What is The Event? How About a Big Old Mess

Of all its new shows, NBC hyped none more than “The Event.” And Monday night, its efforts paid off as it scored nearly 11 million viewers.

The success already has NBC working on a marketing plan to keep the momentum rolling. Personally, I think instead of working on a marketing plan, they need to be working on the show itself…

For whatever reason, NBC completely ignored me and didn’t send me any screeners—the only network to do so. So I was left wondering whether “The Event” would be more like “24” or “Flashforward.” Now I know it’s more like a big mess…

If you missed it, the show focuses on a handful of characters and their connection to an assassination attempt on the President of the United States (Blair Underwood). The central character is Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), who somehow finds himself right in the middle of the plot. How he got involved has yet to be seen, although we get some bits and pieces in flashbacks. There’s also Sean’s girlfriend, Leila (Sarah Roemer), a group of detainees led by the mysterious Sophia (Laura Innes) and some other people I have no idea about. It’s all so confusing that it’s hard to keep track. I fact, I completely missed one character’s pretty important connection to everything until I read it in a magazine.

The confusion stems from the time jumps. Flashbacks are a common dramatic device and when they’re used to build drama, I don’t mind them. But when you jump back hours, and then days, and then months with three different stories, it gets extremely hard to follow.

Especially since the Sean Walker storyline is fairly compelling. There are some nice dramatic moments that work very well. But you’re so whiplashed by all the movement, you’re unable to get engrossed.

It’s quite possible I was turned off from the very beginning when I saw that the show was using the “24” font for its titles (Bank Gothic, in case you’re curious). It felt like the show was trying to already adopt itself as the new “24” by stealing one of its more subtle signatures (The split screen would have been too obvious.). Executive Producer Evan Katz, a longtime “24” producer, really should have known better.

And then there was that ending. Do we really want to see a plane being used as a weapon? Even after nine years? And then the plane just disappeared, giving the show a sci-fi aspect we not only didn’t see coming, but also didn’t want. I mean, haven’t we experienced enough of that?

I may give “Event” one more try before I write it off completely, if for no other reason than morbid curiosity about how episode two begins.

But it there’s more than one time jump in the first 15 minutes, I’m jumping out myself, I can’t handle another hour of brain whiplash…

“The Event” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on NBC…

Photo Credit: Patrick Ecclesine/NBC