Confessions of a Spec Tater — Peter Krause Finds the Key to My Heart

Columns, Top Story

Oh, mini-series. You glorious, glorious bastard.

While watching a season set of a television series is well and good — there are few better ways to spend a weekend watching TV-on-DVD then by plopping in a mini-series from the archive.

With the self-contained nature of their stories, their (usually) high-concept plots and their tendency to bring together a wide and varied mix of actors, mini-series offer something that few television shows this side of the pond tend to provide — a sense of completeness in a short period of time.

While most American television shows take a good idea and stretch it out over several seasons — leaving audiences with the biggest set of blue balls this side of Babe the Blue Ox, mini-series can offer spec taters a complete story that, with a longer running time then a film is usually allotted, has room to breathe.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to use this column to spotlight a few mini-series from years past — some good, some bad and some, well, ugly.

This week: The Lost Room.

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Produced for the Syfy (then, Sci-Fi) Channel in 2006, The Lost Room is a sprawling story of magic, mystery and substandard special effects that only the channel responsible for Mansquito can bring audiences.

Staring Peter Krause, Julianna Margulies and Kevin Pollak, the mini-series was about Joe Miller, a Philadelphia cop played by Krause, who finds a magical key that allows him to turn any door into a portal that leads a retro-pastiche hotel room that in turn is a portal to any place in the world — a terminal hub, if you will, to his imagination.

It turns out this key is part of a larger puzzle — one filled with similar seemingly ordinary objects that are, in fact, endowed with extraordinary abilities.

There is a ballpoint pen that allows its wielder to microwave opponents. Eyeglasses can allow its wearer to prevent combustion. A hair comb can stop time.

The origins of these objects are debated. Some say they pieces of God’s corpse. Others claim they are proof that there is no God. Either way, these objects are sought after by collectors — some of which are all to keen to kill for them.

When Joe’s daughter (played by Elle Fanning) disappears into the room and doesn’t return he embarks on a cross-country journey to discover the mystery of the lost room and find a way to bring back his daughter.

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Kevin Pollak plays a businessman with questionable motives that alternately acts as Joe’s partner and enemy — all to willing to betray anybody who will get in his way and prevent him from obtaining the super-powered objects he seeks.

Julianna Marguiles is a member of a sect dedicated to tracking down these objects and destroying them — least they cause even more damage and heartbreak than they already have.

Appearing in small roles throughout the series are Ewen Bremmer, Margaret Cho, Roger Bart and Dennis Christopher in a seriously entertaining role as a neebish forensics investigator that looses himself to an obsession over the objects.

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The series, executive produced by Richard Hatem (co-creator of Miracles), was obviously a backdoor pilot for an intended television series.

Several plot points are left dangling by the end of the series and some essential questions left unanswered.

Almost four years after the mini-series premiered, it’s unlikely that audiences will ever see a continuation of the mini-series as a television show. In fact, its unlikely that this show will ever be truly rescued from the depths of obscurity it has found itself sunk to.

That shouldn’t stop you from checking The Lost Room out if you haven’t already seen it.

Wildly inventive ideas and great performances from the cast contribute to The Lost Room being a real gem in the sea of turds the Syfy Channel regularly produces (look for Sharktopus, a Syfy Channel original movie coming in 2010).

Next week: more mini-series. In the meantime, what’s your favorite mini-series?

Robert Saucedo is an avid movie watcher with seriously poor sleeping habits. The Mikey from Life cereal of film fans, Robert will watch just about anything — good, bad or ugly. He has written about film for newspapers, radio and online for the last 10 years. This has taken a toll on his sanity — of that you can be sure. Follow him on Twitter at @robsaucedo2500.