Stitchers - A Stitch in Time

ABC Family's new sci-fi procedural stars Emma Ishta as a young woman with a unique psychological disorder that limits her friendships and career opportunities but makes her the ideal candidate for a secret government organization miles under a mediocre Chinese restaurant whose purpose is to enter the minds of the recently-deceased to solve crimes and prevent future tragedies. Um, okay. Kirsten's Temporal Dysplasia, a fancy way of saying she is unable to tell the passage of time making emotional reaction or connection difficult for her, gives her an advantage (in a way that's never properly explained) to work an experimental technology knowing as Stiching (that's equally circumspect) that puts a living brain inside that of a recent dead one to find important facts before the brain completely degrades (okay now you're just making shit up, right?).

Although I like Ishta and the witty banter she has with her hated roommate (Allison Scagliotti), a police detective (Damon Dayoub), and new co-worker (Kyle Harris) the show gets off to a rocky start beginning with the underground government facility which looks like a budget fan set for a generic futuristic adventure show rather than anything resembling an actual government lab. Along with introducing the various characters and concepts of the show "A Stitch in Time" also gives Kirsten her first trek through a dead man's brain, disobey direct orders against following leads outside the lab, and completely ignore procedure and expose the secret program to outsiders. And yet somehow earn a full-time position and the pilot episode's end.

Of course there's the logistical issues of how Kirsten is chosen and thrown into the work without even a single interview, the sad fact that Stitching isn't all that interesting to look at (thus the need for the Catwoman suit for the show's star to distract the male audience), the coincidence of how she is connected to the creators of the technology, the previously-mentioned ridiculous latex suit she's forced to wear, and the completely unprofessional frat feel of the lab all of which makes it increasingly hard to take Stitchers seriously. Thankfully creator and writer Jeff Schechter understands some of these issues and does his best to poke fun at the show's more laughable aspects, allowing the show to laugh with the audience about them, but that only midly mitigates the worst of the problems still leaving plenty of room for improvement. I don't know if Stitchers can become a good show, or how long I might stick around to find out, but for now it is a mildly-diverting train wreck with a star and concept it is still struggling to get the most of (not unlike The CW's The Tomorrow People).