THE (NON) EVENT

My interest was certainly piqued by the cryptic ads for the new television series, “The Event,” on Monday nights on NBC, but they’re trying way too hard to be mysterious.

I love science fiction and reveled in series like SURFACE and INVASION. Even The 4400, which never came back after four seasons. My favorite was THRESHOLD.

Unfortunately, the shows seem to get to a point where the implausibility catches up to them and our interest wanes, or the writers can't find another plot twist, so they get cancelled without wrapping up anything. It’s a bummer.

But anyway, I had high hopes for THE EVENT, and I’ll give it another week to see if the promise continues. Here's my take:

First of all, stop trying to be all confusing like LOST. I lost count of the number of flashbacks (not in any chronological order) going back and forth, with glimpses of “three hours ago,” eleven days ago,” etc. PLEASE!!! That’s why I finally had to stop watching the excellent DAMAGES on FX; way too confusing. And LOST lost me after 3 seasons. Also HEROES, which became so convoluted I couldn’t keep track of the double crossing.

Secondly, the dialogue echoes the film INDEPENDENCE DAY when the (government?) scientist deadpans to president Martinez (in an interesting diversity twist, as all the recent movies about disasters, the evils of man ruining the earth, etc. feature a black president---ho hum, we have one already!---this show uses a black actor, the excellent Blair Underwood, to play a latino!) “I haven’t told you everything, Mr. President.” The implication is that we are going to find out that aliens have something to do with THE EVENT and the inevitable conspiracy theory of a secret government coverup. I sure hope so, and I also hope if they do have aliens that they aren’t ridiculous looking.

I’d say the best aliens in a movie were the ones in SIGNS by M Night Shyamalan. There were a lot of hints and near sightings, and when they finally were seen, they were believable. By the way, who names their kid M Night anyway? Do you think it’s just a cool nickname, a contraction of "midnight" perhaps? Do you think he made it up for himself? But I’m digressing, much like these circuitous plot lines.

I’m wondering if they actually explain what THE EVENT is, will they still have a story?

I’ll watch it again next week and see.