The Event Pilot Review 101

The Event moves at breakneck speed, hurtling through plot points and character introductions. It lingers only on Sean Walker's(Jason Ritter) romance. While a lot of the story in this pilot was revealed in just the three minute trailer released earlier this year, there were still plenty of surprises. The end of the pilot is definitely a WTF moment.

Jason Ritter looks sharp in this premiere episode, showing good range as the straight man, first in love and peaceful with Leila, then panicked, angry, and confused when things start to "go bad". Sarah Roemer plays his girlfriend, Leila, and is equally effective. The actor that really surprised me with a strong performance was Scott Patterson(Luke from Gilmore Girls) as Leila's father. This family is clearly the strength and the heart of the show. There appears to be a healthy bit of conspiracy and intrigue at the core of their story as well.

Awful.

However, the same cannot be said for Blair Underwood's portrayal of the President and Laura Innes as a mysterious prisoner. This storyline will try very hard to pique your interest, but fail to do so because of the complete lack of emotional connection to the characters. Virtually no character background is given to the viewer, in the name of creating "suspense". In reality, it was just frustrating and melodramatic. That being said, it could simply be something they'll immediately address in Episode Two. I hope so. Because enjoying half a show and ignoring the other half is a pretty difficult thing to do. Underwood is flat and gives a one note performance as the President, and Laura Innes is just awful as the most ominously mysterious character on the show. I desperately wanted a plane to smash her in the face. Who knows, maybe one will.

The first five minutes struck me as extremely herky jerky, yanking the viewer all over the world to several different locations with a number of different characters and quite a few different time frames. It was a little tricky at first to figure out when everything was taking place: today, eight days ago, eleven months ago? Eventually, though, I was able to figure it out and just ride this tidal wave of a plot. It sweeps you up pretty effectively, and the stakes are high enough to keep your adrenaline pumping for most of this episode.

Parts of the show were fantastic, even flawless. Other parts were cheesily acted, poorly written, and just plain stupid. I think it can be fixed, though, and the pilot took me on a pretty good ride with Jason Ritter that I'd like to go on again. I'll give it 2.5 out of 4 stars. Two characters effectively fleshed out in the pilot episode is kind of the bare minimum, and one of those two characters seems to have disappeared. I'm hopeful the writers and actors will give us better insight into the others next week. I think it's definitely worth trying, especially if you're looking for something that will hook you like "Lost" did. However, this show is not as strong or as successful as "Lost" was from the get-go. "Lost" immediately gave viewers the stakes. Failure meant starvation and death. The mystery that they kept expanding on was how difficult it was going to be to survive, and why. "The Event" doesn't have that. The only stake we have a slight grasp on is that Leia might be in danger, and maybe the President as well. I'm not sure those stakes are high enough to keep me coming back, but I will check back in next week. Will you?

If you're looking for more than one perspective on the show, you should check out Ken Tucker's TV blog, an always excellent resource for television reviews and recommendations. I appreciate his insight and his writing, so it's worth a look. Here's a link to his thoughts on "The Event" pilot.
Ken Tucker's TV Blog

"the Event" made all of them very constipated.