"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

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Event 1.13: A Little Too Close to Reality

With Japan on the edge of a nuclear meltdown and its horrendous consequences - in stark reality not in fiction - The Event 1.13 tonight had Thomas responsible for Chernobyl and now endangering a nuclear power in plant in California.   I don't know what NBC could have done - postpone tonight's episode - but this was a little too close to reality for my tastes.  (See my Time to Say Goodbye to Nuclear Energy for my thoughts about nuclear fission energy in our real world.)

The story and the action of The Event 1.13 were, however, excellent, and a powerful continuation of the re-launched series last week. Sophia convinces the President to move nuclear rods from the power plant, so that Thomas cant' get them, but it turns out that Thomas set that move in motion so he could get the rods in his possession - he had no way of "portaling" them out of the nuclear plant.  A nice twist.

Sophia is almost done in by one of Thomas's men, whom she and Michael had taken prisoner.   I was glad to Michael shoot him (especially because the actor - Jack Stehlin - played DEA Captain Till on Weeds).  The net result: Sophia survives, as does Simon, when Thomas's people attack the truck carrying the nuclear rod.   But Thomas now has the rods, and the President more than half believes that Sophia lied to him again - when he gives an order to bring her in, he pointed makes clear that it's ok to use deadly force.

Good, taut television.

Real life, unfortunately, is not subject what writers and producers want - sometimes not to what any human beings, whatever their power, want.  My thoughts and hopes are with the people of Japan.


See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals! ... The Event 1.7: The Portal and its Implications  ... The Event 1.8: The "Republican" VP and the Anti-24 ... The Event 1.9: "Native Populations, Indigenous People" ... The Event 1.10: Satellite ... The Event 1.11-12: Hardball in Fiction

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What does Weeds have to do with it?

Paul Levinson said...

As I said in the review, the actor played a bad guy in Weeds.

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