Stars: Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Erica Cerra, Neil Grayston, Niall Matter, Jordan Hinson, Matt Frewer
Writer: Eric Tuchman
Director: Matt Hastings
Network: Syfy
Airdate: December 7, 2010
From its one-off holiday title sequence to the series-specific jokes about fruitcake (and of course the fruitcake does come to menace the town’s inhabitants), “O Little Town” is a uniquely EUREKA Christmas episode.
Some plot elements are a bit too wacky even for EUREKA, which is why we get the framing device of Jack (Colin Ferguson) telling four cynical snowbound kids of a Yuletide when it was unseasonably sweltering in Eureka.
The town’s electromagnetic shield has gone haywire, trapping everybody inside. Taggart (Matt Frewer) is visiting the town in an actual flying sleigh, determined to find Santa, while at Global Dynamics, an energy project gone amok and Taggart’s gift-shrinking technology are causing the town to get smaller and smaller.
On the upside, there’s a Secret Santa running around, giving everyone the perfect present. Who can it be? Maybe … Santa?
The answer to the last one is actually very sweet, although “O Little Town” does at least hint that, yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus (and thanks to Taggart, we even get a theory on how he pulls off getting all those presents around the world at once). Eric Tuchman’s script very cleverly weaves a lot of Christmas elements – snowflakes, sleds, the aforementioned fruitcake, presents – in with EUREKA-style science, so that the usual craziness is adorned with holiday-specific details.
Colin Ferguson and Matt Frewer in EUREKA - Season 4 - "O' Little Town" | ©2010 NBC Universal
“O Little Town” is light on the angst that has settled over EUREKA for a good while now. The closest it comes to tension is an ambiguous, but friendly exchange between the harried Jo (Erica Cerra) and a concerned Zane (Niall Matter). Otherwise, all is well relationship-wise in Jack’s world, with Allison (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) in his corner and daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson) visiting from college.
Frewer is as always delightful as the eccentric-even-by-EUREKA-standards Taggart – somehow it stands to reason he’s got a Santa fixation.
Because of “O Little Town’s” book-ended framework, there are no hints of where EUREKA is going from here. Its message that family is where we find it isn’t especially original, but it is well-illustrated by the warmth of the show, its characters and their relationships with one another.
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Click on Link: AX’s review of EUREKA – Season 4 episode – “O Little Town”
Click on Link: AX’s review of WAREHOUSE 13 – Season 4 premiere – “The New Guy”
Click on Link: AX’s review of Alphas – Season 1 premiere
Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Review: EUREKA – Season 4 premiere – “Liftoff”
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