"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Event Debuts on NBC

The Event on NBC looks like a keeper.

The new series starts off with a complex plot - ala 24 - of bad guys, terrorists, whatever intent on taking out the President (always good to see Blair Underwood back on the screen).   The apparent bearer of a bomb (or whatever) on to a plane turns to be a good guy, whose almost fiance is presumably kidnapped by the real bad guys.   Sean Walker finds himself caught up in a sleight-of-hand of his reality worthy of Hitchcock.

And that's the least of it.  His fiance's (Leila's) mother is killed before her father's eyes, and their younger daughter is kidnapped to boot.   And it turns out the father is piloting the plane, with an eye towards crashing it into where the President and his family and his advisors are all in attendance.   He's apparently a good guy, too, though, and is doing this because the real bad guys have his younger daughter - and I guess Leila, too - and are threatening to kill them.

Now this would be a series worth watching with just the above as a plot.   But the payoff at the end of the premiere episode pulls us into something much more.  For just as the plane nears its executive target, it's sucked into something that looks like it came out of The Philadelphia Experiment, and disappears into thin air.

Sophia (Laura Innes - Kerry on ER!) tells the President: "they saved us".   Who are the "they"?  Sophia explains that there are "some things I haven't told you".

What we do know that is that Sophia is part of some group which is being held in Alaska, and the President wants to free them (contrary to the strong advice of his advisors, including Blake, played by Zeljko Ivanek, who is once again playing a hard-assed a-hole).

And we're off to a brand new series, riveting, complex, frothy, more reminiscent, actually, of FlashForward than Lost, and a good dose of 24, too, as I mentioned above.  Hey, if it stays away from purgatory as an ending,  The Event could end up better than Lost in the end.


5-min podcast review of The Event



                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic, Mozy, Zazzle









The Plot to Save Socrates




"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

3 comments:

Aaron said...

So it is Lost meets 24? All they need now are some superheroes! Looks great!

Nick Leshi said...

My wife and I enjoyed it and we'll tune in again. But I thought the non-linear storytelling was a bit overdone.

M.P. Andonee said...

Looking forward to your reviews of "The Event". I liked this comment you made: "Hey, if it stays away from purgatory as an ending, The Event could end up better than Lost in the end."

I immediately suspected extra-terrestrials. but I hope that does not turn people off and they keep watching. We have to quit making the bogeyman all these other things we make them nowadays (Muslim, immigrant, other, etc.).

I also have enjoyed the start of Hawaii 5-0. I have fond memories of the original.

InfiniteRegress.tv