When “Lost” premiered in 2004, it wasn’t a show about good versus evil. It wasn’t a show about faith versus science. It was a show about survivors from a plane crash who were stranded on an island with a mysterious creature. As the show progressed, it meticulously added new mysteries and twists during each of its six seasons. NBC’s “The Event” tries to recapture the excitement of “Lost” but fails to capture the latter show’s ability to build a strong and compelling story.
While “Lost” was about survivors dealing with the mysteries that surround them, “The Event” is about strange occurrences that affect its characters.
Jason Ritter plays Sean Walker, a young man who is seen in flashbacks planning to propose to his girlfriend on a cruise. Before they head off on the trip, Walker receives her father’s permission for the engagement. However, when the time comes for the proposal, Walker and his girlfriend are interrupted by screams from a man whose girlfriend is drowning in the nearby water.
Eventually, Walker saves the girl and the two couples become friends. Walker goes on a day trip with the girl he rescued but when he returns to the cruise, he no longer shows up in the cruise’s directory. His girlfriend and he are mysteriously missing from the ship’s records.
Days after that trip occurs, Walker is seen bringing a gun onto a plane and trying to get into the pilot’s cabin. The audience doesn’t know the specifics of how Walker found himself in this new situation. That, of course, is part of the mystery of the show.
Unfortunately, that brief plot synopsis only covers the main narrative. “The Event” has only aired one hour-long episode but it crammed three hours of television into it. In addition to the Walker storyline, the premiere also features a U.S. president who is planning to close down a mysterious facility that has over ninety prisoners. It also shows the president’s first visit to the facility and his friendship with one of its prisoners. “The Event” also! features a last-minute assassination attempt on the president.
All of this happened in one hour. If the writers of this show wrote “24” (a well-done thriller), they would have gone through the first 24 hours in sixty jam-packed minutes.
In S.T. Karnick’s Big Hollywood review, he mentions the lack of character development. It is true that a lot of bland characters are introduced in the first episode. As Karnick points out, there’s no “emotional effect” when these characters are put into danger. I completely agree but that wasn’t my biggest issue,
The biggest flaw is its lack of focus. Instead of introducing one mystery, the pilot episode introduces numerous mysterious. It jumps from scene to scene and from one flashback to another without pausing for the audience to catch its breath. It wants to jam pack the show with twists and turns but none of them are particularly interesting or effective.
Judging from the flashbacks and the science fiction aspects, as well as the number of mysteries, this program is desperately trying to be the next “Lost.” However, “Lost” was meticulous in setting up its mysteries and its story. New mysteries arrived nearly every week on the island but the show didn’t rush forward to create them. It slowly revealed new questions and got viewers interested in knowing the answers. “The Event” tries too hard to capture that show’s success and ultimately disappoints.
Jason Ritter does a solid job in the main role on the show but he can not overcome the show’s many flaws. Ritter has done some good work in shows like “Joan of Arcadia” and “Parenthood” but “The Event” doesn’t do him any favors.
“The Event” may be confused but it is no “Lost.”
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