On a routine drive through Los Angeles Eve Harris (Natalie Zea) along with her two children Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) and Josh (Jack Martin) find themselves running for their lives after a sinkhole opens in the La Brea tar pits swallowing up large chunks of the city and dozens of citizens in the process. While Izzy escapes, Eve and Josh fall in. Eve and Josh awaken in an unfamiliar land mostly unscathed while debris and vehicles from Los Angeles are scattered randomly about. The land is filled with unfamiliar flora and hostile wildlife which the group must survive against. Meanwhile in Los Angeles Eve's ex husband and former USAF pilot Gavin Harris (Eoin Macken) is experiencing unexplained visions of Eve in the other land and tries to convince the scientist from Homeland Security, Dr. Sophia Nathan (Virginie Laverdure), that Eve and Josh are still alive, unaware that Nathan knows more than what she says.
Created by David Appelbaum, best know for his work on The Mentalist and NCIS: New Orleans, La Brea marks yet another entry in the "post Lost" high concept cliffhanger format that is still trying to recapture the phenomenon of the mid-2000s ABC cultural phenomenon. NBC is no stranger to attempts with high profile misses like The Event and Surface as well as Heroes that started off well but degraded over time, all the way up to present day attempts like the NBC cancelled and Netflix revived missing plane drama Manifest and one season wonder Debris cancelled earlier this year. La Brea, filmed in the same area of Queensland, Australia as fellow aspiring Lost clone/one season wonder Terra Nova clearly has money and resources behind it but it's a bit too early to tell if it will be worthwhile.
The production values on display are high level with the opening LA sinkhole sequence approaching levels of the film San Andreas in terms of the effort put into the destruction of the city. It's a well done sequence, even despite some glaring contrivances that happen because it needs our characters to fall into the sink hole. Once we get into the strange land through the sinkhole, it's a nice looking isolated location with a solid natural location giving the world a familiar yet eerie feeling with how unnaturally quiet it is and contrasts nicely with the random debris and vehicles that have traveled with those who fell through the hole.
The character's are given basic establishment much like in the pilot of Lost where we're given tidbits of character that will be developed over time such as with Chiké Okonkwo's borderline suicidal Ty, Rohan Mirchandaney's self-medicating Scott, or a police officer whose pessimistic view leads her to horde resources for when "things break down". In comparison to the similar Terra Nova, I thought La Brea did a much better job of hooking me from the kickoff. For one thing we aren't anchored to a single family like in Terra Nova, and the two fronts of Gavin and Izzy in Los Angeles trying to bring back Eve and Josh while Eve and Josh try to survive a harsh unfamiliar landscape leads to interesting story possibilities and threads that could be well utilized.
La Brea's pilot episode is mostly strong, even if it has the typical TV drama hurdles to work around that have been well ingrained since Lost and it's many imitators. Whether it can maintain its core mystery and intrigue remains to be seen, but as first impressions go this isn't a bad launching point.
