The Event

This is a fun series to watch as it builds up with each episode. You cannot be sure who are the good guys or bad guys and which ones to kibitz.

The basic story is aliens with only 1% DNA difference crash-lands in the artic and are rounded up and kept prisoners for 66 years. Well, maybe some got away.

The Event- The Complete Series. There is very little potty mouth. No gratuitous sex. Even car chases and shoot-em-up scenes are not that graphic. Again, it is people vs. People.

The only drawback is after watching 5 DVDs the program abruptly stops.

The book series is humongous so I am not sure I will get closer by reading. But I will try.

I was intrigued by the 4 minute extended trailer, and so I eagerly tuned in for the premiere. Unfortunately, it was very underwhelming. I didn't learn anything new from the 43 minute premiere that I hadn't already learnt from the 4 minute trailer. I actually found the premiere to be boring and unnecessarily drawn out.

Also, none of the characters really seemed all that interesting, except for maybe Mike and the lady from ER, but those aren't the main characters, so that's not a good sign.

I don't mind non-linear story telling, but, there didn't seem like all that much of a reason for the tactic here - it felt contrived. Also, this may seem like a minor point to some, but the way the "flashback" subtitles changed sizes really distracted me a lot. What's wrong with normal subtitles?

Anyways, I think I will give it one more episode to suck me in, but if the second episode is as underwhelming as the first, then I won't be tuning in.

So I wasn't impressed with the pilot, found one of the main characters (Sara Roemer)to be a hum-drum drain that we have to work too hard to find believable, still some strong actors to pull it thru like Ritter, Innes and Underwood so I decided to give it another chance. Holy boring-soap-opera Batman! Was that ever a waste of time. The second installment was a duplicate of the first. It simply repeated everything they showed us the first time only from a side view perspective of someone else. OK, we already got that. It was not news, it was wholly predictable and painfully boring. I thought maybe there must be some interesting tidbit of news before the show ended but was ultimately punished for my patience. Unbelievable that producers think so little of our intellectual capability, treating us like toddlers that need everything to be repeated repeatedly. All the flashbacks are just annoying because we live a linear existence and like our stories to not deviate from that natural time flow so drastically. Lost interest now.

So, I had no intention of watching this show. The previews prior to its premiere kind of turned me off. For me, there were aspects of the premise that were too played out to make it worth my time. However, my TV just happened to be on the channel this show comes on and nothing else good had started yet so I stuck it out. The ending of the first episode made me want to know what would happen next. It took until the 3rd episode to get me hooked. Now, I love it. Yeah, the cutting in and out was problematic at first, but I'm a fast learner. The acting, in my opinion, is largely very good. I think it's smartly written and well paced. I will be honest, though. If I didn't have DVR I wouldn't have stuck this show out long enough to find that I like it because Lie To Me comes on in the same time slot. It did take a while to warm up and get into a groove that wasn't so chaotic and confusing, but now I can't wait to see what happens next.

The first time, I was amazed for 42 minutes or so, while watching the pilot. No more big brother - but a series that has: -a good cast -good directing -great production -intriguing plot (as it seems) -makes you think (yes, that thing that people do sometimes) -makes you wonder (the thing that makes life a bit more interesting)

Then, I was curious and went on IMDb. And was amazed yet again, for about 10 minutes, while reading the reviews. Out of 14, 13 "reviewers" gave it "2 stars"... People complain that they "couldn't follow up"... You know, sometimes it may worth your while, to actually PAY ATTENTION to what you're doing/watching.

If you liked "Flash Forward", and got disappointed when it was canceled (surely, due to the kind of feedback I just witnessed), you will definitely love this. If they manage to keep up with the anticipation left by the pilot, if they manage not to drain it like they did with "Lost", it has the potential of becoming one of the best series of late.

Cheers, and don't let the facts confuse you.