La Brea

The writing was all over the place in the first episode, but I was still intrigued. By the end of the second episode, I'm getting frustratingly bored. The sub-plots are annoyingly dragged out and seem pointless as all that filler. I hope the writers haven't cramped already. The melodramatics are cringe, and I also really haven't cared about any of the characters in the hole. So far, the above-ground story is more interesting. For now, 5/10. Will give a few more episodes a chance.

A cross-section of LA denizens fall through a groundswell in Los Angeles that takes them to the stone age and prompts the question "how is this different from a normal day in Los Angeles?" Seriously, I don't know. It seems like an LA thing though from so many films and TV shows I've seen.

The show cross-cuts between two different scenes.

The dad and husband of two of the victims has paranormal premonitions about what's happening and gets the attention of a shadow government agency that is determined to suppress the truth and conduct a rescue mission.

Getting the lion's share of the action is the group of displaced people as they try to figure out what is happening in a loose rip-off of "Lost." The crew includes a wide variety of professionals such that many are the deus-ex-machinas for each other's ailments. There's a kid with life-threatening injuries but fortunately there's a doctor among the stranded to rescue him. Ditto with a stunted child who's been trained to pretend she's mute and a child psychologist who needs to get information from her without traumatizing. Similarly, there's a paleontologist who can decipher the tea leaves and a cop who can keep order.

The coincidental nature of each person's abilities isn't so bad but there's a clunkiness to the dialogue and the character development that's par for the course for standard broadcast procedurals rather than the middle brow serial this show aspires to be. This certainly slows down the show but it's marginally watchable and has enough potential that it's worth finishing the season.

You are going to feel like you are traveling in time all right -- the cheap CGI is going to take you back three or four decades right way!

Worse yet you absolutely will sense you have been transported back to a bygone era: before the golden age of TV, to a time when networks treated their audiences like 80 IQ types who have no problem with the most idiotic of dialogue, and need to be led around by the nose.

What a shame. Premise has lots of potential to be above average series, but is held back by awful acting, writing and laughable CGI.

4/10 at best, based on first two episodes distributed to reviewers.

Not a bad premise but atrocious writing and Sharknado levels of CGI. I tried making a drinking game from this show, every time someone said something ridiculous I took a drink, I was just discharged from the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Classic dorky network TV show, with bad VFX, pretty actors that wear perfect outfits, makeup and hairstyles even when teleported 10000 BC and living in the woods without shower. Laughable drama, dumb jokes, tropy camera work, plot that moves from commercial break to commercial break, dramatic music, unnecessary flirting, this TV show has it all. It's like a relic from 2006.