin as she attempts to understand the cause behind a series of seizures and spasmic movements affecting a group of largely unrelated individuals. With Mena Suvari in the lead role, Amazon and the creators have released the pilot online in an attempt to get a series greenlight. Unfortunately, poor characterisation and a simplistic mystery at its core dooms this pilot by seemingly promising a dull show.

One of the key problems with this pilot, and potentially with the series as a whole, is that the central mystery lacks the longevity that could anchor a series. The question of why people are getting sick can be answered in a single episode, and the issue of how the disease is spreading lacks any real complexity. While the idea of the videos inducing a level of extreme empathy is an interesting one, subsequent episodes threaten to get repetitive, as it’s difficult to see how the mystery ailment, and the show by extension, might evolve from simply having a growing number of people display the symptoms of the affliction. Similarly, the central mystery’s lack of complexity likely means numerous episodes where the public pins the blame on the wrong sources, all while panic continues to grow in the town, much like the pilot has already displayed. Seemingly in anticipation of the sparse nature of both mysteries, the pilot also tries to add hints of other mysteries, from the prior occurrence of such hysterical events to the presence of Logan’s death row-bound brother and his possible innocence. However, the introduction of these feel forced and inorganic, and the audience’s investment in the lesser mysteries shall depend entirely on how well they can get invested in the characters and the trials and tribulations they go through.

This leads to the second key issue surrounding this pilot; it fails to draw any compelling characters. While Logan is ostensibly the show’s lead, her presence in the pilot doesn’t lend itself to that label, which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. However, much of the pilot’s runtime is spent with Audra as she grapples with her sister’s illness and her own recent breakup. However, her concern about her sister is mirrored and displayed much more effectively by her mother, and the subplot about the affair she had with her babysitting client feels uninspired at best. With only a passing introduction to these characters, their current strained relationship or their prior passionate one fails to have any noticeable impact, instead coming off as a failed attempt to bring in another character and tie them to the ongoing mystery. Similarly, Logan herself remains an enigma in what feels like an unintentional manner. There’s never any display of how good she is at her profession, or how she is regarded amongst her clients or her peers at the hospital where she works. These things are instead conveyed to the audience through dialogue, robbing the conflict of any impact, and more importantly, never giving a clear idea of how Logan feels about this. This means that nearly everything the audience ends up learning about Logan in the pilot is told to them, with the end result making Logan feel like less of a visible onscreen character. Despite these issues, Audra and Logan are the only two characters who make any impact in the pilot.

This is not to say that the potential series is devoid of benefits. The mystery surrounding the death of Logan’s childhood friend and the conviction of her brother has the potential to become a compelling mystery, particularly if it allows for a richer exploration of the community and their true attitudes towards Logan’s family. The spread of the illness also gives the show the opportunity to introduce a wider range of characters, which could eventually help mitigate the character issues present in the pilot. A series pickup would also give the writers an opportunity to correct the issues facing the current crop of characters. The performers seem game, and Mena Suvari does her best with the material she’s provided with, and it’s likely that they would be able to tackle more challenging material, should they be provided with it. The pilot does manage to create some striking imagery as well, from the sight of Carter’s face on death row, to the tree in the hospital yard. If the series is able to retain these types of images along with correcting the pilot’s issues, it may develop into a show worth watching. The incarnation presented in the pilot, however, is not a promising one, and will not be worth seeing a series of.

– Deepayan Sengupta

The full set of reviews for Amazon’s third wave of pilots can be found here.