This show feels different than other TV being produced right now. In some wonderful combination of styling, casting and writing they have managed to create something that feels simultaneously fresh and current and like a TV show from the 1990's. Here's why:
Styling: None of the women look like they have spent a minimum of 3 hours curling their hair, applying fake eyelashes, & glossing themselves up. I didn't realize how much of a problem this has become in today's TV until I re-watched Twin Peaks and was shocked by how supremely un-sexilly Lara Flynn Boyle was styled, and I remembered her being a sex-symbol at the time! This show takes a more realistic middle road: If the scene calls for them to dress up and get sexy the do, but they don't look at all times like they are ready for the runway. Any realism is lost when your female cop character, for example, tries to fit into her male dominated profession by being as girly or sexy as possible and wearing high heals to chase perps. In this show the female characters are like regular people, sexy sometimes, professional other times. The styling of this show is refreshing for the men too. I can't believe they let us get through multiple episodes before we found out if the male leads have abs or not. No shirtless scenes inserted for no reason in the first 15 min of every show! And then when they are shirtless, they don't look like they had just furiously worked out so that every vein and muscle is maximally (sometimes grotesquely) bulged. Yep, TV today is hard on men too. This show feels different. Better.
Casting: People were clearly cast for character and talent rather than just looks (no casting interchangeable pretty people in all the roles). They all feel authentic. The male leads are more geeky than usually cast these days and this makes you want the love stories to work out even more; it's not just mutual prettiness that makes these matches good. This is also reminiscent of 1990's TV. Allison Scagliotti (who was also great on Warehouse 13) is quirky and funny and awesome. You really want to root for the four main young leads.
Writing: It's a good sci-fi / murder-mystery with a long story that keeps you coming back to get more answers while each week's mystery is satisfyingly resolved. The sci-fi and mystery elements feel fairly new, even if the cop-procedural part of the show is familiar. Even so, there is something refreshing in the way that those more common grounds are explored. Here again, with the relationships and character development, it feels a bit like a 1990's show. It's just so ... feminist, for lack of a better word. I can't even put my finger on what's different, but something is. There's something in the way the female leads approach their lives, careers, sex lives and friendships that just seems so grown up. Just look at the way Linus and Camille's relationship was written -it seems very unusual, with the power dynamic switched from what we would normally see, without making it seem like they are making some kind of point. No, it just feels fun and entertaining and light.
I highly recommend this show!
