PILOT REVIEW: The Event

THE EVENT

Starring: Jason Ritter, Sarah Roemer, Laura Innes, Ian Anthony Dale, Scott Patterson, Taylor Cole, Lisa Vidal, Bill Smitrovich, with Zeljko Ivanek, and Blair Underwood
Created by Nick Wauters
Written by Nick Wauters
Directed by Jeffrey Reiner

The Event is aiming to be TV's next big thing. With epic shows like Lost and 24 a thing of the past now, NBC has been hyping the show for the entire summer like no other. The story revolves around a still unknown event (as of the pilot) that has to do with the government and one man (Jason Ritter) who gets wrapped up in it while trying to find his girlfriend. The pilot shifts from one character's story to another and, within each character's story, generally goes back in time with each scene. Some of the main characters introduced in the pilot that all have intertwining storylines are Sean Walker (Ritter) and his girlfriend Leila (Sarah Roemer), a CIA operative (Ian Anthony Dale), Leila's father (Scott Patterson) who has a connection to the Event, Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes), who seems to be an important part of the Event, and President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood).

The Event had a great pilot, the biggest question is will it be able to sustain itself over a season or over a couple seasons. It needs to make sure it answers questions as it asks new ones and not fall into a trap where people just don't even care what The Event is anymore. The pilot is very well produced - the scenes from the facility in Alaska to the presidential retreat to St. Lucia are visually beautiful. At first, it seemed like the hopping back in time constantly would get confusing but it doesn't. It is an interesting way of telling the story but they need to be careful to not show too much repetition which they almost did in the pilot. It was probably necessary in the pilot to start to put the story together but it can't keep happening. The acting is strong. Jason Ritter is a strong lead character and Blair Underwood is a standout as the President in the limited scenes we saw him. Other characters including Leila and her father both seem to have promising future stories and the mystery of Sophia is also intriguing.

Altogether, the pilot was very good. It lived up to expectations and exceeded the nondescript advertisements NBC has been running all summer. It's a hard show to summarize and review due to the intricate part but so far it hasn't gotten too complicated or confusing which was a common complaint in the later era of Lost. The Event needs to prove that it can be captivating and mysterious but not frustrating on a week-to-week basis but it is off to a good start. Let's hope the writers and directors have some significant foresight to the direction they want the show to take. It made me want to come back for more.