Human Target, the comic book series by Peter Milligan from DC and its Vertigo imprint, is a dark and gritty meditation on the nature of identity. Its protagonist is a bodyguard who literally loses his face in the course of his dangerous business. He then begins to lose his soul as well, as he becomes a master of disguise, actually taking on the identities of his clients.
And Then There's The TV Show
Human Target, the new Fox series (and second TV adaptation of the comic), is almost none of these things. It uses only the most basic framework of the comic's setup to hang its title on. The main character is still named Christopher Chance, and is played by Mark Valley, a man so squared-jawed he could play the Lego version of himself. He is still a private bodyguard/detective for hire, and he does have the barest hint of a shady past, but if anything this seems to just give him that much more bounce to his swagger. Rather than disguise himself as the clients themselves, Chance creates a fake identity that has a close relationship with the client, allowing him to draw out the threat in a similar way.
As Valley himself recently explained on a press tour for the show, making so drastic a change from the source material was deemed necessary to avoid confusion. The creators felt that distinguishing the client from Chance in disguise got a little wonky in the comic, so this was a way around that. While that's all well and good, the result takes away anything that separates the show from being just another generic action adventure. Our hero has no special powers or abilities. He's just ...a really good bodyguard. Thankfully, Valley is just charming enough to overcome the lack of a cool concept.
Supporting Players Shine
While the premise may be somewhat by-the-numbers, the cast is not, thankfully. The business end of the private bodyguard agency is handled by Winston, played by the excellent Chi McBride. Coming off his fantastic work on Pushing Daisies, McBride might not have nearly as good dialogue, but his particular brand of harried bemusement still works as a great foil to Valley and his roguish air of dangerous abandon.
But an ever bigger casting coup might be Jackie Earle Haley who plays Guerrero, the requisite computer whiz. Haley has been having a renaissance in his movie career since expertly tackling the dicey role of Rorschach in last year's Watchmen, so it feels like he's slumming it a little here. But his choice to take the role only benefits the show. His tech genius character is nicely out of step with the typical awkward nerd Hollywood tends to portray in these parts. He comes off as edgy, and even a little dangerous. The only problem is his appearance. With his round glasses, long locks of light brown hair, and darker brown eyebrows, mustache, and goatee he comes off like some bizarre hipster mash-up of John Lennon and Groucho Marx. It's a minor point, but still slightly distracting.
Stay On Target?
Basically, this pretty run-of-the-mill action drama has a better cast than it deserves. But can charismatic star power alone bring viewers to a show that, while good, is certainly no 24? Fox's scheduling so far certainly won't help matters. The next episode is on this Tuesday, which makes for the third separate night of the week the show will have aired in as many installments. It's very difficult to establish a fan base when the show won't stand still, like some sort of moving....well, target. So get involved with Human Target at your own risk - it feels kind of like that pretty-ish girl or okay-looking guy one might fool around with in between better relationships, but who's afraid of commitment and will vanish as quickly as they appeared.
Dan Kaufman - Dan is an actor/writer/teacher with a passion for all kinds of geek interests. He has been cultivating this passion for over 30 years, to ...
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