Monday, September 27, 2010

Where to Start...

Hmmm...

Undercovers: I wrote that Undercovers may all depend on the chemistry between the two main characters. Well I found their chemistry to be easy and familiar banter; so I guess I'm saying - I like the chemistry. It reminded me of Moonlighting for some reason – wow that's an old reference.

Other observations - didn't the Leo character look like a young Walton Goggins or was that just me? Doing a vascular scan to identify a person in an opposing building isn't possible. The opening title sequence for the show is weak - maybe they'll get a lot of bad comments and have to change it. And boy does Undercovers feel like Alias in it's mission scenes.

And then there was the Michael Giacchino music. Not surprising with JJ’s involvement. But wait, it isn't his music. I looked it up and can't believe it isn't his music. They fooled me! Toward the end of the episode during one of these musical swells, we get the dialogue "how did we end up here? I think we never left." Wow did I immediately read into that and think that reminded me of Lost. I’m channeling a little bit of Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen and feel like it was a message from the Lost creators. I know, I know...

But do I have two shows competing to be the new Lost? Undercovers and The Event.

The Event:
The show starts with a disadvantage in that it has to introduce us to so many new characters. There's time-shifting going on - we’re in the present, then we're in the past and the past timing is different for each character. But despite that, the intrigue, the drama, the adrenaline started to present itself for me. And thank goodness that we get some sort of conclusion at the end of the first episode. I'm grateful that the show decided to tell us early on what to expect. Now we know that this is going to be a supernatural show, that multiple storylines will be followed, and that we're not gonna get all the answers right away. The Event is at least trying to set expectations. And as Dr. Butler (one of the marketing professors I work with) always says “you have to set expectations.”

2 comments:

Lindle said...

Is it just me? Or have a lot of shows adopted this "13 hours earlier" whiplash-thingey going on? It's okay once in awhile, but it's gotten to the point where when a show opens mid-climax, or deep into a confusing point---I groan and start to say, "Okay...13 hours earlier..." And sure enough, I'm right. Now, The Event started us off in the most intense moment and back-storied us into a hissey-fit. I want this series to be good, so I want them to make the explanations more mysterious and riveting without wearing me out by the time they get there--or yawning my way to the "off button."

Mil said...

Shows do the mid-climax opening a lot lately, I agree. Medium's pretty bad about that, but then again that fits with the idea or premonitions and dreams. But people shouldn't abuse the going back in time thing too much.