Big-time actors on popular shows today are more times than not considered unknowns, because the general public has never seen or heard of them before. Still it’s probably not shocking to learn that those same actors were likely on previous television shows that didn’t make the light of day or didn’t last long on television. It’s always fun to look back on what roles a star did before they landed the role that made them a star. Everyone knows the name Matthew Fox today. If they don’t, just mention the main guy on Lost and they will likely know who you are talking about. But Matthew Fox first got attention for the series Party of Five. In between that show and Lost he starred in a short-lived series called Haunted.
Haunted follows police officer Frank Taylor (Fox), who had the perfect job and perfect family. But after his son’s unsolved abduction, his life, marriage and career begin to disintegrate. He leaves the force to become a private investigator specializing in missing and abducted children cases. His ex-wife, Jessica (Lynn Collins) has come to terms with the loss of their child, but Frank is obsessed with one day finding their son. One day Frank’s life is forever changed while trying to apprehend Simon Dunn (John Mann), a man linked to several child abductions who eludes the police. A fatal clash leaves Simon dead and Frank in critical condition. As the doctors try to save his life, Frank has a near-death experience in which he sees his missing son. When Frank regains consciousness, he finds that the dead can communicate with him, and that their confusing and frightening manifestations are usually intended to help him in his work. However, some of the dead, including Simon, abuse his new abilities to intentionally mislead or harm him.
This series sounds very familiar to other series that are currently on television or have been recently, most notably Ghost Whisperer and Medium. But you can’t really say that this show a copy of those shows, since Haunted came out 3 or 4 years before both of them. That doesn’t mean that Haunted is completely original, though. It shares commonalities with Millennium and The X-Files. However, you still have to give Haunted some credit for being almost completely different at the time. Unlike later shows like this one, there is nothing funny about Haunted. This is a dark and creepy show. Overall the writing of this series is solid and fairly intriguing.
What also helps this series is the fact that it has a strong cast. This was Matthew Fox’s first leading role on television show. Now most people know him as Jack on Lost. Matthew Fox really shows why he was picked as the leading man for that show with his acting on Haunted. John Mann also played the perfect villain to contrast Fox’s character. Even the remaining support cast is strong as well. The only real weakness of this series was its tone.
The only reason why most people don’t know about Haunted is the fact that it came out at the wrong time on the wrong network. UPN was clearly a sinking ship on its way to merging with The WB by the time Haunted made its debut. It also didn’t help that this was a dark, creepy, gritty series that rarely had any humor at all. That was certainly unique for this time period, and airing after the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer with its contrasting styles, was the final nail in Haunted‘s coffin. Fans of Matthew Fox from Lost and not Party of Five should definitely give this show a chance, as should science-fiction fans in general. Haunted isn’t the greatest television series ever made, but it will keep you in suspense and entertained throughout.
Episodes:
Disc One:
Episode 1 – Pilot
Detective Frank Taylor discovers strange abilities to see the dead after killing a known pedophile and almost dying himself. Using his newly-found powers, Frank hunts down a missing boy kidnapped by the same dead pedophile who is now haunting him from beyond the grave, whilst dealing with his broken marriage, which fell apart soon after his son’s death.
Episode 2 – Grievous Angels
Frank is hired to find a teenage girl, Paris Eastway, who disappeared in the underground club scene. Investigating, Frank butts heads with several people connected to the rock band Grievous Angels, whose two frontmen could have something to do with Paris’ death.
Episode 3 – Fidelity
Frank investigates a series of drownings, and tries to understand the motive of the person behind the murders with the help of a wannabe private eye.
Episode 4 – Abby
Whilst head of the New Orleans PD six years earlier, Marcus was on the case of a ritualistic murder that remained unsolved. Back in the present, Marcus asks for Frank’s help in trying to solve a similarly linked murder, but the case is complicated by the disappearance of the victim’s cousin, whom Marcus was having a relationship with
Episode 5 – Blind Witness
Frank experiences unexplainable temporary blindness during his quest to discover the truth behind the death of a blind homeless man and how it may relate to the disappearance of a wealthy woman. Once Frank realizes a ghost has taken his sight, he turns to Dante for help.
Disc Two:
Episode 6 – Nocturne
Frank wakes up in a strange apartment with the half-dead body of a female police officer near-by and with no memory of how he got there. After she falls into a coma, Frank becomes the prime suspect in her attempted murder and Marcus and Jessica fight Internal Affairs in an attempt to keep him out of jail.
Episode 7 – A Three Hour Tour
A mysterious woman runs Frank off the road miles from any town and he stumbles, injured, to a cabin where he meets a somewhat secretive family. The parents appear to be protecting their 10 year old daughter from something terrible that happened in the parents’ bedroom. Frank must convince them that their daughter will be better off knowing the truth.
Episode 8 – Nexus
Frank is hired by his former police psychiatrist to find confidential therapy audiotapes that have been stolen, but provide evidence to heinous unresolved crimes. Meanwhile, Frank is insanely tortured by the return of his nemesis Simon and Frank attempts to deal with the infinite presence of the villainous ghost by learning more about Simon’s life.
Episode 9 – Simon Redux
Frank learns more about his nemesis Simon, who was killed in the pilot episode. Frank’s investigations lead him to an FBI-like organization and the revelation that Simon may not have been the pedophile he appeared to be. Simon apparently went rogue trying to take down a Russian-based white slave ring. Meanwhile, Jess is dating someone new and neither Frank nor Simon like it.
Episode 10 – Last Call
At Frank’s surprise birthday party, he meets a beautiful brunette, but like Cinderella, she makes her excuses and leaves at midnight. Frank begins piecing together Julia’s mystery, which makes Jess jealous. The Blackhawk bar suddenly picks up a crowd due to an annual technology convention and more of the pieces begin to fall in place as Julia finally comes clean about her past.
Episode 11 – Seeking Asylum
A woman comes to Frank to find her boyfriend who was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Frank checks himself into the hospital using the premise that he is delusional and seeing ghosts. Frank’s self-portrait of “inner demons” draws the attention of a woman being institutionalized against her will. She and Frank follow clues that Frank is getting from the apparent victim of the fire while trying to evade the tyrannical doctor in charge of treatment.
Episode 12 – It’s A Wonderful Afterlife
Frank is shown how his life would have turned out if he didn’t receive his unique gift and if Kevin hadn’t been abducted.
The video is given in fullscreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfer is good, but only as good as fullscreen can be. No major problems here.
The audio included is available in English 2.0 Stereo sound. There are subtitles available in English as well. The dialogue and music come out loud and clear. The audio is basic, but still no major problems here.
There are no extras for this DVD set.
If you love thrilling television shows with a sci-fi twist, Haunted is worth checking out. It simply has the bad misfortune of airing on the wrong network at the wrong time. Matthew Fox fans will definitely want to check this out. But all others can skip it as it not “must-watch” TV or anything.
Phase 4 Films and CBS DVD present Haunted: The Complete Series. Created by Rich Ramage and Andrew Crosby. Starring Matthew Fox, Russell Hornsby, Lynn Collins, Michael Irby, and John Mann. Running time: 455 minutes. Rated: NOT RATED. Released on DVD: April 13, 2010. Available at Amazon.com.
