Desconocidos

It's really a shame that this great mini-series - as I have heard it advertised several times now - fell to the bumbling NBC, and then got moved from a "safer" 10:00 slot to a very early summer time of 8 eastern. Regardless, I've been trying to recruit as many friends and family as I can - particularly "24" and "LOST" fans - as Persons Unknown has given me at least one reason to look forward to Mondays.

Created by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie), this show provides non-stop suspense while keeping you in the dark plenty enough as to WHO is watching these poor folks attempt to keep their sanity, among other things. As a couple of other posters alluded to, I also was worried after weeks one and two if the show would be able to keep providing adequate suspense. After watching episode 5 tonight, the answer is a resounding yes: one could almost argue that there is an overload of questions for the viewer. That is not a problem that I mind, and each week has built on the last, making the show stronger as it progresses.

If you have not checked out this show yet, it's not too late, but at the same time, catch up if you can. It'd definitely be worth your while to see why this bizarre town is about as creepy as the woods from The Blair Witch Project and the island of Lost combined into one.

Janet Cooper (Daisy Betts) hired a P.I. to find his deadbeat husband who disappeared on her and her daughter. She's utterly broke and then is kidnapped in broad daylight. She wakes up in a nameless hotel in a nameless town. She is helped by mysterious Joe Tucker (Jason Wiles). They are joined by soldier Graham McNair (Chadwick Boseman), camp counselor Moira Doherty (Tina Holmes), party girl Tori Fairchild (Kate Miner), wealthy investment banker Charlie Morse (Alan Ruck) and car salesman Bill Blackham (Sean O'Bryan). There's a field around the town that makes the abductees pass out. There is endless Chinese food and messages from their abductors. Newsapaper reporter Mark Renbe (Gerald Kyd) investigates Janet's kidnapping with his editor Kat Damatto (Lola Glaudini).

It starts with an interesting premise but the viewer is left frustrated waiting for the whys. It's a mistake to show the 'real' world. The reporter, the investigation, her kidnapping and her daughter are all problematic. Without them, this could be purgatory, supernatural, a dream or aliens. With them, it can only be orchestrated by people. Then it becomes nothing more than simply asking why and those are limited questions. The show really is left with only one card and it can't actually play that card. In the end, the show loses steam by constantly hinting at the card without actually showing it. It becomes a bore.

Let me just start off by saying that I really think that people are wrong when they say that this show is the new Lost, or that it was simply made as a "follow up" because Lost ended. I really feel that is has NOTHING to do with Lost.

That being said, I enjoyed the first episode. It was really good. My entire family watched all first six episodes in one day. And I'm really looking forward to the end since the guy who did Persons Unknown also did The Usual Suspects. I think that it's a good thriller/mystery, and I like the fact that I still don't know who it is, or why it is happening, and that I can't just randomly guess. That's what makes it a good mystery.

So if you have time on your hands, and want to watch a mystery TV series - which there aren't a lot of, I would recommend Persons Unknown. Just give it a chance. You won't regret it.

Alright I know this is going to be a fairly hollow review because it is based on one episode. But the first episode has set a strong tone of mystery and drama similar to oh, I don't know... LOST? The complete and total combination of mystery and randomness is a great way to get the audience interested, but is hard to build on. It puts the audience in the detectives position; trying to figure out who the inside man is and how all these people are connected.

The first episode showed brief glimpses of the outside world as it followed a reporter as he pursued the case of one of the abducted people. This is a smart move by the writers, giving the audience some background without resorting desperately to flashbacks.

The reason this show could be terrible is because it can lose its mysterious aspects too quickly or too slowly. If it is lost too slowly and the characters make little progress in escaping, the show grows boring. If they escape to quickly, well, the show is near impossible to continue.

Yes this review is very premature, but at this stage I recommend that you tune into this show live so that the mysterious aspects can be sustained for weeks.

8/10 (for now)

Not sure why so many people were disappointed in and even hated this series. They even blasted the production and writing. The whole point of this story is that there is no end, no exit. It's like life, it just keeps changing with some new and some same people, and different levels of "evolution". There is no way out. We are stuck with who we are and how we work it all out. The writing is concise, to the point, and doesn't get bogged down in misdirection. People answer with immediate understandings, and the action moves quickly. And the photography and, lighting, and camera work is excellent. I know because I'm a professional photographer who has worked on some high end productions. The acting is true and heartfelt. It's a great metaphor for life on so many levels. The resistances to what is, the paranoia, the struggles with questions of doing what it takes, survival, and compassion in the face of distrust. The dynamics are great to watch. There are of course some aspects that are easy to criticize because, hopefully, the conspiracy is contrived and nothing like this could happen. But perhaps on some levels, we actually live in this kind of world. So yes some plot lines are unexplained and far-fetched, but are they really. There is a lot of mystery around all kinds of corporate and govt activity.