To clear everything up!
Okay, I'm a little late but I finally saw the episode on YouTube. At first I thought it was so bad and I was so angried by the lack of consistency with the books that I was going to shut it off but I told myself that I can't really judge it until I'd watched the whole thing. So, I stopped looking for the Gaia of NY with plantinum blonde hair, a long statuesque body, and Ed, Heather and Sam. And... it was actually alright, once I completely blocked the unmatchable greatness that was Fearless the book series I was actually able to enjoy an all right episode. Don't get me wrong it doesn't compare to the books simply because it's not.
At first I was thinkng Rachel Leigh Cook aka Laney Boggs, are you kidding me. I thought of dry bland acting, a pleasant but not drop dead gorgeous face all wrapped in 5'. When I thought of Gaia I had always imagined a cross between the raw beauty of Angelina Jolie, the poise and intelligence of Natalie Portman, a mix of Scarlett Johansson's intrigue and Kate Moss' too cool to care attitude; blend all that up with plantinum blonde locks and voila GAIA! A bad girl with a soft heart born without the fear gene.
But when I realised that the pilot wasn't going to give me that Gaia but a pint sized, brunette that was completely different to my Gaia. She was doing things and I was thinking "no, that's out of character" but it wasn't in was in character for that character. Well anyway, overall there was pretty good acting. I did think RLC was a little dry at times while trying to play fearless it seemed like sometimes she was playing monotoned, emotionless but generally she did way better than I had expected her to. There were some silly moments, mostly with the character Harmony.
For example, after Ryan and Harmony (Gaia's TWO partners) realize that Gaia's file is blocked as restricted access Harmony confronts Gaia and says 'I don't know what's in your file but I know your hiding something". Well duh, otherwise her file wouldn't be restricted access. Also, while Gaia is being held at gunpoint she tells harmony to look into her eyes, know that she is seeing nothing and shoot to kill the gunman and Harmony's response... (to Ryan) "Do as she says!" come on let's not get cheesy here. Also, at the end of the episode Gaia tells Ryan, Harmony and Jordan about not being born without the fear gene, um, whatever happened to her don't-ask-'cause-won't-tell motto that she kept even with her best friend for years Ed. In the book series cheesy wasn't a word; everything was raw but... this wasn't the books.
I think had they continued the series it would have done all right. I don't think it would have done as well as it would have done had they keep to the formula of the book but hey, maybe they'll know better next time. The execs need to remember that the followers of that show would have been the followers of the book series and when you alienate the true fans from the beginning things don't go so peachy. Too bad because so far the real fans aren't getting a series with a plot as great as Fearless was and the pilot to what they had to offer didn't take off. It was a lose, lose situation.
So that the validity of my die hard love of the books isn't doubted, I thought I should mention that I was in Fearless Quiz showdown against other fans and won first place because out of three hundred question a only got one wrong based on a technicality (darn those judges!!!).