So, I've watched the first five episodes. Long since I saw something from James Wong, and it is grittier and more ruthless than any other show he's done so far (the stabbing on the boat and the guy getting to be the ham in a two-car sandwich, ouch). Wouldn't be surprised if they surpass "The Sopranos".
And what's not to like about the cast!? D.B. Sweeney (haven't seen him since "Fire in the sky"), Tony Todd, Clifton Collins and "Palpatine Age 40" Zeljko Ivanek. Blair Underwood is ok I guess, just finished season 1&2 of "In Treatment" and even though I like his range, I wish he'd de-"Batman"-ify his talking voice, he doesn't sound like that in "LA Law" or interviews.
The lead character looks like Ethan Hawke's meeker kid brother (if it's possible to get more meek than Ethan Hawke), forgettable but at least convincing every time he freaks out (which is a lot).
The story is deliberately vague, even regarding the name of the show! Was the plane-hopping supposed to be it? Or is it something down the line? I suspect the latter. Regarding the element of the "detainees", it's a bit frustrating that none of the people interrogating the detainees, or discussing past interrogations, delve into the hard questions: how many factions are there? Why can't the humans and the detainees create any semblance of a common goal? Why wouldn't the latter wish for one? Obviously their coming here was a mistake, or they wouldn't have gotten themselves into such a completely disastrous situation to begin with.
The implication is that all of the 98 people have been successfully stonewalling for 66 years, but that's very hard to believe. Surely under Nixon and McCarthy they would've been subject to treatment that would make General Zod say "Oh really now!". I mean, the detainees are just as fallible, emotional and frail as humans. Outright wimpy, even. Also, the wreckage they came in should've been identifiable at least as to its general function, but the show will probably go into that in season 2, I guess.
The way I see it they were probably prisoners being transported past (or marooned on) Earth, otherwise they wouldn't have been dressed like hobos and 1890's dockworkers when they arrived in their spaceship/time capsule/Phantom Zone portapotty.
I think the thriller/action sequences are above average, and they seem to be the meat of the show. I'm not crazy about all the flashbacks, there were like twelve in the pilot alone, but at least they make sense narrative-wise, in that it wouldn't have been as interesting if shown chronologically. They work like in "LOST" but more to-the-point, less metaphorical.
"The Event" kind of competes with "V" in the same subgenre right now, I wonder if they'll both get their full run, or if we'll have another casualty like "Heroes" yet again.
Even though "Event"-director Jeffrey Reiner has also done one episode of "Caprica", I don't feel that show can compete with either "V" or "The Event". The latter may be repeating several older TV show formulas, but at least it's got some pizazz. "Caprica" is so emo and anemic it hurts. I can literally hear the network execs sharpening their knives, just waiting for old man "Nielsen" to say his piece and then drop a snowglobe off the bed (I may be dating myself a little here).
Anyway, "The Event", yeah. Hm. Thoughts?
PS. Did anyone else get a strong "Capricorn One" vibe after the plane-hop? Also, Thomas said his peoples' resources were stretched thin, but 20 Pave Low choppers seems pretty well stocked to me, considering they weren't even used to move anything. DS.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
you mean the event is Sci-Fi? I thought it was just stupid political bullshit, unworthy of my ass?
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Well, the first season has ended, ten episodes, to continue in February. I must say I like it. It took off fast and escalated faster, Clifton Collins and Ċ½eljko Ivanek have been the most interesting so far. Blair Underwood's president mostly just gets to react at developments at this point, there's so much setting up of factions and plans still. Also I noticed that Hal Holbrook plays a very critical role in the show. I remember him getting intimately introduced to Harry Callahan's "principles" and "viewpoints", bluntly and repeatedly, in "Magnum Force". Ah, he's a nice old southern gent.
The E.T:s in "The Event" are more X-Filesy and subtle than the V-reptiles, not necessarily good/bad but grey/dark-grey, and there's a three-way power struggle. Thankfully they don't have opaque black eyes or nose-slits, in fact their full look has yet to be seen, like their technological capabilities.
There are a lot of details yet to be revealed, like the Detainees' origin, original mission, what the third faction is exactly, and where the hell IT came from, since it couldn't have come at the same time as the "detainees".
If this was a novel I would rate it above airport bookstore schlock, below Gaiman but far above Kevin J. "Copy/Paste" Anderson.
Posted by akb1979 (Member # 557) on :
"Heroes" is a casualty? Granted I've kind of stopped watching it...but has it..."died"?
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
I'd say, appart from Tim Kring, everyone knows that Heroes is dead. NBC cancelled it just after Clare told the world about the 'heroes'. Then, just to be clear, they said no to a special or mini series to wrap it up.
At least it didn't just cut to black in the middle of the last sce....
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Don't stop believ...
I find myself out of the loop on a lot sci-fi shows or hanging onto sinking ships (Caprica? V? SGU?). What happened to the days when sci-fi was easy to identify, usually by the title Star Trek:Something or Other.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Mars Needs Women: I am going to answer your last (rhetorical) question at face value.
Before now, there were fewer channels with fewer people employed and smaller budgets and pricier equipment. Take those factors, reverse them, and you have a bloated sea of shows, desperately trying to cater to an overstimulated, non committal audience with the attention span of the Higgs-Boson's penis.
That's what happened to "the days of easily-identifiable Sci-fi", they ran out, like original soda flavors.
As for what happened to Trek in particular, I'm afraid the Trek fan community is in denial (the fan movie creators in particular, the Norman Bateses of Trekkerdom, dancing with their dead mother in the basement and shooting Warbirds onscreen). The Trek recipe is out of style, it's been done, and like disco will not come back. Movies can still be made (different requirements), but not a new show. Imagine seeing a new Trek show, with an episode beginning with an "officer" sitting in a "chair" and having someone walk up to him and say "Our equipment picked up something unexpected", that can never come back.
You can't do the same thing again, you'd compete with the reruns of the older stuff, which did it unironically. Now there must be blood and crying-mucus (I'm looking at you, Adama) and shaky handcam realism and catering to teenage angst, not "striving to better mankind through diplomacy and ethics in space".
Now about "The Event", there's at least one person per episode eating an orange slice, loudly slurping tea from a tiny cup or munching trail mix. It's like Hemingway got on the script team and inserted his food'n'drink obsessions everywhere (seriously, read "A Farewell to Arms": pasta, Brie, wine, Martini-Bianco, half a page dedicated to the wonder of potato chips.).
At least in "The Event" they get stuff done in each episode and get good eats, which is infinitely more than could be said of "Caprica", which polished the nails of the twelve colony coffin, minute after agonizing minute. Then in the end of the episode, they noticed they'd only imagined they had a rag and varnish in their hand, and that the nails were actually still dirty and dull after all that imaginary work.
What's to say this show won't jump the shark in the third season (like South Park just did with Mysterion/Kenny)? But for now "The Event"'s got wind in the sails. One of the best end-season cliffhangers I've seen in a long time.
[ December 07, 2010, 04:29 PM: Message edited by: Nim ]
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
so why dont they do something origonal? like a life action Battletech or Macross (once you fucking kill every person that could voice a nay from Harmony Gold, the only thing that keeps the Macross property from the US)
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
^That and giant robots that turn into jets are naff, to say nothing of being horrendously expensive for a live action TV show.
Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
you sir, need a hug (or a Lynn Minmei/Sheryl Nome/Sheron Apple Pillow case to sleep on).