Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

'The Event' - 'Pilot': What. Is. It?

What did everybody think of the new sci-fi/conspiracy pilot?

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Sep 20, 2010 10:01 PM

Blair Underwood, Laura Innes and company in "The Event."

Credit: NBC

I reviewed NBC's "The Event" on Saturday. Now it's your turn. Were you as frustrated as I was by the show's opaqueness, or were you excited by the brisk pace? Did you have trouble latching onto any of the characters, or is Jason Ritter just so damn likable that you want to see what happens to him? And what, assuming you care, do you think The Event is going to be?

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: The Event, Alan Sepinwall

@ROBatGraveShift

Yeah, I pretty much only give a damn about Jason Ritter
September 20, 2010 at 10:14PM EST Reply to Comment
I enjoyed it. It was better than Persons Unknown but not on the same level as Rubicon. I plan to keep watching until the writing falls apart (like Flashforward) or it stops holding my interest (like Heroes).

It's pretty much got to be Aliens, though. Either that or some other super-advanced tech. Maybe from the future? I don't know. But it's fine, worth watching IMO, for now at least.
September 20, 2010 at 10:36PM EST Reply to Comment
Shitegeist

Ok, so Laura Innes and her kind are either aliens or humans from another dimension (*cough* Fringe *cough*), President Blair Underwood is now aware of their existence and wants to release them and tell the world about them. There are forces in the world that wish to keep their existence a secret so they plot to kill the president. The aliens/alt-humans prevent this by sucking the hijacked plane into space/alt-reality.

We'll find out later that Jason Ritter and Scott Patterson are tangentially related to the aliens/alt-humans.

Still no clue what the damn event is though.
September 20, 2010 at 10:42PM EST Reply to Comment
Hannah Lee

Didn't realize it before, but I guess Jason Ritter *is* in fact, just that damn likable. I was really only interested in what was going on in his thread.

I found the "Four Days Ago" "Eight Months Ago" "Three Days Later", etc, etc, construction a bit annoying. Not that I couldn't follow it (Years of Lost and HIMYM, along with multiple viewings of Primer, have trained me well) The back and forth and back again timeline just felt a bit contrived.

Well, now that I think about it, I guess I did miss something in all the time/location jumps: was Mike the suicidal pilot also Leila's father?

September 20, 2010 at 10:57PM EST Reply to Comment
This show has an idiotic narrative construction.

In general, a show is large periods of mundane/low-energy/slow-paced whatever, interspersed with periods of high energy excitement. Hopefully the slower stuff is interesting, which means your show is good, but the high-energy stuff is the highlight.

The Event constructs scenes by having the exciting stuff first, showing you half a scene, then breaking to X DAYS EARLIER for some mundane stuff with people we don't care about. Basically, they show you something interesting, then stop in the middle, put up a giant neon WHAT COMES NEXT WILL BE BORING sign, and show you some crap.

I have no desire to sit through the slow stuff, because the good stuff already happened, and they've told me that boring stuff is about to happen
September 20, 2010 at 11:02PM EST Reply to Comment
rowan729

Ugh. Giant ball of cheese. I now don't care what the event was or is, and I also don't care where that plane went. Ritter was pretty interesting, but not enough to keep me watching this show at all. Boo, NBC.
September 20, 2010 at 11:03PM EST Reply to Comment
HydraEclipse

Well the "Event" is probably just earth's first contact with aliens which would in fact change the world. The "prisoners" are probably just returned alien abductees kept secret by the CIA who want to exploit any connection to the aliens (just like independence day!). And the two sisters were probably just kidnapped to force the father to try to kill the president. Basically it's Flashforward 2.0: different "plot" same lack of real characters... though like that show I will probably keep watching till the end since I'm such a sucker for wind up puzzle shows like this.
*Sigh*
September 20, 2010 at 11:38PM EST Reply to Comment
- jenfullmoon Huh. I'd actually watch it if THAT was the plot.
  
  I suspect it is something far lamer, though.
  September 21, 2010 at 12:30AM EST
- KarenX One can always check out The 4400 for stories of missing people from all eras who mysteriously return all at once. Summer Glau plays Tess!
  September 21, 2010 at 6:39PM EST
If I hear one more vague pronoun...ugh. I really hated this, until the last ten minutes or so when it started to pick up a bit. Then the end happened. And I was out again. The "mysterious" happening didn't pique my curiosity. It just made me angry.
September 20, 2010 at 11:45PM EST Reply to Comment
Chrissy

I guess, for once, rather than watching something that had been terribly over hyped and finding it wanting, I was watching something that I'd been told would be awful and I didn't think it was so bad. They hit the "aliens" thing so hard that I wonder if it's something else, but it's probably aliens. The thing at the end as sort of silly, and I hate stories where a character can't prove obvious facts and people think he's crazy, but I was ok with everything else. The one thing I appreciated was that the writers seemed to know that viewers would pick up on all the stuff everyone here is picking up on, so they didn't bother to pretend that the couple on the cruise were anything but bad news, and they threw a lot of "they're not American" and "detainee" stuff at us to let us know that we should go ahead and assume aliens. Even their coyness wasn't particularly coy, and I didn't really have much trouble decoding all the pronouns.

I'll tune in again next week and see if they blow the small amount of goodwill I'm feeling right now.

Question to the typographically-inclined - was that the 24 font they were using for the names? It was very, very familiar, but I wasn't positive.
September 20, 2010 at 11:56PM EST Reply to Comment
- Johnny About the font, that's the exact same question that popped into my head when I saw it.
  
  Don't really have time to do a side-by-side comparison, but I bet it's the same font.
  September 22, 2010 at 11:13PM EST
Joey

I missed Lost for months now. Looks like The Event will fill that hole in my heart. Thought Ritter Was great and likable and curious how Innes' character will flourish. I'm a big fan already and can't wait for next week.
September 21, 2010 at 12:09AM EST Reply to Comment
- debi I'll have to see something this amazing in the next few episodes for it to grab me and not let go.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYfKHVdmjzQ
  
  September 21, 2010 at 9:18PM EST
VisionOn

The horrible fractured storytelling and over-excited editor made this more annoying than exciting to watch.
September 21, 2010 at 12:23AM EST Reply to Comment
bcarroll

i'm with chrissy - based on alan's writeup i wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised and liked it enough to tune in a few more times to see if they can avoid 'flash forward' syndrome (a show on which i gave up after the first three episodes).

i've always liked bill smitrovich ever since 'crime story', zeljko ivanek ever since 'homicide LOTS', and tony todd in, well, just about anything so there's enough interest in the cast to keep me engaged as well - even if they continue to go nuts with the flashbacks.

and hannah lee: yeah, i had to back it up and watch again, but the pilot was leila's father - apparently the wife was killed and daughters kidnapped to force him to fly the plane, which somehow jason ritter figured out - but how in the world did ritter ever get a gun on the plane? and why wait until the plane took off to try to stop it?

ah, well - maybe next week, eh?
September 21, 2010 at 1:30AM EST Reply to Comment
silvergirl

I hope they're all wizards.
September 21, 2010 at 1:52AM EST Reply to Comment
Jerry Jones

The Event = crap sandwich.
September 21, 2010 at 2:01AM EST Reply to Comment
Karyn

Maybe it's because my expectations were also lowered, but I thought there were some good things buried in the awkward framing and coyness of the show. I liked the idea of telling the story of one story or pivotal point in time (the plane stuff) from multiple views to provide layers of the experience instead of just one thread from beginning to end.

But I thought that the cutting back and forth through time was unnecessarily confusing and was a way to make the story seem hard to figure out when it wasn't, really. The only thing that was hard to figure out was who all of the characters really were, which could have been solved by a more straightforward storytelling style.

Jason Ritter was charming though, and I care most about what happens to his character. I'm going to give it another couple of weeks to see if they calm down on the time cuts and keep up with the perspective cuts. I might like that show.
September 21, 2010 at 8:16AM EST Reply to Comment
Kujo

This show is awful. I'm done. I almost bailed within the first 15 minutes, but decide to stick it out.

I absolutely hated how the time-line jumped on all the place. Very poorly done.

This show is this year's "Flashforward", except the pilot wasn't any nearly as good. All style, no substance.

September 21, 2010 at 8:50AM EST Reply to Comment
Ok let me recap to see if I caught everything, with some random thoughts.

Jason Ritter was able to get onto the plane by posing as either a baggage handler or mechanic of some sort, as he stuffed his uniform into the garbage, so that's how he'd get a gun on board. The father somehow got pilot credentials (and I'm assuming is a real pilot). I'm curious to know why they would just outright kill his wife though.

The couple they meet on the cruise have got to be the kidnappers, right? The guy stayed behind with the convenient injury. I don't understand why Jason Ritter would run away from security though. Guilty people run.

Gotta be aliens of some sort, and I'm thinking the woman who was with the president created that wormhole to save them all.

I'm intrigued, I love a good mystery but, just like FlashForward, they better keep my interest or I'm out.
September 21, 2010 at 9:18AM EST Reply to Comment
- Pattie I can understand why he ran from security. His girlfriend is missing and he's got to find her. He doesn't want the same thing to happen to him. He's scared and confused. Not all runners are guilty, some are just terrified.
  September 21, 2010 at 12:43PM EST
- Chrissy There's also the fact that someone had the clout to erase him from the system and actually place another couple in his room, along with kidnapping his girlfriend, all in the time it took him to go snorkeling. I don't think I'd be very friendly to anyone who tried to take me into custody in a situation like that.
  
  I think the dad was already a pilot, and they killed his wife to prove they'd kill his daughters. Unless the daughter is some kind of secret agent, my guess is they were only targeted because the dad was a pilot for that airline.
  
  I didn't get the uniform thing, good catch.
  September 21, 2010 at 2:51PM EST
sjwoo

Lowered expectations = pleasant surprise. It was a fairly good pilot, and I'm intrigued, enough to read recaps but not to keep watching. Because it's gonna be aliens, which is just lame and disappointing.

I didn't mind the time jumps so much, but lord, why was there so much overlap? Like when Ritter's girlfriend's phone call is shown from the pov of the parents, they show so much of that beach scene with the same dialogue. I guess they expect the viewers to be uber-stupid.

I liked Jason Ritter a lot in Joan of Arcadia, and I like him here. But he's not gonna be enough to save the show.

- Sung
September 21, 2010 at 10:18AM EST Reply to Comment
Kevin Michaels

Forget about the fractured story-line or the disjointed flow and pace.....what really killed this were the commercials. 5 minutes of commercials from 9:35EST to 9:40 (finishing with "only 20 minutes until the premiere of CHASE"), then 3 - yes 3 minutes of the show, and then another 4 minutes of commercials. It was worse than watching the Larry King show.
Goodbye THE EVENT on NBC - hello DVR (if I feel the need to watch this again).
September 21, 2010 at 12:24PM EST Reply to Comment
delacourte

It's not as awful as I was expecting. I'm in for at least one more.Also ,I don't care if they're aliens or humans from another dimension as long as they aren't *cough* fairies.
September 21, 2010 at 1:03PM EST Reply to Comment
- Dezbot I would love it if Cosmo, Wanda, and Jorgen showed up.
  September 22, 2010 at 4:25PM EST
Gridlock

Tesla.
September 21, 2010 at 5:29PM EST Reply to Comment
The Noble Robot

I didn't want it to be, but it really seems like the second coming of FlashForward, all spooky plot with no actual significance. I was about to turn it off when I saw the magnificent Tony Todd (Star Trek's "Worf's brother Kurn") as a military adviser or Joint Chiefs Chairman or something.

So, I'll give it a few more episodes.
September 21, 2010 at 6:20PM EST Reply to Comment
tag8833

It felt like someone took 24, V, and Flashfoward and put them in a blender and this is what came out. The reek of 24 kept me from enjoying much of anything.

I'm tuning out.

September 21, 2010 at 6:48PM EST Reply to Comment
Joe

Maybe it was because I watched on Hulu and didn't have to sit through commercials, but I liked it a lot. I didn't mind the back-and-forth time stuff, and the end really caught me by surprise. It's not LOST, but it's exciting and intriguing. It's not going to go for the philosophy, themes, or attention to detail that LOST had; it's going to be more of an action-heavy, fast-paced supernatural/sci-fi conspiracy thriller. It won't be as brilliant as LOST, but it's probably less likely to dissolve into a mess. I could get behind this show.
September 21, 2010 at 10:09PM EST Reply to Comment
JCPFEE

Not sure about this. I think the 97 "hostages" are the passengers on the plane that survived whatever high-tech time-like curve wormhole was created to save the president. The plane went back in time and the gov-ment was waiting to snatch them up to keep the nature of the incident a secret. The bald guy obviously knows about everything going on. The woman from ER is the lead scientist and her staff are the ones that used the technology. No aliens.
September 22, 2010 at 9:44AM EST Reply to Comment
John

I liked the pilot of The Event. It was billed as a cross between Lost and 24, and while it's not nearly as good as either of those shows, I still enjoyed it, and I think it's a fairly apt comparison. I think it's unfair to compare it to Flashforward, as the writing and acting is much better than that disgrace. I do agree that the jumping back and forth with the flashbacks was unnecessary and confusing, but I think (hope) that was just for the pilot, and it will revert to a conventional structure for the ensuing episodes. At any rate, I'll watch at least a couple more episodes.
September 22, 2010 at 3:26PM EST Reply to Comment
Dezbot

I'll believe aliens faster than I'll believe a black man born in Cuba would be elected president of the U.S. :-D

Seriously, though, I am already invested in Jason Ritter's character (I think he is named Sean Walker?), so I'll keep watching to see what happens to him, at least until the show gets too stupid to bother with (a la FLASHFORWARD).
September 22, 2010 at 4:24PM EST Reply to Comment
Mark

No loving boyfriend would ever leave his soon to be fiance who was sick to go snorkeling with some random girl he just met. That's when the show lost me.
September 23, 2010 at 12:26AM EST Reply to Comment

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Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

'The Event' - 'Pilot': What. Is. It?

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'The Event' - 'Pilot': What. Is. It?

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Option 1

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Option 3

@ROBatGraveShift Yeah, I pretty much only give a damn about Jason Ritter

rowan729 Ugh. Giant ball of cheese. I now don't care what the event was or is, and I also don't care where that plane went. Ritter was pretty interesting, but not enough to keep me watching this show at all. Boo, NBC.

jenfullmoon Huh. I'd actually watch it if THAT was the plot.I suspect it is something far lamer, though.

KarenX One can always check out The 4400 for stories of missing people from all eras who mysteriously return all at once. Summer Glau plays Tess!

If I hear one more vague pronoun...ugh. I really hated this, until the last ten minutes or so when it started to pick up a bit. Then the end happened. And I was out again. The "mysterious" happening didn't pique my curiosity. It just made me angry.

Johnny About the font, that's the exact same question that popped into my head when I saw it.Don't really have time to do a side-by-side comparison, but I bet it's the same font.

Joey I missed Lost for months now. Looks like The Event will fill that hole in my heart. Thought Ritter Was great and likable and curious how Innes' character will flourish. I'm a big fan already and can't wait for next week.

debi I'll have to see something this amazing in the next few episodes for it to grab me and not let go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYfKHVdmjzQ

VisionOn The horrible fractured storytelling and over-excited editor made this more annoying than exciting to watch.

silvergirl I hope they're all wizards.

Jerry Jones The Event = crap sandwich.

Kujo This show is awful. I'm done. I almost bailed within the first 15 minutes, but decide to stick it out. I absolutely hated how the time-line jumped on all the place. Very poorly done.This show is this year's "Flashforward", except the pilot wasn't any nearly as good. All style, no substance.

Pattie I can understand why he ran from security. His girlfriend is missing and he's got to find her. He doesn't want the same thing to happen to him. He's scared and confused. Not all runners are guilty, some are just terrified.

delacourte It's not as awful as I was expecting. I'm in for at least one more.Also ,I don't care if they're aliens or humans from another dimension as long as they aren't *cough* fairies.

Dezbot I would love it if Cosmo, Wanda, and Jorgen showed up.

Gridlock Tesla.

tag8833 It felt like someone took 24, V, and Flashfoward and put them in a blender and this is what came out. The reek of 24 kept me from enjoying much of anything. I'm tuning out.

Mark No loving boyfriend would ever leave his soon to be fiance who was sick to go snorkeling with some random girl he just met. That's when the show lost me.

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@ROBatGraveShift

Yeah, I pretty much only give a damn about Jason Ritter

rowan729

Ugh. Giant ball of cheese. I now don't care what the event was or is, and I also don't care where that plane went. Ritter was pretty interesting, but not enough to keep me watching this show at all. Boo, NBC.

jenfullmoon Huh. I'd actually watch it if THAT was the plot.

I suspect it is something far lamer, though.

Johnny About the font, that's the exact same question that popped into my head when I saw it.

Don't really have time to do a side-by-side comparison, but I bet it's the same font.

Joey

I missed Lost for months now. Looks like The Event will fill that hole in my heart. Thought Ritter Was great and likable and curious how Innes' character will flourish. I'm a big fan already and can't wait for next week.

debi I'll have to see something this amazing in the next few episodes for it to grab me and not let go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYfKHVdmjzQ

VisionOn

The horrible fractured storytelling and over-excited editor made this more annoying than exciting to watch.

silvergirl

I hope they're all wizards.

Jerry Jones

The Event = crap sandwich.

delacourte

It's not as awful as I was expecting. I'm in for at least one more.Also ,I don't care if they're aliens or humans from another dimension as long as they aren't cough fairies.

Gridlock

Tesla.

tag8833

It felt like someone took 24, V, and Flashfoward and put them in a blender and this is what came out. The reek of 24 kept me from enjoying much of anything.

I'm tuning out.

Mark

No loving boyfriend would ever leave his soon to be fiance who was sick to go snorkeling with some random girl he just met. That's when the show lost me.

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