And why you should be watching...

US TV network NBC has given a full season order to The Event, along with fellow freshman series Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced.

Going by the first two episodes of The Event, what could have been ponderous actually proves to be a fast-paced, thrilling and suspenseful show.

There are a lot of flashbacks (and some viewers might ironically have flashbacks to FlashForward), but they’re fairly smoothly handled.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that we’re really supposed to keep track of exactly what day/time it is (going by the “eight hours earlier”, or whatever time, that keeps popping up onscreen), so that in the series finale it’s going to say “five days earlier” or something, and everybody who’s been keeping track will gasp in disbelief because they realise the true significance of it, so it’ll be like the best twist ever for them, but nobody else will know what’s going on. (When that happens, I’ll be able to say ‘I told you so!’, followed by ‘Remind me of the significance again…I got swept up in the story and kind of lost track…’)

Hopefully it won’t hold back too much by keeping everything shrouded in mysteriousness, but the first two episodes reveal enough about the story to maintain interest, suggesting that the mysteries will be steadily revealed as the series progresses. Similarly, the first two episodes introduce a couple of interesting sci-fi elements, though it remains unclear how much it’ll borrow from that genre. Hopefully lots. (Sci-fi. Lots of sci-fi.)

(The next paragraph contains mild spoilers.)

The Event has a likeable main character (Jason Ritter) thrown into a conspiracy that he’s desperately trying to make sense of, despite being framed and nobody believing him. This has obviously been done before, but it’s a good move by the makers of the show, as the audience can uncover elements of the mystery as he does, and his urgency to save his girlfriend drives the show, lending it a breakneck pace. In addition, Blair Underwood brings gravitas as the President, who’s also trying to figure out what’s going on, albeit in a more statesmanlike way.

We may have to wait a little while to find out what’s going on, but The Event looks to be a very enjoyable ride along the way. And a promising series not being cancelled straight away is always encouraging news.

Digital Spy

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