Hey The Event NBC fans!
WARNING: This is a detailed analysis review of The Event with focus on the quality of the program. This review contains what should be considered spoilers.
If you have not seen the pilot episode yourself should STOP reading now until you have seen the pilot episode!
Of interest is that SyFy will be airing the pilot today at 8 PM Eastern and Pacific if you would like to see the pilot before reading.
This is not a recap of the pilot. You can find plenty of those types of reviews about The Event on-line.
Here you be exposed to what makes up the series fantastic foundation with analysis about the quality of the content and the theory of what is happening in the initial arc of the story. You have been advised. Thank you.
The Event is a new series which continues today, Monday September 27, 2010 at 9 PM Eastern and Pacific on NBC immediately following Chuck! The series pilot was something wonderful in the opinion of this reviewer. As we had been tipped off, WormholeRiders News Agency enjoyed the pilot episode for several reasons.
First because (for goodness sakes) there appears to have been a Wormhole displayed in the pilot episode! Second the series is a science fiction based thriller of high quality. Last but not least because the series contains top notch talent as you can see by the actor and actress names at the top of this news review and report. One of my personal favorites is the likes of Blair Underwood as President Martinez! The Event includes many venerable guest stars including the multi-talented acting legend Hal Holbrook!
WHR expected quite a bit of excitement and special effects. We expected action. We expected solid characters. I can share with you that we were not disappointed. I personally am looking forward to the second episode, really a continuation of the pilot this evening! WormholeRiders News Agency is also excited in seeing veteran actor Hal Holbrook in future episodes as well! All of these ingredients bode well during for the pilot run of The Event.This includes the shocking events which open the series!
So what the heck is going on in The Event? First off is a very real life like fact: The President of the United States has been kept out of the loop on a secret CIA project where detainees of some sort are being held in a secret base in Alaska! Sounds a lot like real life to me. Good Ole’ “Plausible Denial” always goes a long way to make this mirror what we witness in the news every day. We begin the series as we observe above with a devastating series of “events” with people in sheer panic.
The pilot then uses a time honored practice of flashbacks to the roots of The Event jumping back first a number of minutes, then hours and ultimately days into the past to determine how the main series characters of the ensemble cast will be brought together as the series story arc unfolds.
A couple of people commented to me on Twitter that they did not like the flashback technique. I respect their opinion, however I very much appreciate this technique for what it represents, a method to leave vast areas of the story arc open to exploration in the pilot itself, and in future episodes to round out the single effect of the work. It is this single effect that builds the actual foundation of the thriller aspect of The Event that I and based upon the ratings many found to be quite effective. During the course of the pilot we learn part of the back story of the characters using the flashback effect, where they came from, who they know and why they ended up where they were in the conclusion of the episode.
Most interesting to me was the secret detention facility or prison based in Mount Inostranka Alaska, a place which could exist in the real world today. Could this be the replacement for something like Guantanamo Bay Cuba? We all know in our hearts that such places exist. However just like real life we do not really find out who or what is there except that the facility has been in operation for an extended period of time. We observe a flashback some thirteen months into the past with a prisoner being escorted to the facility.
During this sequence we learn from the flashback some 13 months earlier that the prisoner being locked up at the Mount Inostranka facility because he knows what The Event actually is! The powers that be in the CIA are fearful this person (and likely all the others imprisoned there) will reveal what they know to the general public causing mass panic.
In the middle of the pilot we observe the lives of the characters who are innocent of any wrong doing. We take a liking to these persons. The story arc develop touching moments such as the scenes with Sarah Roemer on the beach talking with her father character Michael Buchanan played by Scott Patterson whom later will become obsessed with something that occurs leading up to a disaster that is The Event!
What is the secret? Why are Wormholes suspected by WHR? Well its simple! The theory that holds the most water is that “The Event” (or actually more than once) have perhaps somehow changed history and not for the better by a sinister force. If not actually changing history, the actions perpetrated by this sinister force are observed murdering an innocent to protect the secret that threatens the future of human kind itself!
How do we know from watching the pilot about a wormhole like effect and why are people so upset in The Event? Because one of the series protagonists Sean B. Walker played by Sean Ritter is observed aboard a cruise ship on a planned vacation. While trying to enter his room his card key for the suite no longer works! To make matters worse his girlfriend has disappeared and his suite on board the cruise ship now contains another couple!
What we learn as The Event pilot continues is that the President demands to visit the detention facility at Mount Inostranka in Alaska first hand. He demands to find out has been kept from him as Commander in Chief since he was elected to the office and meets an old ally in the process character Sophia Maguire portrayed by Laura Inness pictured below. She is one of the aliens and is to be part of press announcement about their presence on Earth!
In nearing the conclusion is something many including I suspected in the beginning. Michael Buchanan, father of the missing Leila Buchanan played by Sarah Roemer intends to use the jet airliner he is captain of as a weapon of mass destruction designed to assassinate the President of the United States and or someone in his party in an act of revenge for their complicity of his daughter apparently either being erased from the time-line or kidnapped! But is that really so (that the time-line has been changed?). He is obviously being coerced after his wife was murdered and daughter kidnapped even though a jet fighter is about to shoot him down!
Something not quite revealed is why the airliner vanishes in what appears to be a wormhole, where was it sent and why? Of course not even The President knows so how could we expect such information in the pilot! Ultimately why in the dickens would we tune in for the next seven scheduled episodes!
In closing our first analysis, The Event series has all the makings of a winner. My grade for the pilot is an A- for what was accomplished in the first hour. The question is will it be accepted as such by the viewing public. With the success of episodic series such as Fringe, Stargate and Eureka where alternative realities have proved quite efficacious, NBC has taken a bold step with a major science fiction thriller like The Event. Some indicated they would have preferred to see a two hour series opener, however placing The Event behind Chuck is a wise move to hold the audience against Dancing With The Stars on ABC, which is stiff competition in Monday entertainment.
As always, thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency.
Please feel free to leave a spam free comment here at our news site or as so many of our followers do visit me on Twitter to chat about The Event by tweeting or by direct message to info@wormholeriders.com if you are a touch shy!
Best Regards,
WR_Systems (Kenn)