‘Eyewitness’ A Small-Town Crime Story with a Couple of Twists

“Eyewitness” taps into some of the more common storylines on TV these days. It is set in one of those remote and perpetually autumnal small towns. An untried local sheriff (of the brusque yet well-meaning variety) and an overeager partner are called in for their first violent crime. A loner teenager with a distinctive leather jacket faces some bullying in high school. However, “Eyewitness” does seek to upend some of these well-worn plots. The town sheriff is a woman, Helen (Julianne Nicholson), and is a new foster parent to the moody teenager, Philip (Tyler Young.) Philip is secretly best friends—and a little more—with local cool guy Lukas (James Paxton). The distinctive leather jacket is also surprisingly important to the developing plot.

A centerpiece of the show is the burgeoning relationship between Philip and Lukas. In the first five minutes of the premiere, they go from filming amateur dirt bike videos to possibly their first kiss. Their relationship already seems to fall into a well occupied category of gay relationships on screen. Lukas, the popular kid in Red Hook High School, is deeply closeted and refuses to allow Philip to engage him at school. What distinguishes the relationship is that their first romantic interaction is broken up when they witness a gang shooting less than five feet away from their faces. Further, it is revealed they are the only ones who know that the shooter escaped and framed the remaining three murdered victims for the attack.

The boys don’t take long to deal emotionally with the show’s catalyzing event. Although he appears shaken, Lukas’s main concern is still remaining in the closet (he physically assaults Philip in school when the latter brings up that they are the only people who know the truth), Several scenes later, they are at it again (before Philip pushes Lukas away—a more interesting development in their otherwise trope-y relationship). “Eyewitness” struggles to balance the emotional processing of its scenes with the reveal of information. The clash between subtler moments of introspection and fast-paced plot building results in a disjointed, choppy flow. The camera does not even linger a full 15 seconds on the title card. “Eyewitness” is also stylistically too contrived: Cool, muted, and dusty color palette is overdone; the anxious indie rock soundtrack offers nothing unexpected; and the few establishing shots are either heavy handed metaphors or undescriptive landscapes.

Nicholson, so far, is the standout. She plays a firm yet nuanced sheriff and new foster mother. Moments of banter with her deputy at work or jokes over Chinese food with her husband and Philip add dimension to what could have been a cardboard cutout role. Young and Paxton are well cast as Philip and Lukas and bring an earnestness and realness to their solid performances. One reason to keep watching is Deputy Tony Michaels (Matt Murray), who drives several hours to buy color coded thumbtacks for the sheriff’s office’s first murder board.

It seems that “Eyewitness” could have taken a simpler path and been more successful. The emerging crime drama storylines (a possible inside job by an FBI agent and a growing conflict between local and national police regarding a transient mob) prevent “Eyewitness” from tackling the emotions it wants to in a meaningful and cinematic way. Moments with the potential to be subtle and revealing are hurried along to push more information. A quiet beat in which Helen gets up from bed with her husband to catch a bee is swiftly broken by a call about more information regarding the shooting, and the viewer is left wondering why it was shown at all.

“Eyewitness” overreaches but is overall an interesting revisit to a somewhat saturated genre. Good acting and interesting relationships will most likely continue and develop.