La Brea

Let me get this straight. A group of people and vehicles fall into a sinkhole and land in 10,000 BC and the writers think that they need, in the second episode, a story line about heroin being found in the trunk of one of the cars? What a wasted premise!

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.

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.

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.

I found the premise interesting but quit watching after the 3rd episode, falling into the tar pit and going back to 10,000 BC is interesting but not enough for me to watch beyond that. It isn't a very exciting show and sort of plods along.

The show isn't that bad. But it isn't that good either. In a really good show you quickly forget you are seeing actors because the dialog is so well written. In this show the dialog is often laughable and the acting inconsistent. I was mainly curious to see how they explain the falling into what amounts to unexplained time travel backwards but if they did it was after I gave up on it..

For any who may not know this show is named for the actual, factual La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. Tar pits where a large number of ancient fossils have been discovered. So this fictional show bridges off that, and the idea that a sinkhole might open up and people might be transported to an ancient time.

Update February 2024: Tonight is being touted as the final episode when they return home. I am watching it to see how the wrap it up. Frankly I am amazed that it lasted as long as it did. The dialog didn't improve over the years.