Many questions and no sign of answers.
Ever since 24
A new president learns of a hidden military detention centre in Alaska and moves to close it, however others in government warn against the release of the prisoners. The president’s determination to put things right against the wishes of his advisors leads to the kidnapping of a pilot’s daughter. As the show reaches a climax the pilot aims a plane at presidents retreat, presumably to get his daughter released, in the final moment The Event (or An Event) happens and all the past talk of mystery suddenly gets a lot more interesting.
As I said originally, audiences are very wary about shows like this that offer more questions than answers and in this pilot we get nothing but questions. Sometimes it can be really infuriating when characters manage talk around important subjects just to keep the audience in the dark. The episode is liberal in it’s use of flashbacks and flash forwards, it is a trick, keeping the plot moving at break neck speed so as not to linger around long enough to answer any questions. Because there is so little solid information given in the pilot there is little to write here, sure we are introduced to an ensemble cast of characters, but we don’t stick around long enough to really get to know any of them. We get a sense of their outer desires, but don’t don’t any sense of their flaws that they need to correct.
Some parts are a little ridiculous like the agent who tries to chase down the plane suspecting a terrorist on board, apparently it is quite easy just to drive out onto the runway. This however is no where near as crazy as later in the episode when the same agent is still chasing after plane even as it is flying towards its destination. I am guessing questions surrounding this supersonic car will never be answered.
The Event is living on borrowed time, the second episode has to provide some solid answers or it will start to haemorrhage viewers very quickly. This seems like a show that would have benefited from a double length pilot episode, it worked well for Lost and new series of 24.
Created / Written by: Nick Wauters
Directed by: Jeffrey Reiner
Starring: Jason Ritter, Sarah Roemer, Laura Innes, Ian Anthony Dale, Scott Patterson, Clifton Collins, Jr., Taylor Cole, Lisa Vidal, Bill Smitrovich, Željko Ivanek, Blair Underwood
Date premièred: 20th September 2010
UK Details: October 2010 – Channel 4
has left a hole that many want to fill. They think the trick is to hook an audience in with a big mystery with the promise that if they just keep watching all the answers will be revealed. Persons Unknown comes from the fine writing pedigree that brought us 
, an interesting study on character and how the individual’s unique skills benefit the group. This is not however where Persons Unknown is heading.
hit the small screen in 2001 it ushered in a new era of big budget television shows with huge scope and story arcs. With the exception of 
, many of these shows crumbled quickly under the weight of their big budgets and diminishing audience figures. Shows like 
limped into a second season, while 
struggled to reach a season climax, 
came out and hit hard at Comic-Con, they showed clips from the pilot, took questions from the audience and gave away a few tantalising details. Positive word of mouth helped the show deliver a strong debut both in America and the UK.
of the same name by Robert J. Sawyer, but the differences are obvious – in the book the flash forward is 21 years and the lead character is a particle physicist. Most likely the writers have taken the idea of the book and run off in a new direction (like how 
changed everything from the 
by Richard Matheson). As usual the pilot is all about setting the scene and introducing us to the characters.
we were given 2 things, “save the cheerleader, save the world” which served as the series midpoint and the bomb in the city which was season finale. In FlashForward we are given a date in April and the show producers have confirmed that the season finale will air on that date. Having a direction and an end point really helps focus the audience on a goal, this is an ongoing problem is Lost, you really have no idea where it is going.
