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'The Event': Was it worth the three-month wait for you?
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The return of "The Event" to NBC Monday night was billed as a relaunch of the series, with the implication that the two-hour episode could bring some new viewers in while keeping the hook in for those who have been with the show since the fall.But if you were just coming to the show, I hope you paid very close attention to the "previously on" -- because if you weren't already up to speed on much of what was happening, it's hard to see these two episodes making a ton of sense. (Perhaps this will help you.) Heck, even as someone who watched all the fall episodes and wrote about most of them, I found myself going back to old notes more than once.
On the upside, "The Event" did move things forward on several fronts -- most notably in revealing Thomas' plan -- in these episodes. Had "And Then There Were More" and "Inostranka" come just a week, or even a month, after the last fall episode, they would have served as pretty good momentum-builders. But NBC's scheduling decision really sapped any of that momentum, and what transpired Monday wasn't enough to glue me to my seat.
The one nod to new viewers (Hi, new viewers, if you're there) was the introduction of Virginia Madsen as Catherine Lewis, a newly appointed senator from Alaska. She's the (apparently much younger) widow of the previous six-term senator, who died recently, and in going through her husband's things she comes across some top secret documents about the Inostranka facility. That puts President Martinez in a bind: She threatens to go public with her knowledge of the secret prison unless she gets the full scoop on what it is.
Martinez finally relents, and Lewis will probably be a continuing thorn in his side, but for now it feels like the character is there to ask things like "What's all this about a secret prison? Who are you holding there, and why?" as a stand-in for anyone who's just coming to the show.
The real action, however, took place at Inostranka, where Sterling headed after the NSA decoded Thomas' broadcast into space: "Preparations are being made for your arrival." Turns out Thomas isn't just talking on that one: He's building a very large "portal array" in Tibet to welcome more of his people to Earth (an array, incidentally, that looks plenty big enough to spot on Google Earth, but ... yeah). He needs more hands to prepare for the arrival, though, so he executes a very detailed plan to bust the remaining detainees out of Inostranka.
For the most part, it goes as planned, except that Sterling and a corporal manage to throw a bit of a wrench into things by killing some of Thomas' goons and convincing one of the detainees, Maya (Clea DuVall, last seen in episode 3), that Thomas really has gone rogue. She takes a bullet for Sterling as Thomas and crew are leaving rather than go with him. We'll have to wait for the crumbling Washington Monument and the revelation that the aliens used to call Earth home (as promised in the many, many NBC promos leading up to Monday), but the capital-E Event at least feels like it may be drawing closer.
Finally, Monday's episodes brought Leila, little sister Samantha and their dad, Michael, together again. It's a touching family reunion, but for the fact that Michael reveals to Leila that he, too, is a "nonterrestrial." And by implication, Leila and Sam have at least some alien DNA in them, which explains why Evil Hal Holbrook (OK, Dempsey) has been after Sam and other girls like her -- he's looking for a fountain of youth, and since the aliens age much, much slower than us regular people, the mix of alien and human DNA might be the ticket.
That bit of story also put Sean face-to-face with someone from the other arms of the story for the first time, but it was mostly a tease. Sophia promises to answer his questions, but that session must have started off camera, 'cause we didn't see any of it.
And therein lies one of the problems with "The Event": We know the rules of these shows by now -- they have to slow-play things a little, or else they can't fill an entire season's worth of episodes. But if the answers are going to be slow in coming, they better be really good ones, and the diversions along the way better be really diverting. These two episodes of "The Event" weren't bad, but they don't have me breathlessly awaiting next week either.
What did you think of the show's return?
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The episode in my opinion was phenomenal compared to the rest of the season. While it doesn't stand anywhere near Lost or 24 used to, this last episode showed a glimmer of hope that we may have actually found a show that can stand on its own and give us something better than the first half of the season did.
It was worth the wait. I thought it was the best episode of the season so far.
I thoroughly enjoyed both episodes tonight. I recently rewatched the first 10 eps and found I had forgotten a lot of stuff. I'm eager to see what comes next. I hope the show gets a second season but I kind of doubt it will. I do hope NBC will at least air the rest of the episodes planned for this season and not pull the plug early. Besides having too long of a hiatus, NBC should never have compared The Event to Lost. There won't be another Lost nor should there be. The Event has merits of its own if given a chance.
Awesome! It was so dang awesome! Especially Blake Sterling/Zeljko Ivanek. They should just make the show all about him. Very, very cool.
I think the two episodes showed that the series would've been better served as a limited series or a miniseries. When things are fast paced and when things happen, the show can be interesting and very watchable. But knowing there's still 10 episodes left, it feels almost daunting.
And while Virginia Madsen is great, this was apparently the role NBC offered to Connie Britton who turned it down. I would've loved to see Connie as a no-nonsense Senator.
I enjoyed the epsidoes tonight and thought that it moved the plot forward and gave us good plot reveals and development. I know that it was serving to introduce Virgina Madsen's character, but it didn't make any sense that she would've had access to top secret files that she didn't have clearance for, as all gov agencies are pretty strict with the handling and viewing of those types of items, but suspended disbelief in this small instance. I am glad that Sean will be striking out on his own as I found Leila's character a little too whiny and annoying, so this will give him room to develop more as his character and Zelko's have been my faves so far....
I had to miss "House" to watch this and I'm glad I did. I can see the series progressing beyond one season if Thomas is successful and an invasion commences. Could be interesting.
I thought the ep was great. Very exciting and lots of action.
But NBC has effectively killed this show. I predict that they have NOT gained any new viewers and have in fact lost a lot of viewers. And that's too bad
I loved it. I thought the short recap at the beginning covered all of the important bases and brought us up t speed. It's not like Lost in that that show was hard to come into in the middle because of all that had gone on before.
I don't think NBC did it any favors by having such a huge gap between episodes, but I hope the show caries on.
I'm not sure what program the rest of you are watching, but to me, The Event was worse than ever. It remains stuck on stupid, with the added bonus of inept political theater now that the Lewis character has been added. (Yo, Chris, news is breaking a foot away from you during the commercial break!!!)
El presidente, fully aware now that there are aliens amongst us, still has failed to launch any new programs or any thorough investigations into his own government or personnel.
Not that it would matter, of course, given the quality of his government. The FBI can't even catch Sean Walker, much less a few hundred aliens.
Besides the vice president being co-opted, of course, we now have a totally hapless military, which can't protect a top-secret base from a dozen interlopers.
Apparently that would be because their aging lieutenants are spineless cowards, their fossilized majors are dopes, and their lowly corporals are so insubordinate as to facilitate an escape after all the prisoners were LOCKED DOWN, against the express orders of a senior national security official a mere two feet away from him!!!!
Luckily for us the aliens are divided, and so inept that they nearly botched this very escape. Thomas couldn't even bother to shoot straight in order to dispose of Sterling; I guess the plane had to take off JUST THEN, not allowing him 30 seconds to make sure Sterling was kaput.
My money's on Walker. Does anyone think the aliens will be any more effective against him than the government has been?