Lights Out – Will the former champ throw in the towel … again?

I supplied you with the basics of Lights Out in the CliqueClack Preview post last week and the pilot episode follows the basic “getting to know you” theme. In short, we learn it’s the fifth anniversary of Patrick “Lights” Leary’s last title match now he’s a house husband. His secret is that he can’t support his family in the style to which they have become accustomed. Lights Out pulls no punches in recreating the afterlife of a world heavyweight champion who chooses family over career.  He cooks his daughters’ breakfast and takes them to school, and does borderline humiliating celebrity appearances. This is not life in the fast lane.

His wife, Theresa, is adamant that he not get back in the ring, but little in the way of back-story is provided as to why she feels this way. Sure, it would be hard to watch your husband get beat up for a living, but I think she knew who he was before getting involved. She obviously loves their lifestyle. Does she really think her medical resident salary of $34,000 can even put a dent into what they must spend on simple living expenses? She seems either completely gullible or just plain unwilling to believe that her dream life can be interrupted in any way.

With his brother and business manager squandering the family fortune, where does that leave Lights? How long can he use his tarnished heavyweight belt to skate past his personal problems? Money is the first and foremost issue on his mind, but he’s so afraid of losing his family he won’t share with them the truth of their circumstances. You can only hand out so many autographed sets of boxing gloves before bill collectors are beating down your door.

One of the solutions is muscle for hire. Leary has a conscience and the torment he feels using his brawn for anything other than boxing is clear. Can a man with such compassion truly find a place in the world as a thug? He gives it a try, but I think it goes against his very nature to venture more deeply into the water. However, when the opponent from his last bout issues a statement on television about an impending rematch, being a thug must seem more palatable than facing the wrath of Theresa. What path will he take; that of the brute or that of the hero?

Lights is written as a conflicted, well-intentioned soul backed into a corner by the pitfalls of walking away from his career while the iron was still hot. The entire series rests on the talents of Holt McCallany, and whether he will be able to elicit audience reaction to Patrick Leary’s plight, because there is no doubt it’s his journey we will be watching.

“People who tell lies do it to hide themselves, to keep others from knowing who they truly are inside. Knowing you is one of the greatest joys in my life and I don’t want that to ever change.” – Lights Leary

Clacked by Carissa Pavlica
on Jan 11, 2011 @ 22:57 EST5EDT