What's it about?
The plane crashes into a desert in Arizona, and as helicopters approach the area, Michael urges Sean to run. Michael and his daughters were kidnapped by a group of mysterious individuals including Vicky (Taylor Cole), whom Sean and Leila met on a Caribbean cruise. He is told that his daughters will be killed if he does not cooperate. It is revealed the detainees are a humanoid species with supernatural powers that crashlanded in Alaska in the 1940s. The center was constructed to hold many of these individuals, but others escaped and are living among society. Director Sterling appoints CIA operative Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) to secretly find the individuals, but Lee is not who he seems.
What We Saw
Pay off on the anti-'Lost' approach. Here we get answers to a few questions left from the pilot but thrown in with a good few 'what the f***?' moments, mix in ALOT of running and some conspiracy action and you've got episode 2 of 'The Event'
Review (MAJOR SPOILERS)
What can you say about episode 2? There's always going to be a drop in viewers from the pilot and so episode 2 is required to sucker punch those who stuck around from last week and get them invested in what's going on. Did it work? Well I'm coming back next weekly but I'm not yet sure if it's for the right reasons.
Here's what worked: the writers answered us what happened to the plane last seen disappearing into a vortex in the pilot; this proved that 'The Event' is not going to follow the 'Lost' pattern and ask more questions than it answers. New questions were also posed, some of which will have properly dumbfounded the audience but this wouldn't be a mystery show if we weren't left scratching our heads at the end.
The writers also ramped up the action with Sean now on the run from the authorities for a supposed murder which was weirdly committed by D B Sweeny who I mainly remember as the dad in 'Life As We Know It'.
As with the previous episode there was also a satisfyingly gripping cliffhanger at the end of the episode in the hope we'll come back next week in our millions.
What didn't work: aliens?! I honestly did not see this coming. As mentioned in my review of the previous episode it was widely known that a 'sci-fi' element was added to this show at the request of the network but at this stage in the season it felt somewhat cheap. It didn't feel like there had been enough time and enough mystery surrounding the people mentioned only as 'they' in the pilot.
Over the course of the rest of the season this might pan out and work well but right now it feels like we're in danger of slipping in to another 'V' if the story is to revolve around the existence of extraterrestrials and a potential invasion etc...
Sadly there are also some of the generic twists that are to be expected from a show in its infancy: a character (in fact characters) who is 'not who they seem' which will come as absolutely no surprise and more conflict caused by misinterpretation than you can shake a stick at.
What about the time jumps I hear you say? Well they're still here but as we've been prepped for them they no longer distract from the story and with a little thought and maybe some counting on the fingers you can put the pieces together and begin to understand the bigger the picture.
This isn't a bad episode, as you can see I've still given it a healthy score, but we are circling the danger zone of new show conventionalism and this is a show which I would like to see defy convention and become something truly unique.
For now we'll put it down to the creative team finding their feet and see what happens in the weeks to come...
Next week...
When President Martinez reveals a tough new strategy to force Sophia to reveal the detainees' plans, a new detainee, Maya, is thrown into the chaos. Meanwhile, Vicky and Carter are in possession of a very important hostage, and FBI Agent Collier's suspicions become more severe.
Over the course of the rest of the season this might pan out and work well but right now it feels like we're in danger of slipping in to another 'V' if the story is to revolve around the existence of extraterrestrials and a potential invasion etc...
Sadly there are also some of the generic twists that are to be expected from a show in its infancy: a character (in fact characters) who is 'not who they seem' which will come as absolutely no surprise and more conflict caused by misinterpretation than you can shake a stick at.
What about the time jumps I hear you say? Well they're still here but as we've been prepped for them they no longer distract from the story and with a little thought and maybe some counting on the fingers you can put the pieces together and begin to understand the bigger the picture.
This isn't a bad episode, as you can see I've still given it a healthy score, but we are circling the danger zone of new show conventionalism and this is a show which I would like to see defy convention and become something truly unique.
For now we'll put it down to the creative team finding their feet and see what happens in the weeks to come...
Next week...
When President Martinez reveals a tough new strategy to force Sophia to reveal the detainees' plans, a new detainee, Maya, is thrown into the chaos. Meanwhile, Vicky and Carter are in possession of a very important hostage, and FBI Agent Collier's suspicions become more severe.
Overall
Story 3.5
Character 3.5
Weirdness 4.0
Overall 3.5
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