NBC: The Event

Next up, NBC's "The Event."

I was trying to decide, during the first half hour, which was more annoying.

The fact that, "Lost"-like, you don't know what in the frack "The Event" is? Or the fact that every two minutes (or less) you get title cards like this: "Six Weeks Earlier." "Five Minutes Later." "Two Days Before." "Eighteen Hours Previous." I'm so not kidding. There are so many, in such quick succession, that's it's really difficult to figure out where the hell we are and when.

Don't get me wrong. There was a lot of madness going on in "Lost," with flash-forwards, and flash-backwards, and flash-sideways. But I could always tell where we were. In the pilot for "The Event," they lost me by the third title card. And I couldn't care by the third title card.

There were a couple of things which made me take notice for a minute, though. Blair Underwood (good actor) plays the president. Zeljko Ivanek (great actor! Did you see his death scene in "Damages"?!!!) plays an evil henchman in the White House. And Laura Innes (we loved her on "ER" all those years) plays someone... not really sure who she is yet, but she's pretty integral to the plot. And they had some pretty cool special effects toward the end of the pilot.

But it's too ham-fisted, too awkward, too on the nose, too "who cares?" for me. I don't think I care to find out what exactly The Event is, or who these people are that they are holding, and why they are stealing planes, and who the bad guys are or who the good guys are. I don't care. At least on "Lost," as crazy and convoluted as that plot got, I did care. From the very first frame.

BOTTOM LINE: Despite the gravitas of some great actors, this is no "Lost."

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