The Event

This is a fantastic show. Excellent cast, spearheaded by the amazing Blair Underwood who plays the African-American President. I'm not too keen on the Sophia character, who seems to have the same facial expression and voice mannerism, regardless of the situation at hand. But the rest of the cast is superb, particularly the President's White House team - they seem to have the gravity and charisma to easily pull off a successful "The West Wing" remake.

The show advertised itself as a "what if '24' and 'Lost' had a baby" TV offspring, and I am definitely getting that vibe. The constant pacing of action and suspense remind me of "24", but with more depth and realism, so it's not as cheesy and convoluted (oh don't get offended, I'm a huge "24" fan but I'll readily admit that "24" had a level of cheesiness and hokiness that was good for unintentional laughs). And the aura of mystery and plot development is reminiscent of "Lost." Admittedly, "Lost" had the more interesting character development, but "The Event" seems to have a stronger, more robust plot that certainly knows where it's headed, which makes me feel as if the writers for "The Event" already have a strong ending in plan many seasons in advance - you brave, disappointed "Lost" fans who hanged on until the series finale know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! There were some painfully sad moments that were very compelling. For example, Agent Lee, who seemingly never ages as a result of his extraterrestrial genes, ran into an elderly woman who was his girlfriend of apparently same age many decades ago, and had to pretend to not recognize his long-lost love for the Greater Good. Those were beautifully done, heart-wrenching scenes.

So far, I have been thoroughly satisfied with this show. Every episode has been great. I can see how someone who joins in midway might get confused and lose interest (of course - this IS a serialized drama!) - so I HIGHLY recommend starting from the first episode and watch at least three episodes. You WILL be hooked, guaranteed.

If this show gets canceled, I'll be hugely disappointed - it would really really say something about us as TV viewers if we allowed disappointing garbage like "Heroes" and "V" to run on for more than a season but allow a high-caliber show like "The Event" with excellent production value and strong plot to go off air. Watch it! You will love it, that is my promise.

Edit: I caught the season finale yesterday - I was THOROUGHLY satisfied with it. It was indeed a wild ride. Without giving anything away, I will just say what I saw in the last few seconds give me hope that we are in for a VERY exciting and compelling second season - that is, if the show's still on the air. Come on, NBC execs, don't let us down!

This show has been one of the best Sci-Fi series to come out for years, I enjoyed Lost but occasionally got "Lost" with it, The Event is not hard to follow, something happened during each episode leaving a cliffhanger and you wanting for the next. I can understand why NBC has cancelled another season due to a plummet in viewing figures, but I cannot understand their thinking, the pilot and subsequent episodes faired really well with great viewing figures, they decide to allow the show to have a 3 month break, without warning the show restarts at a later time in the schedule and on a different night (In the UK it went from 10pm on a Friday to 11.55pm on a Monday), I would not have noticed this, only did due to the fact I had it on series record on satellite TV so was able to resume my viewing, many people I think will have been unaware of this or unable to do this, I just don't think the viewing figures dropped due to it being a bad show, I think bad decisions by NBC and lack of advertising. It was truly an entertaining show, especially the last 7 or 8 episodes of the series when it all kicked off, its like an emotional roller coaster at the beginning you can sympathise with the Aliens and dislike the humans especially the president and his decisions but all that changes, I don't want to go into it too much but I think its a series that anyone could enjoy given a chance. There are the odd annoyances, there are a few plot holes and a few minor irritations i.e. the character Sophia, her acting at time was a bit wooden and emotionless, but I suppose you get people like that in real life, I know some myself. Anyway give it a chance and I am sure you will end up thinking like I do, hope they back another series, don't want to be left in another forever limbo with the fantastic cliffhanger of the final show of the series !

I was intrigued by the 4 minute extended trailer, and so I eagerly tuned in for the premiere. Unfortunately, it was very underwhelming. I didn't learn anything new from the 43 minute premiere that I hadn't already learnt from the 4 minute trailer. I actually found the premiere to be boring and unnecessarily drawn out.

Also, none of the characters really seemed all that interesting, except for maybe Mike and the lady from ER, but those aren't the main characters, so that's not a good sign.

I don't mind non-linear story telling, but, there didn't seem like all that much of a reason for the tactic here - it felt contrived. Also, this may seem like a minor point to some, but the way the "flashback" subtitles changed sizes really distracted me a lot. What's wrong with normal subtitles?

Anyways, I think I will give it one more episode to suck me in, but if the second episode is as underwhelming as the first, then I won't be tuning in.

So, I had no intention of watching this show. The previews prior to its premiere kind of turned me off. For me, there were aspects of the premise that were too played out to make it worth my time. However, my TV just happened to be on the channel this show comes on and nothing else good had started yet so I stuck it out. The ending of the first episode made me want to know what would happen next. It took until the 3rd episode to get me hooked. Now, I love it. Yeah, the cutting in and out was problematic at first, but I'm a fast learner. The acting, in my opinion, is largely very good. I think it's smartly written and well paced. I will be honest, though. If I didn't have DVR I wouldn't have stuck this show out long enough to find that I like it because Lie To Me comes on in the same time slot. It did take a while to warm up and get into a groove that wasn't so chaotic and confusing, but now I can't wait to see what happens next.

Though some believe it was a bit "busy" and didn't enjoy the flashbacks, this is something a lot of shows or series for that matter are doing. Though it seems confusing at the time its a set up so that in future shows you say,"so that's what that was about, now I get it." It leaves the viewer acknowledging these little "treasures" that give explanation to something previously seen. It wouldn't be any fun if everything was explained as the show progressed. It's the show that makes us think & piece together information viewed so we can try and figure how things are connected and then when revealed we either are proud ewe got it right or realize we didn't take all the facts into account and got it wrong. It almost makes the show an "interactive" experience & then we sit a discuss it with co-workers trying to figure it out. I guess more lazy minded viewers would like it explained bit this way its so much more exciting.You wouldn't want a mystery novel to tell you the killer or meaning of the clues in the first chapter, you read on to see how it relates.These are just my opinions, everyone else has a right to theirs. I loved it.