bananasplit
11-08-2004, 09:30 PM
Once the biggest event on the television networks, the miniseries made the endangered species list several years ago. So when one actually turns up these days, you almost have to pay attention.
Sad to say, though, that CBS's ``Category 6: Day of Destruction'' which airs this Sunday (9 p.m., Chs. 5, 46) and Nov. 17 (8 p.m.) doesn't come with any of the cachet or quality of the miniseries of days gone by. It's a third-rate disaster flick -- with lame dialogue, voodoo science and wooden performances -- that just happens to be spread out over two nights and four seemingly endless hours.
It's actually doubtful that ``Category 6'' even would have been made if not for the inexplicable success last season of NBC's ``10.5,'' a laughable miniseries about a really big earthquake hitting the West Coast. ``Category 6'' tries to do for hurricanes and tornadoes what ``10.5'' did for quakes and largely succeeds -- in all manner of giggle-inducing ways.
CBS actually sent out press releases that tried to justify the fuzzy science at work in ``Category 6,'' but let's just say that this ain't an installment of ``Nova.'' Here's the basic premise: Three nasty weather systems -- twisters from the west, a warm front from the south and an unseasonal cold system from the north -- converge over Chicago. Unfortunately, most of the residents don't know this super-storm is coming because Chicago is the midst of a blackout caused by extreme heat and some dastardly manipulations of power supplies by an Enron-like company.
The storms don't collide over Chicago until the second half of ``Category 6.'' So that gives the filmmakers lots of time to destroy Las Vegas, St. Louis and much of the Midwest's ``tornado alley.'' There's also plenty of time for scenes where meteorologists wring their hands over what's happening to the weather, a courageous reporter tries to get out ``the truth'' about the power blackout, and various officials spew mumbo-jumbo about America's antiquated power grid.
When the storm finally does strike, it's all disaster-film-by-the-numbers, with heroic rescues, the bad guys getting their just deserts and the good guys pledging it will never happen again.
It's all very silly, something the cast certainly seems to understand. Among those picking up a paycheck without having to do any heavy dramatic lifting are such normally watchable actors as Brian Dennehy as the lead weather forecaster, Randy Quaid as a colorful tornado chaser, Nancy McKeon as our courageous reporter, and Dianne Wiest as the Secretary of Energy.
One final note: It was hard to judge just how good the special effects are from the incomplete advance tape sent to writers. But from the few completed scenes, the effects look a lot like the cheap cheeseball ones in ``10.5.''
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/10123267.htm?1c
Sad to say, though, that CBS's ``Category 6: Day of Destruction'' which airs this Sunday (9 p.m., Chs. 5, 46) and Nov. 17 (8 p.m.) doesn't come with any of the cachet or quality of the miniseries of days gone by. It's a third-rate disaster flick -- with lame dialogue, voodoo science and wooden performances -- that just happens to be spread out over two nights and four seemingly endless hours.
It's actually doubtful that ``Category 6'' even would have been made if not for the inexplicable success last season of NBC's ``10.5,'' a laughable miniseries about a really big earthquake hitting the West Coast. ``Category 6'' tries to do for hurricanes and tornadoes what ``10.5'' did for quakes and largely succeeds -- in all manner of giggle-inducing ways.
CBS actually sent out press releases that tried to justify the fuzzy science at work in ``Category 6,'' but let's just say that this ain't an installment of ``Nova.'' Here's the basic premise: Three nasty weather systems -- twisters from the west, a warm front from the south and an unseasonal cold system from the north -- converge over Chicago. Unfortunately, most of the residents don't know this super-storm is coming because Chicago is the midst of a blackout caused by extreme heat and some dastardly manipulations of power supplies by an Enron-like company.
The storms don't collide over Chicago until the second half of ``Category 6.'' So that gives the filmmakers lots of time to destroy Las Vegas, St. Louis and much of the Midwest's ``tornado alley.'' There's also plenty of time for scenes where meteorologists wring their hands over what's happening to the weather, a courageous reporter tries to get out ``the truth'' about the power blackout, and various officials spew mumbo-jumbo about America's antiquated power grid.
When the storm finally does strike, it's all disaster-film-by-the-numbers, with heroic rescues, the bad guys getting their just deserts and the good guys pledging it will never happen again.
It's all very silly, something the cast certainly seems to understand. Among those picking up a paycheck without having to do any heavy dramatic lifting are such normally watchable actors as Brian Dennehy as the lead weather forecaster, Randy Quaid as a colorful tornado chaser, Nancy McKeon as our courageous reporter, and Dianne Wiest as the Secretary of Energy.
One final note: It was hard to judge just how good the special effects are from the incomplete advance tape sent to writers. But from the few completed scenes, the effects look a lot like the cheap cheeseball ones in ``10.5.''
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/10123267.htm?1c