The Others

I’m not clairvoyant enough to know whether viewers will be too freaked to watch The Others a second time. Whatever happens to the show, there’s no doubt that it’s breakthrough television.

Billingsley brings a gentleness to the role, making the character believable, decent and a surrogate for the audience. He watches The Others with amazement, and so will viewers. [4 Feb 2000]

It may sound like a third-, fourth- or fifteenth-cousin to Fox's "The X-Files"--and some of its producers did work on episodes of that series--but there's more to "The Others" than that. And its supernaturalism is rather good-natured, at least by comparison.

The Others is a show with a promising premise and a very interesting collection of characters. But it is also a show with a tragic dependency on feel-goodism and sentimental resolutions. Horror and schmaltz? They just don't mix well. [5 Feb 2000]

Those who get excited by the mere mention of a sixth sense may get a few tingles out of The Others. But anyone hoping for something more -- something novel or clever or even spooky -- should look elsewhere. Even those of us who scare easily are likely to find this tired ghost story more silly and hokey than jolting. [4 Feb 2000]

The intention only means so much, and it doesn’t make up for uninteresting people. While nobody’s expecting another Mulder and Scully, the roles here are one-note: no humor and no sparks, just a lot of paranoia.

The Others not only depicts the dead, it is dead...What they lack is a gift for sustaining an hour of drama