Persons Unknown

Why is it whenever there is a great show it gets canceled? And many are left unfinished. This story could of went on for many seasons. Great cast and story line. So many shows get a lot of hype months before premiere and then bomb. Yet the network will drag it on for a few more seasons trying to convince us that it will eventually get better.

This show isn't like that. A great show that silently gets cut. Who are these people who make these decisions? Too many shows get canceled without closure. Tera Nova was another great one. Jericho could of ran for years! Yet, they hype up Revolution, which was a bomb, that I'm sure they will try to run with it for years.

I really liked Persons Unknown. Last episode left me wanting to see more. Too bad the network didn't see it that way. Now days, if you don't have "C.S.I.", "reality show" or dumb slap stick comedy in it, it won't make the cut. It's sad!

Alright I know this is going to be a fairly hollow review because it is based on one episode. But the first episode has set a strong tone of mystery and drama similar to oh, I don't know... LOST? The complete and total combination of mystery and randomness is a great way to get the audience interested, but is hard to build on. It puts the audience in the detectives position; trying to figure out who the inside man is and how all these people are connected.

The first episode showed brief glimpses of the outside world as it followed a reporter as he pursued the case of one of the abducted people. This is a smart move by the writers, giving the audience some background without resorting desperately to flashbacks.

The reason this show could be terrible is because it can lose its mysterious aspects too quickly or too slowly. If it is lost too slowly and the characters make little progress in escaping, the show grows boring. If they escape to quickly, well, the show is near impossible to continue.

Yes this review is very premature, but at this stage I recommend that you tune into this show live so that the mysterious aspects can be sustained for weeks.

8/10 (for now)

I heard about this show from a few friends who said it was kind of like LOST. So naturally I decided to check it out and it was amazing. Before I go any further, to the above reviewer, LOST was on ABC and by JJ Abrams. This show is on NBC and made by a completely different person. Therefore it wasn't something thrown together as LOST concluded.

Moving forward, the beginning was good but I hate how they only show one person being kidnapped and they focus in completely on that person. It's too early to tell who is telling the truth but hopefully we'll get a lot of answers as we progress through the storyline.

It is definitely a great show to watch if you like to be held in suspense. It does have a LOST feeling to it, but still very different. (especially when the other inhabitants aren't attempting to kill our 7 main characters every chance they get.)

Janet Cooper (Daisy Betts) hired a P.I. to find his deadbeat husband who disappeared on her and her daughter. She's utterly broke and then is kidnapped in broad daylight. She wakes up in a nameless hotel in a nameless town. She is helped by mysterious Joe Tucker (Jason Wiles). They are joined by soldier Graham McNair (Chadwick Boseman), camp counselor Moira Doherty (Tina Holmes), party girl Tori Fairchild (Kate Miner), wealthy investment banker Charlie Morse (Alan Ruck) and car salesman Bill Blackham (Sean O'Bryan). There's a field around the town that makes the abductees pass out. There is endless Chinese food and messages from their abductors. Newsapaper reporter Mark Renbe (Gerald Kyd) investigates Janet's kidnapping with his editor Kat Damatto (Lola Glaudini).

It starts with an interesting premise but the viewer is left frustrated waiting for the whys. It's a mistake to show the 'real' world. The reporter, the investigation, her kidnapping and her daughter are all problematic. Without them, this could be purgatory, supernatural, a dream or aliens. With them, it can only be orchestrated by people. Then it becomes nothing more than simply asking why and those are limited questions. The show really is left with only one card and it can't actually play that card. In the end, the show loses steam by constantly hinting at the card without actually showing it. It becomes a bore.

Persons Unknown was a very respectable series with a few shortcomings in writing and some inconsistent acting. If you enjoy psychological thrillers this is absolutely worth a shot but I do warn you, NBC made some very false promises that this show would wrap up and that any lingering questions would be answered. Apparently, the plug got pulled on this series after the first season leaving it to the viewer to decide on a lot of the outcome. That being said, it's really not difficult to draw one's own conclusions and enough content was answered to leave one feeling somewhat fulfilled. I will not punish a show for the networks shameful behavior, Persons Unknown was a solid 7.5 with a perhaps even more promising future had it been given the chance and NBC's lack of honesty was an abysmal 1. If you read through a few more reviews you'll see this tends to be the consensus, some are just punishing the show with a bad rating when it was not the writers/directors/actors fault it was so short lived.