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!

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.

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.

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.

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.