Inspired by Robert R. McCammon’s novel Stinger, Teacup takes place in and around a small group of neighboring ranches in a remote part of Georgia, where something is seriously amiss. The animals notice it first, as they always seem to. Then the phonelines die, and the power goes out, including the batteries inside everyone’s car. Just as the ranchers start to suspect that someone or something is intentionally trying to cut them off from the outside world, a painted blue borderline appears on the ground around their ranches, confirming that fear. A mysterious man named McNab (Rob Morgan) warns them not to cross it and, as the first episode ends, we get a very vivid demonstration of what will happen if that warning is ignored.
It’s a compelling setup, isolating a bunch of characters in a single location and then weaving between their interpersonal drama and the overarching mystery. Sadly, the first half of this equation falls flat, and we find ourselves spending eight episodes in the company of people who are less interesting than the gruesome sci-fi things that happen to them.
Most of Teacup’s story is confined to the ranch owned by the Chenoweth family. Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) and James Chenoweth’s (Scott Speedman) marriage has been on the rocks since she discovered that he’s been having an affair. What Maggie doesn’t know is that the person James has been sleeping with is their neighbor, Valeria (Diany Rodriguez), whose own husband, Ruben (Chaske Spencer), is similarly in the dark about the affair.
Given the messiness of the situation, there’s obvious potential here for juicy drama, but it’s consistently undercut by leaden dialogue and little in the way of chemistry between the leads. Maggie and James have raised two kids together, Meryl (Émilie Bierre) and Arlo (Caleb Dolden), but it feels like they’ve only just met. The story also tends to create conflict between the show’s characters in the most obvious ways, like having someone reveal a damning secret while the person they’re talking about eavesdrops from a nearby doorway.
Another neighbor, Donald (Boris McGiver), arrives on the Chenoweth ranch just in time to get trapped there along with the others, and his gun-toting hard-ass is the liveliest among them. A scene in which he lets his gruff façade drop to talk Maggie through a panic attack makes especially good use of McGiver’s ability to subtly shift between projecting menace and empathy.
The scenes in which characters hash out their marital problems and personal grievances quickly come to feel like obstructions that delay us getting to the next clue in the mystery. Which is grating because it’s quite a good mystery, filled with the sort of odd sci-fi touches and inexplicable images that made Lost so compelling. But the strength of this part of Teacup also begins to bleed away, and the answers we receive are a lot less interesting than the questions.
As the intrigue fades, the series tries to rachet up the tension. The story turns into a kind of locked-room thriller as characters are constantly told to “trust no one.” Arlo becomes the key to uncovering the truth about their situation, but when questioned by other members of his family, he answers in cryptic, stilted fashion that forces the questioner to ask endless follow-ups.
The final episode ends with a sudden and surprising set piece that sets up a second season nicely, and even seems to have one eye on something more expansive: a story in the style of The Walking Dead, where we continue to follow our unlikely band as they try to survive in the face of a supernatural threat. Unfortunately, nothing in Teacup’s first season suggests that the series will be around long enough to make good on that promise.
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