Take Three: The Event

The Event: Season 1, Episode 3 “Protect Them from the Truth” (C-)

What does this show have? An interesting overarching story. What does it not have? Any idea of how to tell it in a compelling fashion. The fact that almost an entire episode was spent following Sean as he tried to convince the world’s stupidest cop to trust him and Leila being transported bound and gagged in the back of a van is just foolish. I absolutely abhor any unnecessary use of flashbacks, and therefore the way that Agent Collier realized that Jason was in the building infuriated me. Long shots of the trunk are also not needed – Sean is dumb, and there’s no reason to make him out as anything but that even if he’s trying to help save the world (or something like that). The revelation that Vicky has a whole host of identities could have been accomplished in two minutes, and we’d be up to the events of season two by this point. The fact that Vicky is evil is uninteresting and obvious, and some interrogation or torture of Leila would have been far more informative. The murder of a defector is somewhat intriguing, though actors Omid Abtahi (“Sleeper Cell”) and Clea DuVall (“Carnivale”) were completely wasted. Having all the dead passengers from the plane wake up at the end was decently cool, and basically the only reason to keep watching this show. It wasn’t wholly surprising, considering Scott Paterson was a credited series regular, but should certainly (I take that back – hopefully) prove interesting in the coming episodes.