S01.E01: Pilot

[DanaK]

Quote

"PILOT"

09/28/2021 (09:00PM - 10:00PM) (Tuesday)

An epic adventure begins when a massive sinkhole opens in the middle of Los Angeles, pulling hundreds of people and buildings into its depths. Those who fell in find themselves in a mysterious and dangerous primeval land, where they have no choice but to band together to survive.

 

[theredhead77]

This show is my jam and I am here for it! I was captivated and loved every minute of it. This means it will probably be cancelled in 3 weeks though.

[KaveDweller]

3 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

This show is my jam and I am here for it! I was captivated and loved every minute of it. This means it will probably be cancelled in 3 weeks though.

I loved it too, I really hope it doesn't get cancelled in 3 weeks, but I don't tend to have a good track record for hits. I like that it isn't just the group of people stranded, we are seeing the government fallout up above. It seemed to be a good group of people stranded, no one made me hate them yet. 

One complaint...Eve recognized they were in LA because the mountains looked like the Hollywood Hills logo. But, if they are thousands/millions of years back in time as has been suggested, wouldn't the mountains look different? Erosion and earthquakes and all that would probably make a difference.

[WritinMan]

I like it when a show wastes no time getting to the story. This was really funny.

It's a comedy, right?

[theredhead77]

1 minute ago, KaveDweller said:

But, if they are thousands/millions of years back in time as has been suggested, wouldn't the mountains look different? Erosion and earthquakes and all that would probably make a difference

Probably, but I'll hand wave that away with a "alternate reality, same point in time" theory that I have nothing to base it on. 

[KaveDweller]

2 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

Probably, but I'll hand wave that away with a "alternate reality, same point in time" theory that I have nothing to base it on. 

The husband finding the lost ring/necklace looking like it had been in the ground for ages suggests it isn't an alternate reality. But sci-fi shows can make up their own rules/logic, I guess.

[MsVixen]

Okay, I watched this because I like this type of show.  However, NBC doesn't have a good track record with keeping shows like this.  "Manifest" gone after 3 years just when we getting some serious answers (it's now on NetFlix which I don't have);  "Debris" gone after 13 episodes and I was SOOOOO into it!  I mean you have an actor named Scrobius Pip in it;  how can you not watch a show like that!!!

Anyway, I will be watching this, at least, because the Mother is not some weakling and I have a soft spot for John Seda (?).

[North of Eden]

Not bad. I enjoyed it but first a riff on the old saying "Let the buyer beware". In this case its let the viewer beware. This is a genre show on NETWORK television with a storied  history of pulling shows after one maybe two seasons at the most....usually with a huge cliffhanger and so never a resolution. The examples are legion V-The Series, Blackout, The Event, Surface. Something like LA BRAE should be a limited series where we are guaranteed a beginning-middle and and and end.

Anyway on with the show. Usually the pilot blows a lot of the show's budget and can't maintain the effects through the season so I hope that doesn't happen here.

Natalie Zea! I guess THE DETOUR has been cancelled. Classic show in its first season then went of the rails.

Name checking LOST...I did appreciate that speaking of which:

I hope we don't get a lot of flashbacks to life before the sinkhole. I don't want whole episodes explaining the tragic backstory of the guy with the gun for example. During LOST I was only interested in the Island action and didn't give a flip about Locke having a bad father.

Also I hope the background redshirts make out better than the rest of the Oceanic passengers extras eventually made out by the series end.

Riley, Stoner & Kid triangle? Groundwork seems to be there. Please let the stoner be stomped by a woolly mamoth. He's very annoying.

Was hoping for an unexpected twist like the navy seal surgeon you expect to be a big hero dying in the pilot but no...

Only thing I really didn't care for was the father's psyhic connection as I don't like watching mentally unstable characters.

So it looks like displaced in time...not far enough back to get dinosaurs but sabertooth tigers and cave man who is probably  a red herring having been from our time but stranded their long ago.

Anyway I'm in for now. Hopefully it doesn't get cancelled mid season because we all know networks do that too!

Edited September 29, 2021 by North of Eden

[Paloma]

Thank goodness I don't like the taste of alcohol, because if there was a drinking game based on every time someone urgently said "Look at me!" while grabbing the other person by the face or shoulders, I would have been passed out halfway through. 

It is an interesting premise, though I'm doubtful that the writers can follow through. Some of the special effects were good, but the CGI wild beasts were pretty bad--it would have been better to suggest them with sounds and partial glimpses than showing them full on. 

I'm waiting to see how long the lead actress (I think the character's name is Eve) maintains her perfect hair and makeup in this world--probably for the entire series. But seriously, I would like to see a realistic story of how a group of survivors of a disaster deal with the lack of supplies and services that they normally take for granted. 

[North of Eden]

19 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

I like it when a show wastes no time getting to the story. This was really funny.

It's a comedy, right?

I tell you what...I did have to laugh at this...exchange. That was pure gold

EVE: Remember the time you broke your arm in fourth grade?

KID: This is worse.

[theredhead77]

20 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

The husband finding the lost ring/necklace looking like it had been in the ground for ages suggests it isn't an alternate reality. But sci-fi shows can make up their own rules/logic, I guess.

True. It's like some sort of upside down reality (not to be confused with The Upsidedown in Stranger Things).

I'd also be 100% ok with Sleestacks turning up. It has some Land of the Lost vibes. 

[willco]

Well, I liked it but I figured, unless it was just really terrible, that I would. I loved Lost ( my favorite show ever, critics be damned !) and also shows like The Event, Flash Forward, and I even liked Revolution until it got really crazy toward the end. 

 

The government people are shady as hell and they ( of course ) know a lot more about what is happening than they are telling the public. I hope the writers don't go with " the hidden world is the result of government testing/ creation " or something like that, because that would be pretty dumb.

 

I hope the people find a few  fully stocked armored cars down there because there seems to be a lot of vicious predators around. I don't care what quantity of antibiotics they have, if one of the sabertoothed tigers bites you, you're toast !

[Lady Calypso]

So, I gave this a shot. Against my better judgement, because I know NBC Mystery/Sci-Fi shows don't tend to do well, or last long.

And this one? Well... I will say, even when I just read the premise, I kept comparing it to shows from other networks that were one-and-dones (The Whispers, The Crossing, hell, even Terra Nova) just because this show sounds so much like those ones. Yes, they have completely different plots. But they all had interesting premises that failed quite quickly. This show, I had expected to do the same, and with this pilot...yeah, pretty much what I expected. An interesting premise but with a lot of fails in the pilot alone. 

This show would benefit from being strictly a limited series. Trying to pretend that it'll stretch into several seasons is ambitious, at best, and naive, at worst. 

Look, this pilot was...not great. Within the first TWO minutes, before we know much about the lead family we're supposed to follow, besides the daughter being an amputee and the son being clearly 25 and not 18 like they're acting like he is, the action already hits us, full force. And then we have a Psychic Dad who is already annoying me, a love interest for Adult-Teen Son who is already dying but not actually dying, since he's a main character, and the skeptical...what, girlfriend of dad or therapist or whatever? Not to mention Dr. Chicago PD who is possibly going to get entangled with the lead mom actress if the British Guy doesn't, while his daughter gets entangled with her son while fighting with her...what, boyfriend? Ex boyfriend now that he left her to literally fend off the wolves? Or whatever prehistoric creatures they were. 

It's so easy to predict certain things, which is NOT a good thing. Almost all the main characters will have plot armour, besides a couple here and there, who will heroically give up their lives by the end of the season, or some time before that, while the Lead Family, Love Interest of Adult-Teen Son (though not her dad; he's the most likely to be the series finale casualty), and possibly British Guy. Cop Lady is likely a goner, Stoner Dude is an easy sacrifice, and background characters will probably be sacrificed too across the season to prove that this show "is not like any other because people are gonna die! Just not 95% of the main cast!".

However, because I've come in with my expectations pretty much non-existent and accepting that this is a one season series, I MIGHT be along for the ride, just to hate-snark on it. Since I have a good idea of what's going to happen, if they surprise me in a good way, that's a win. We'll see how long I last because I almost shut it off at least three different times while watching.

[Bulldog]

I'm somewhat surprised by the reactions.  I thought this was bad on soooo many levels.  Bad writing.  Bad acting.  Terrible CGI.   This type of show is normally right up my alley, but when you have characters make direct reference to other, much better shows, you know you're in trouble.  I may give it one more episode just to see if it improves.  I'm guessing the chances of that happening are slim. 

[EllaWycliffe]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

One complaint...Eve recognized they were in LA because the mountains looked like the Hollywood Hills logo. But, if they are thousands/millions of years back in time as has been suggested, wouldn't the mountains look different? Erosion and earthquakes and all that would probably make a difference.

So the science here is completely ridiculous but....

The La Brea tar pits are filled with animals from the Pleistocene epoch, so not really that long ago geologically speaking. There were mammoths, and dire wolves and sabertooth tigers. Geologically speaking it was about a half hour ago compared to when the dinosaurs were around.  So yeah, the mountains would probably look the same if they went back to that era. 

[patty1h]

I'm watching for the LOL's, but if they start flashbacks of the characters lives pre-sinkhole, I'm bailing ASAP.  I had enough of that crap with Lost.

[TimWil]

Natalie Zea and the main regulars are OK but damn, the ones playing the government officials/officers/whatever are TERRIBLE, beginning in the very first scene with the female government official interviewing Hero Dad. This is shot in Australia, right? Because starting with her I’m already noticing some very dodgy American accents in this one. And when you have not-the-greatest actors struggling to do an American accent that’s when the acting is super bad. Watch that first scene again. That actress looks terrified to be there. I do remember her being dang purty on one of them Aussie soaps I used to watch in the UK, though.

And yeah, I’m on the team that thinks this should just be a miniseries. High concept shows like this just crash and burn way too often.

[shapeshifter]

I had no idea this show existed. Just saw “Pilot” on the schedule and tuned in.

Natalie Zea was in Zoo, right? The wolfy and saber-toothed beasts looked like the same Zoo CGI recycled. 

 

10 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Only thing I really didn't care for was the father's psyhic connection as I don't like watching mentally unstable characters.

I think there's a fairly good chance that Psychic Dad will turn out to be the most mentally stable of the bunch.

Thanks, downthread posters who named the show this one feels like a descendant of: Terra Nova   
And Falling Skies too. 
But the crack of light in the sky is completely ripped from Doctor Who.

Edited September 29, 2021 by shapeshifter

[LittleIggy]

2 hours ago, MsVixen said:

Okay, I watched this because I like this type of show.  However, NBC doesn't have a good track record with keeping shows like this.  "Manifest" gone after 3 years just when we getting some serious answers (it's now on NetFlix which I don't have);  "Debris" gone after 13 episodes and I was SOOOOO into it!  I mean you have an actor named Scrobius Pip in it;  how can you not watch a show like that!!!

Anyway, I will be watching this, at least, because the Mother is not some weakling and I have a soft spot for John Seda (?).

I love this kind of show too. Yeah, NBC doesn’t have a good track record with high concept shows post Quantum Leap. Surface, Timeless, Reverie, Awake…

Happy to see TJ from Nightshift again and Jon Seda. 

[HerkyJerky]

1 hour ago, Lady Calypso said:

I kept comparing it to shows from other networks that were one-and-dones (The Whispers, The Crossing, hell, even Terra Nova)

I LOVED Terra Nova! (As a matter of fact, I'm rewatching the whole series again on IMDB TV...)

[ottoDbusdriver]

When I saw that glowing strip at the bottom of the hole I was kind of hoping that Kaijus from 'Pacific Rim' were going to come out.
But instead we get giant prehistoric birds.  We'll call that a push.

At that DHS press conference, not a single person asked about the flock of giant birds -- seriously, no one ?

Why weren't there more injuries ?  If they all fell from that Northern Lights-looking glowing strip in the sky they should all be dead.

Did I mishear when they said the hole was 20,000 feet deep ?  Seriously, over 20,000 feet deep -- that is ridiculous.

How come that drone never came through the rip in spacetime/glowing strip and landed with all the other debris  ?

Looks like they borrowed the same wolf CGI used by the TV show 'Zoo' -- maybe those wolves have the "defiant pupil" too.  :)

And the mandatory ever so convenient Psychic Dad who has a connection with this other world.  Sure, yeah, right.

[giovannif7]

1 hour ago, North of Eden said:

(snip)

Was hoping for an unexpected twist like the navy seal surgeon you expect to be a big hero dying in the pilot but no...))_)

(snip)

It's been done. 5 years ago on the TBS sitcom take on Lost called Wrecked. 3/4 of the way through the pilot (titled "All Is Not Lost"), the big hot handsome British intelligence officer that was set up as the hero was taken out when the plane's nosecone fell out of a tree and flattened him.

I had a good time with the La Brea pilot - I'm not interested in dissecting it or nit-picking the details, inconsistencies and impossibilities of a show like this. It'll be a fun cheesy distraction for as long as it lasts, and I'm along for the ride.

[Whodunnit]

A quick Google search informed me that the La Brea Tar Pit started ensnaring fauna 38,000 years ago. Since there is no visible tar pit, I'm guessing that where they have landed is 38,000+ years ago.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Whodunnit
Clarification

[Iguana]

This show is….just not good.  The acting is shakey.  The characters are caricatures. The dialogue is not what actual people talk like. The plot holes appear to be as big as the sinkhole. And the FX are really, really bad, especially the wolves. The most frightening thing about them was how truly terrible the CGI was.  But it’s totally my jam. 
 

So of course I’m in for the duration. I will watch the hell out of this show until it’s inevitable cancellation after 6 episodes. 

[paulvdb]

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

How come that drone never came through the rip in spacetime/glowing strip and landed with all the other debris  ?

It did, but must have happened off-screen. The psychic dad saw it in one of his visions and mentioned its serial number to the woman in charge of the government conspiracy.

[Gregg247]

Character: "I don't know.  Maybe we're trapped in an episode of 'Lost' or something."

Me: "You should be so lucky!"

I enjoy sci-fi shows with weird premises and oddball scenarios, so I was really looking forward to "La Brea".  The first few minutes were really exciting! 

Unfortunately, about halfway through, it dawned on me that the writers had created only one single character in this show, and that character was being played by all the actors.  Every single person in this show is written exactly the same: independent, brash, take-charge, over-educated, opinionated, convinced they're right, arrogant, and supremely over-confident (but that confidence is hiding "An Imperfection" - or maybe "A Critical Imperfection").  Sure, all the characters look different; they check the differing age/gender/ethnicity boxes perfectly; yet, they all react, talk, and think exactly the same.

The source of conflict among each of these people is that they keep bumping into each other because they "know" that they're right and everyone else is wrong.  Any problem this group of survivors will have won't be because they all have different perspectives on how to solve the problem based on their individual life experiences, or from their unique ideas, feelings, sense of logic, or basic common sense; it'll be because they're all supremely confident that they and they alone have THE ANSWER to the problem and everyone else must listen to them, no matter what.

In regard to "A Critical Imperfection", I imagine the writers have a big whiteboard on the wall with the characters' names on one side and a list of personality flaws  (sense of abandonment, scared of death, guilt, jealousy, alcohol, drugs, ego, sexual repression, etc.) and they just randomly paired each character with one of these imperfections, and voila!, a full season worth of episodes.  Just throw in some bad CGI effects and raise some interesting questions that never actually go anywhere, and you have a show!

Prediction: The phrase "YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!" will be yelled constantly throughout the season - by basically everyone.

[AnimeMania]

I am not enjoying the emotional parts of the show, everybody's life is so full of drama, Mama Eve just moved to LA and she can barely keep her job because she is so worried that her kids won't make it to school on time. Yet, she just moved into a 4 million dollar house in the Hills. Everyone has a big emotional scene, like they are all trying to win an Emmy.

What does it say about me that my favorite scene was when Eve's son gets body checked into the car and trampled after not moving fast enough. I was surprised that it wasn't by the mother and little girl he had just saved. "Thanks for the assist, sucker!, I'm outie."

They can't kill stoner dude, he works at the La Brea Tar Pits and is the only one who knows the real names and the behaviors of all the creatures they will encounter. Who is going to say "Oh My God! That is a Megatherium (giant ground sloth)" instead of "Watch out for that enormous elephant sized gopher looking thing?".

Is it just me that can't believe that an entire American city falls down a hole and the people are having trouble finding food. The ground should be littered with bags of Doritos and Big Macs. Where did the skyscrapers land? They have to search for miles to find some wreckage? Why not try to drive the ambulance or other cars, are they that wrecked? They still have gasoline and batteries that are useful. Too bad they didn't get any scientists, even Gilligan's Island had a scientist, he didn't have a name, but he had science! 

I am not sure why the topside Dad didn't just tell the investigators how he knew what he knew, he finally got his audience and he starts withholding information and he expects to still be believed.

It is good to know that the people who lose their glasses during a crisis will be totally useless.

I am mean, if I was Eve, I would have run around that car and the wolf would have to walk past that delicious, freshly (dead?), bloody guy in the car to get to me.

3 minutes ago, Gregg247 said:

Prediction: The phrase "YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!" will be yelled constantly throughout the season - by basically everyone.

That is because you are looking at the first "cavemen" they haven't quite evolved into "sheeple" just yet.

[Whimsy]

I have to admit I came into this show literally thinking they all fell directly into the sinkhole and all of the animals and such were somehow alive all this time under current day LA.  So, because that was my assumption and I wasn't paying 100% attention, it took me WAY too long to realize that was a tear in the space-time continuum (or some other time travel words that I don't really remember, heh).  So, once I realized it was a totally different TIME, then I was enjoying it more.  I was too confused how there was so much sunlight, etc, while so far down inside a hole. 

 

9 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Natalie Zea! I guess THE DETOUR has been cancelled. Classic show in its first season then went of the rails.

Only thing I really didn't care for was the father's psyhic connection as I don't like watching mentally unstable characters.

So it looks like displaced in time...not far enough back to get dinosaurs but sabertooth tigers and cave man who is probably  a red herring having been from our time but stranded their long ago.

I also loved the first season of The Detour.  I stuck it out to the end just hoping for a glimmer of it's first season, but alas it was not so. 

I was very annoyed by the father's psychic connection at first but that was during the parts I thought they were literally below LA (see above).  Once I realized they travelled in time, I figured the dad had some sort of interaction with the rift (didn't they state there was another one somewhere?  I forget now).  So, I think it'll tie in with the government and it won't just be some random thing. 

9 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Look, this pilot was...not great. Within the first TWO minutes, before we know much about the lead family we're supposed to follow, besides the daughter being an amputee and the son being clearly 25 and not 18 like they're acting like he is, the action already hits us, full force. And then we have a Psychic Dad who is already annoying me, a love interest for Adult-Teen Son who is already dying but not actually dying, since he's a main character, and the skeptical...what, girlfriend of dad or therapist or whatever? Not to mention Dr. Chicago PD who is possibly going to get entangled with the lead mom actress if the British Guy doesn't, while his daughter gets entangled with her son while fighting with her...what, boyfriend? Ex boyfriend now that he left her to literally fend off the wolves? Or whatever prehistoric creatures they were. 

They all (besides the family members) just met that day.  She didn't know stoner-boy prior to this.  He's just a bit too eager.  

7 hours ago, TimWil said:

Natalie Zea and the main regulars are OK but damn, the ones playing the government officials/officers/whatever are TERRIBLE, beginning in the very first scene with the female government official interviewing Hero Dad. This is shot in Australia, right? Because starting with her I’m already noticing some very dodgy American accents in this one. And when you have not-the-greatest actors struggling to do an American accent that’s when the acting is super bad. Watch that first scene again. That actress looks terrified to be there. I do remember her being dang purty on one of them Aussie soaps I used to watch in the UK, though.

And yeah, I’m on the team that thinks this should just be a miniseries. High concept shows like this just crash and burn way too often.

I also thought those government people were terrible at acting.  Maybe they're meant to be weird and stiff to make it even more obvious that government officials = bad? 

7 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Why weren't there more injuries ?  If they all fell from that Northern Lights-looking glowing strip in the sky they should all be dead.
 

I'm pretty sure they didn't really fall down.  They went THROUGH, rather than down.  

7 hours ago, giovannif7 said:

It's been done. 5 years ago on the TBS sitcom take on Lost called Wrecked. 3/4 of the way through the pilot (titled "All Is Not Lost"), the big hot handsome British intelligence officer that was set up as the hero was taken out when the plane's nosecone fell out of a tree and flattened him.

I had a good time with the La Brea pilot - I'm not interested in dissecting it or nit-picking the details, inconsistencies and impossibilities of a show like this. It'll be a fun cheesy distraction for as long as it lasts, and I'm along for the ride.

OMG I loved Wrecked!  Like The Detour, it got crazier and crazier as the seasons went on but I stuck that one out too.  

I also agree that I eventually just came to enjoy the ride.  I do like watching some shows where I can literally just shut off my brain and let their world have their own rules and be ok with it.  Once I realized what actually happened, I was able to relax and just watch without nitpicking as much.

3 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I am not sure why the topside Dad didn't just tell the investigators how he knew what he knew, he finally got his audience and he starts withholding information and he expects to still be believed.

They either would've thought he was just insane and not helped him (which, they didn't anyway, but he was hoping they would) or they would realize their evil government experiment affected him and snatch him up to either hide him away or do research on him.  I don't blame him for not saying. 

[shapeshifter]

44 minutes ago, Whimsy said:

8 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Why weren't there more injuries ?  If they all fell from that Northern Lights-looking glowing strip in the sky they should all be dead.

I'm pretty sure they didn't really fall down.  They went THROUGH, rather than down.  

Were the wrecked vehicles’ damages solely from colliding while getting sucked into the wormhole?
Or maybe the show has a sci-fi rule for plot purposes that materials not in existence 38,000 (or whenever) years ago tend to decompose? Like the wedding ring?
If so, maybe a Good Government Scientist was exploring ways to recycle, which led to the Giant Sucking Wormhole.  
And those in the sinkhole wearing polyester might want to locate cotton canvas tarps etc. to fashion ponchos from   
—which could start a fan cosplay fashion trend   
—assuming the show manages to even air the already produced episodes.

This could also explain why they wrote in the guy who was legally blind without his glasses.  
After my moderately successful cataract surgery I used to remark that at least I would be able to see after the apocalypse. My severely nearsighted boss joked that I would have to lead her around. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by shapeshifter

[Tachi Rocinante]

Wow.  So much schlock to unpack here.

• The sinkhole-opening CGI was OK, but apparently they blew their whole budget on that.  Some of the closeups were 70s-TV bad.  Also, shouldn't there be a lot of visible underground pipes and cabling and whatnot?
• Natalie Zea is not compelling as a lead.  She never has been.
• Never seen him in anything else, but Eoin Macken (Dad) is not good.
• Jon Seda is an ex-SEAL and a doctor.  That's convenient.
• Teen angst! A trunkful of heroin! Asshole cop! Shady government types!
• Name-checking Lost was funny.  Hopefully these showrunners won't be pissed if everyone figures it out right away.

[DavidWeis1]

Is the bad cop on this show still looking to arrest Marty Deeks?  Because that would be cool if we could do a crossover episode.

Edited September 29, 2021 by DavidWeis1

[Tom Holmberg]

9 hours ago, Bulldog said:

I'm somewhat surprised by the reactions.  I thought this was bad on soooo many levels.  Bad writing.  Bad acting.  Terrible CGI.   This type of show is normally right up my alley, but when you have characters make direct reference to other, much better shows, you know you're in trouble.  I may give it one more episode just to see if it improves.  I'm guessing the chances of that happening are slim. 

The CGI animals were really bad.  The subplot about the father having had dreams of the place before the event seems both a bad plot device and not really necessary.  I might try episode 2, though.

[theredhead77]

13 hours ago, theredhead77 said:

True. It's like some sort of upside down reality (not to be confused with The Upsidedown in Stranger Things).

I'd also be 100% ok with Sleestacks turning up. It has some Land of the Lost vibes. 

Apparently I did not have an original thought here. I was reading the La Brea thread on Reddit and they also thought it had Land of the Lost vibes.

Please let this be a low-key LotL remake! Please, please please!

-----

I must have really low expectations for a network TV show. I thought the CGI was fine, the acting was fine, the writing was fine, and the premise , is AWESOME! But as you can see from my trying to will a LotL type show into existence, I don't have the best taste. I loved Terra Nova, The 4400 (you can miss me with that reboot, though), Debris, Revolution, and Jericho. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by theredhead77
spelling

[craziness]

I'd like to know why Eve, the guy with the gun, and the ambulance all landed so far from all the other people/debris.  And what else landed far away that will be hella useful when they need it.  Also, if we have an Eve, will we have an Adam?????

[shapeshifter]

3 minutes ago, craziness said:

I'd like to know why Eve, the guy with the gun, and the ambulance all landed so far from all the other people/debris.  And what else landed far away that will be hella useful when they need it.  Also, if we have an Eve, will we have an Adam?????

It seemed to me that at least the Guy With The Gun had already been there awhile. 
--maybe kind of like the CW's The 100? (only watched the first season)

[tv echo]

Eh - I'm not impressed so far. But I'll keep watching for now...

Too much of the pilot reminded me of too many other shows. The most obvious example is Lost ("where are we?", the close-up shot of the eye opening on the main character, the gathering of strangers around the wreckage, the plume of smoke arising over the distant trees). Also, making an explicit reference to Lost ("It's like we're in an episode of Lost.") doesn't excuse the copying inspiration. 

Too many tropes, like the shady government conspiracy, the inevitable love triangle(s), the crazy guy, etc.

The lead actors who played the main characters didn't stand out for me, esp. Eve and Gavin. Also, they didn't seem old enough to have children who looked as old as Izzy and Josh.

Oh, come on, Sam is both a doctor and a former SEAL? Just the go-to guy you want to have by your side when you're lost in a strange primeval land. (As someone else posted above, that's awfully convenient.)

Gavin having the visions is just something else that will have to be explained in the future, probably in an unsatisfying way.

The problem with shows that have mysterious, fantastical premises, like Lost, Debris, Under the Dome, Manifest and La Brea, is that, at some point, you have to provide a reason for the fantastical premise and solve the mystery - and usually that reason turns out to be a big letdown.

ETA: The jagged glowing gash in the sky reminded me of Doctor Who.

Edited September 29, 2021 by tv echo

[Paloma]

11 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

And then we have a Psychic Dad who is already annoying me, a love interest for Adult-Teen Son who is already dying but not actually dying, since he's a main character, and the skeptical...what, girlfriend of dad or therapist or whatever?

If you are talking about the woman who was with the dad and his daughter when they went back to the home of the mom and kids, I think she was the dad's sister. I'm pretty sure the daughter called her Aunt whatever (I can't remember most of the character names, if we've even been told what they are). Also, I think Aunt whatever said something about the visions that suggested he (or maybe both of them) had always had them and there was some validity to them--but don't ask me what exactly she said that gave me that idea. (Maybe I can find a recap that mentions it.) And was the actress playing this woman Ione Skye? I saw her name in the credits and was trying to see if anyone looked like John Cusack's girlfriend grown up, and this was the only one that seemed to fit that.

11 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

However, because I've come in with my expectations pretty much non-existent and accepting that this is a one season series, I MIGHT be along for the ride, just to hate-snark on it.

This is my attitude, especially after finishing Manifest recently. But I keep hoping that one of these genre shows will be enjoyable for more than just snarking. 

5 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

It is good to know that the people who lose their glasses during a crisis will be totally useless.

That may have been the scariest scene for me, because I would definitely be useless and probably unable to survive for long without my glasses.

34 minutes ago, tv echo said:

The lead actors who played the main characters didn't stand out for me, esp. Eve and Gavin. Also, they didn't seem old enough to have children who looked as old as Izzy and Josh.

Oh, come on, Sam is both a doctor and a former SEAL? Just the go-to guy you want to have by your side when you're lost in a strange primeval land. (As someone else posted above, that's awfully convenient.)

Agree on both points (actually, I agree with your whole post), and it especially annoys me that they couldn't cast an actress for the mother who looked at least early 40s--though I guess we can hand-wave that she had her kids young and/or that she lives in LA with all the pressure to stay young-looking so does Botox, etc. I don't know how old the mom character or the actress actually is, but the actor who plays Gavin is 38, so the dad character would have been 20 when he had Josh--unlikely for presumably college-educated people in modern times. 

[the eskimo]

Ugh. I love these types of shows, but this was so bad. Natalie Zea ends up in a lot of bad shows, and she's just not compelling. I'm still scarred from Under the Dome.

Why did they have to cram a season's worth of events into the first episode? Government conspiracy, visions, near death experience, the dying son and daughter of seal/doctor forced to cuddle for warmth?, prehistoric beasts, time travel, wedding ring.

If they spread all of that out over the season it would be much better. Now they have to keep upping the ante which is just going to get boring. If these people want to duplicate the success of Lost, maybe they should rewatch the show and take careful notes. That Pilot was amazing because they took their time and let the audience experience the panic in somewhat real time. Yes, they introduced the smoke monster, but they didn't include the Hatch, the Others, and DHARMA all in episode 1!

The acting is horrible. The brash female cop might win the award for walking stereotype, with giggling stoner dude in close second. Overall, everyone is just way too calm on both ends for what just happened. 

I'll probably end up watching, but I won't be happy about it!

[shapeshifter]

8 minutes ago, the eskimo said:

I'll probably end up watching, but I won't be happy about it!

Yeah. And yet, "in these days of confused situations; in these nights of a restless remorse" hate watching will be more relaxing than real life.

[AnimeMania]

Let me go on the record as saying the the female cop that was directing traffic, who was the first one to enter the sink hole, had more charisma than all of the other actors on the show combined. She should have been the star or maybe she should have been the only one that fell into the hole and the whole show could have been about her. I bet we will never see her again.

[Whimsy]

1 hour ago, Paloma said:

If you are talking about the woman who was with the dad and his daughter when they went back to the home of the mom and kids, I think she was the dad's sister. I'm pretty sure the daughter called her Aunt whatever (I can't remember most of the character names, if we've even been told what they are). Also, I think Aunt whatever said something about the visions that suggested he (or maybe both of them) had always had them and there was some validity to them--but don't ask me what exactly she said that gave me that idea. (Maybe I can find a recap that mentions it.) And was the actress playing this woman Ione Skye? I saw her name in the credits and was trying to see if anyone looked like John Cusack's girlfriend grown up, and this was the only one that seemed to fit that.

This is my attitude, especially after finishing Manifest recently. But I keep hoping that one of these genre shows will be enjoyable for more than just snarking. 

That may have been the scariest scene for me, because I would definitely be useless and probably unable to survive for long without my glasses.

Agree on both points (actually, I agree with your whole post), and it especially annoys me that they couldn't cast an actress for the mother who looked at least early 40s--though I guess we can hand-wave that she had her kids young and/or that she lives in LA with all the pressure to stay young-looking so does Botox, etc. I don't know how old the mom character or the actress actually is, but the actor who plays Gavin is 38, so the dad character would have been 20 when he had Josh--unlikely for presumably college-educated people in modern times. 

Yes, that woman is Ione Skye, who I recognized right away, and she is the aunt.  Sister to the dad.  Gavin?  Except Eve, I don't really remember anyone's name. 

Natalie Zea was born in 1975.  Yes, she looks great, but I don't think she doesn't look her age.  But, that could also be because I am 49 but am ALWAYS being told how young I look getting varying ages in my 20's (weird and unlikely) to 30's.  People are DUMBSTRUCK I have a 24 & 28 year old.  I had my oldest at 21, so the ages don't strike me as weird.  Just other things lol.

[Taeolas]

4 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

The CGI animals were really bad.  The subplot about the father having had dreams of the place before the event seems both a bad plot device and not really necessary.  I might try episode 2, though.

The Government Conspiracy guys were talking about another event before the sinkhole, out in a desert. And Psychic Dad was having visions after a crash in the desert. The events are almost certainly related and will become important in the next couple of episodes I'm sure. 

As for everything being so spread out, I just figure the rift was moving as it was dumping things out. So theoretically from the first debris, everything else should be a straight line more or less. That would explain why the drone didn't land near anyone too. 

 

How all the humans survived the thousands of feet fall is still part of the mystery. Inanimate objects clearly free fell whereever they would land; but humans seem to have been dumped gently on the ground. I wonder what happened to any animals that got caught? There was a barking dog at the start of the sinkhole after all; so Fido should be running around. 

[Paloma]

3 minutes ago, Taeolas said:

There was a barking dog at the start of the sinkhole after all; so Fido should be running around. 

He will soon be sabertooth tiger or even wolf chow, if he isn't already. But as an animal lover, I will probably be rooting more for the animals than most of the people in this story.

[Tom Holmberg]

10 minutes ago, Taeolas said:

The Government Conspiracy guys were talking about another event before the sinkhole, out in a desert. And Psychic Dad was having visions after a crash in the desert. The events are almost certainly related and will become important in the next couple of episodes I'm sure.

I'm sure they'll expand on Psychic Dad (as well as expanding on every other characters' subplot), but really why do they need a government conspiracy subplot, a bad cop subplot, a drug-dealers subplot and all the rest?  Isn't people wandering around prehistoric Calif. of enough interest? I'd assume that's what most people tuned in for.  They just seemed to have packed way too much plot into the show.

[kirkola]

It wasn't horrible for a pilot, but it wasn't "great".  I knew the science would be hokey, because the science is nearly always hokey in a network television show.  I'm expecting all the usual tropes (food hoarding, fights between survivors, surprise visits, etc.), so I doubt much about it will surprise me.  But I will be back at least for the first season.  I will admit, (and no one promised me there would be) but I was highly disappointed there were no dinosaurs.  If you are going to do an "alien" landscape (or in this case, back in time landscape), there ought to be dinosaurs.

Highlights included: Eve's daughter, Izzy and kinda wish she had fell instead of the son.  I also really enjoyed the Doctor (I think that's John Seda) and the Suicidal Guy with Gun.  Even isn't horrible either.  I've seen her in enough stuff to know she can do this.  Also, I will have to learn their names at some point.  And I'm far more invested in the back-in-time landscape than I am above ground...even without dinosaurs. 

Also, for this to work, they really need to figure out which of the cast is the survivalist who can make radios out of coconuts (Gilligan's Island) if they are gonna make it.  Because cell phone flashlights will only work so long (unless someone can make electricity out of coconuts).

[shapeshifter]

14 minutes ago, kirkola said:

there ought to be dinosaurs.

Yeah, "there ought to be dinosaurs." Stay tuned?

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, kirkola said:

I will admit, (and no one promised me there would be) but I was highly disappointed there were no dinosaurs.

Actually I was happy it was prehistoric animals (dire wolves, sabre tooth tigers, etc.) rather than dinosaurs.  We already have "Jurassic Park."

[Broderbits]

8 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

Never seen him in anything else, but Eoin Macken (Dad) is not good.

I feel like he's La Brea's poor substitute for Michiel Huisman (Sonny from Treme and Alex from The Flight Attendant). They look similar but that doesn't extend to acting ability.

[iMonrey]

The good news is that the premise is fairly straight-forward. Aside from the government bigwigs setting up tents and not telling us much, there isn't really a whole LOT of mystery around the event itself, I guess. 

That said, this was pretty bad. The writing, especially in regards to the dialogue, was just terrible. I know there tends to be a lot of hand-waving with pilots because they have to cram a lot of character establishment and premise into 40+ minutes, but let's face it. We've all seen good first episodes of various series, so it's possible to do it well.

I think it may speak to the fact that network TV is just not up to speed yet with streaming and basic cable, and still falls back on schlock because it's really hard to get networks to pick up shows unless the pilots really grab them. But network TV in general just does not have good luck with these types of genre shows. The only reason they keep trying them is because everyone is still looking for the next Lost.

The cast is largely unmemorable, the animal CGI was noticeably cheap looking, and the exposition was cringe-worthy. It checked off every trope on the list. Hopefully it can only get better. Tuesdays are a good night for it though. Not much else on.

[KaveDweller]

7 hours ago, the eskimo said:

Ugh. I love these types of shows, but this was so bad. Natalie Zea ends up in a lot of bad shows, and she's just not compelling. I'm still scarred from Under the Dome.

Natalie Zea wasn't in Under the Dome (which was a very bad show). She was in Passions, which was also very bad. I haven't watched many of her other shows though.

9 hours ago, tv echo said:

Gavin having the visions is just something else that will have to be explained in the future, probably in an unsatisfying way.

.In his job interview at the beginning, didn't they mention a plane crash in the dessert that started the visions? And then the government people talked about an "incident in the Mojave." So clearly, he crashed near another entrance to the past and that somehow made him psychically connected to it.

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Yeah, "there ought to be dinosaurs." Stay tuned?

I thought there were going to be dinosaurs too. I'm not sure why, maybe that's just my go to for scary animals in a weird land. Saber tooth tigers are pretty creepy too though. And I haven't seen any show attempt to do them before.