NBC has a new show this year that wants to become event television: The Event, which premiered last night. I don't really know what's going on, of course. This isn't the type of show where viewers are meant to, at least not at first. But peppered with a slew of likable and talented actors, and with some intriguing plot already laid out, The Event is certainly better than last year's similar offering, Flash Forward.
As near as I can tell, there will be five main players in this series. President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Dirty Sexy Money, L.A. Law) found out about some event and secret group at an Alaskan hideaway about a year and a half before the series began. Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes, ER) has been locked away there, but has now arrived in Washington to announce something with the president. Sean Walker (Jason Ritter, Parenthood, Joan of Arcadia) is the everyman hero, whose girlfriend, Leila (played by Sarah Roemer), has been kidnapped by unknown people for unknown reasons. Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson, Gilmore Girls) is Sean's girlfriend's father, and is clearly being blackmailed into doing bad things. And I'm not sure exactly who Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale, Day Break, Surface) is, but he's important enough to get close to the president, and smart enough to know that Michael is up to, and to try to stop him. Or maybe he was tracking Sean. That's unclear.
If you haven't watched last night's premiere yet, stop reading here until you do.
All five of these people have very interconnected stories, with Simon being the bridge between the two duos listed above. I don't particularly care about Simon, but the I already do about Martinez, Sean, and Michael. Martinez is shown to be a very principled president in the scenes before the action starts, in the vein of other great television presidents such as David Palmer and Jed Bartlet. The pilot was smart enough to give us plenty of Sean's background, and what his relationship with Michael is. There's a bond there appropriate for a soon-to-be-related couple of men, and it's touching. The fact that the woman they both love, in different ways of course, is in danger excuses their extreme behavior.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - D. Gelineau
I had no idea what was going on. It jumped all over the place ... and back and forth in time. Made no sense. No answers by the end of the show. Hated it. Wasted my time.
Reminded me of flash forward, like they were making it up as they went along. And we never did get answers to that show. I'll never watch another show that doesn't answer questions by the end of each show.
2 - Nick
I just hope they don't drag out the mysteries too much. The back and forth nonlinear storytelling was a bit overdone too. But I'll keep tuning in for now.
3 - Jerome Wetzel
D. Gelineau - I understand your hesitance, but Lost was one of the best shows of the decade, and they didn't even answer all the questions by their series finale. I am not saying that The Event is the next Lost, but it would be cool if it was. I sorely miss that show.
Nick - The nonlinear storytelling bothered me for the first half of the episode, but by the end, I was cool with it. As I said though, it felt like part one of a two hour premiere, so I'm anxious to see if next week better completes the beginning of their story.