CRUSOE and his Treehouse Premiere on NBC

This past Friday, NBC premiered it’s new show CRUSOE.  Did you watch?  Meredith did, and she’s here to share her thoughts on the first episode.

Welcome Meredith…and take it away!

When I first heard NBC was planning on adapting the first “real” book I read growing up (and by “real” I mean non Sweet Valley High or Babysitter’s Club book), I was excited. But I was also curious to see how they would adapt it and make it watchable. They did it by making Crusoe part MacGyver, part Survivor, part Lost and part Pirates of the Caribbean.

In this episode, the plot is fairly straightforward. We meet Robinson Crusoe, who is the sole survivor of a shipwreck and Friday, a former cannibal turned Crusoe’s island confidant. Crusoe spies in the distance what he thinks will be his rescue ship off the island, when in fact it’s a group of pirates in search of gold they believe is hidden on his island.

One of the pirates, who was a prisoner in a Spanish prison, received the ever-so-nice gift of Crusoe’s island tattooed on his back. (We later learn the tattoo artist is the father of Judy, the group’s female pirate, and that her father had captured the gold on its way to Spain). After analyzing the map, Crusoe realizes the gold, which Judy’s father molded into the shape of a cannon to help him smuggle it, is buried at his treehouse. He tries to convince the pirates he is unfamiliar with the map, but they are quick to catch on Crusoe isn’t being totally straightforward with them. After Spanish guards arrive on the island looking for the pirates, Friday tries to negotiate a deal with them to where he leads the Spanish to the pirates in exchange for Crusoe’s safety and a way off the island. However, after the Spanish captain sees the map, he teams up with the pirates to look for the gold. The action culminates at Crusoe’s treehouse where the Spanish and pirates try to launch a lit powder keg toward Crusoe and Friday. They are unsuccessful because the fuse is too short, and as they try to launch another keg, Crusoe heats up a metal rod and shoots it at the second keg which causes it to explode. The blast kills most of the men and Crusoe and Friday discover the blast left a crater, which reveals the sought after gold. Based on the number of dead bodies around them, they discover not everyone was killed in the blast and hope to steal spare boats in order to make an escape from the island. When they arrive on the beach, they find Judy has been taken hostage by two surviving Spaniards who threaten to kill Crusoe and Friday. The Spanish then tell them they would take greater pleasure in leaving Crusoe and Friday to remain alone on the island than they would in killing them, ending their chances of escaping the island. (At least for this week!)

What I found most interesting (and perhaps just as entertaining as the action on the island) were the flashbacks to his life before he landed on the island. We get to see glimpses of what makes Crusoe the person he is, which we wouldn’t see if the storyline solely focused on the action on the island. Through the flashbacks we learn that Crusoe’s mother drowned in the river when he was a young boy, which affected him so much that he refused to speak for a while. We also see flashbacks of Crusoe meeting his wife Susannah for the first time when they were children, and we get to see glimpses of their wedding day, their first home and their children. The particular flashbacks that really intrigued me were the ones involving Jeremiah Blackthorn. He’s introduced as a mentor/uncle figure to Crusoe, giving him a loan of $1000 in exchange for him being named godfather to their children. But I think there’s something more sinister behind his relationship with Crusoe than what was originally presented in this episode.

I do have to say that I’m loving the relationship between Crusoe and Friday. I can’t wait to see how the writers develop it. It had the feel of one of those great TV friendships along the lines of J.D. and Turk from Scrubs or the gang from Seinfeld: slightly dysfunctional and codependent, but indestructible nonetheless.

Overall, I was really entertained by the premiere episode. It did tend to drag some during the action scenes, but I’m hoping that was because they were filling two hours instead of the regular hour long episode it will be from this point on. The humor was also a lot sharper and wittier than I thought it would be. On more than one occasion I found myself chuckling out loud. The show is definitely well done. It’s well acted, well written and well filmed. On the downside, it’s in the dreaded Friday night time slot. I’m really hoping NBC will give the show more than three weeks before deciding to pull the plug.

What about you? Where do you think the story with Blackthorn will go? It might be too soon to start thinking this far in advance, but what do you think has been happening with Crusoe’s family while he’s been stranded? Has Susannah been as faithful to him as he has been to her?

— posted by Meredith

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Meredith lives in a small South Carolina town where there is nothing to do but watch TV! She loves The Office, Chuck, Scrubs and Arrested Development, and her guilty pleasure is anything Gordon Ramsay related.