‘Ringer’ OK if ... familiar

The opening sequence in the series premiere of “Ringer” on the CW last week found Sarah Michelle Gellar as a drug addict named Bridget fighting for her life against an assailant in an unfinished loft.

And I thought, “Yes! Go Buffy! Use your Slayer strength!” :D

Gellar played the title character in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on the WB and UPN from 1997 to 2004, reprising the role in some voicework on “Robot Chicken.” She was also Daphne in the “Scooby Doo” movies and did some soap opera work ahead of her Slayer role, but it’s a character she’s pretty closely associated with.

But as the show progressed, there wasn’t a lot of action adventure for Gellar to take on. The show instead played to her other strengths, which is internalizing, defining and projecting character studies.

In this she was reasonably well cast. She seems to have a better grasp on her evil twin persona, but I’ll return to that in a moment. Bridget is a drug-addicted exotic dancer, six months sober when she flees to New York to escape consequences for not testifying in a federal case. As it happens, her twin sister, Siobhan, has reached out to her for the first time in six years. Siobhan has arranged the reunion while Siobhan’s husband, Andrew, is overseas.

They share stories. Andrew, it turns out, isn’t even aware of Bridget’s existence, so completely has Siobhan cut her twin sister from her life. Bridget apologizes for everything she’s put Siobhan through, that she doesn’t want to be the sister she has to pretend doesn’t exist, and Siobhan forgives her. They spend the day together and take a boat out onto the river.

Bridget dozes off and wakes to discover her sister has committed suicide! Oh noes! She tries to rescue her jacket floating a little ways away. She manages to get the boat back to shore and then she realizes ... hey, we’re twins! She could pretend to be her! The federal charges would go away! All she has to do is convincingly inhabit a full, complete and complicated life she knows nothing about as a wife, a mother, a best friend and mistress to her best friend’s husband. And what do you know? She manages to pull it off.

Familiar

Where have I seen this exact situation before? Oh yes, that’s right, “The Lying Game” on ABC Family. And I couldn’t approve of that one much either.

This one is somewhat more interesting because of the twist ending. The mob is targeting Bridget for information she’s got on some underworld operative whose trying to kill her to stay out of prison – which seems silly because he’s already been tried and released and double jeopardy means they can’t try him again even if Bridget does resurface.

But someone is also trying to kill Siobhan. From the final moments of the series premiere, it seems Siobhan orchestrated the switch so that Bridget would be killed instead of her.

Dun dun dunnnnnn ...

So in this complicated web of deceit, Bridget is no safer posing as her socialite sister than she was as a recovering drug addict. We don’t know why Siobhan was targeted. Siobhan’s best friend, for instance, suspects her of being the Other Woman. Siobhan might have been trying to have her killed so as to start a new life of her own.

And with all of the aspects of her sister’s life Bridget is completely unfamiliar with – let’s just start with the husband and the daughter – she’s got a crazy dancefloor of a minefield to negotiate every time something new comes up.

But on another level this is basic identity theft and honestly I don’t know how interesting that is. I’m willing to give it some time to make a case for itself. It’s certainly more interesting than the Family Channel entry and Gellar is a talented actress.

Like I said, she seems to have a better read on who Siobhan is than who Bridget is – which is a bit of a shame since Bridget seems to get more screen time. And we know almost nothing about Siobhan in the first place. We’re learning about her at nearly the same pace as Bridget is, which structurally adds some interest to the storyline as well.

But it’s still got some work to do to earn its place in the lineup.

“Ringer” airs new episodes 9/8c Tuesdays on the CW.