The Event - season 1 thread (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Great ending. It tied up all of the season's storylines while beginning to crack open some of the larger mysteries. Based on what we learned, my guess is that Sophia and her team were sent to investigate the Event and see if they could find a way to trigger it without wiping out humanity. But then the portal or spaceship malfunctioned and left them in the middle of the United States army in Alaska in the middle of a World War.


It does raise the question: if they were here first, where did we come from? Did we evolve/devolve from them? Are we a parallel evolutionary tract, like humans and neanderthals? Did they breed us as a labor force? Did they genetically engineer us as part of their research into the Event?


In the Bible, people were long-lived until the Great Flood. The last of the long-lived was Methuselah, who lived to the age of 969. It'd be fascinating if the pre-flood people of the Bible are actually Sophia's people, and the Bible was the means to make humanity understand them. Perhaps the portal taking Sophia's people away had similarly cataclysmic effects, and those effects are what caused the Great Flood. Perhaps Noah's arc was a vessel specially built by Sophia's people so that the world's species could survive until the cataclysm settled down. I always enjoy these alternate hypotheses on our foundational texts.


Boy, what and ending! I guess I was expecting the Earth to just fill up with excess people. For whatever reason, I never even thought about them portaling the entire planet here. It would have been a fun second season to see what happens next. But since Martinez basically exposed Jarvis with his underpants around his knees, I'm satisfied.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Sort of reminded me of "2010" (wait, that was last year).

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Given the gravitational effect of the moon on our tides, one wonders the effect of a whole planet.

 

[Jeremiah]

Great ending. Adam, I would love to see your 3rd paragraph be the case, would be pretty cool. I don't know how the new planet would survive, the thing looks like it's on fire.

Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco

Given the gravitational effect of the moon on our tides, one wonders the effect of a whole planet.

I think of that whenever I see movies with multiple planets/moons on an Earth like enviorment and always say to myself "See, that wouldn't work". Now it might work idk, but I don't think it would.

 

[TravisR]

I've said it before but once the last 1/3 of the season of The Event started channeling 24 (this episode even mimiced the way that they stopped the Prez), the show become better. The planet arriving was a pretty cool cliffhanger and I would have actually been interested in seeing what they did with that plotline.

Given the gravitational effect of the moon on our tides, one wonders the effect of a whole planet.

I thought that was part of what Sophia was talking about when she told Sean that the virus was the less cruel way out for humanity.

 

[NeilO]

Originally Posted by TravisR

Given the gravitational effect of the moon on our tides, one wonders the effect of a whole planet.

I thought that was part of what Sophia was talking about when she told Sean that the virus was the less cruel way out for humanity.[/QUOTE]

Bringing the planet there was a quick solution to getting their people there. I don't think they think they can survive on that planet. If they could survive, then they could have been working all this time to move their planet somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the line at the end from the President's wife closes the speculation on her. She said, "that's home" or something like that indicating that she is one of Sophia's people. She just was too attached to Elias to let him die.

I didn't quite catch everything that Agent Lee said about "the event." I thought it was something like if they stayed on the Earth, they would change somehow and the humans would not survive. I'm not sure it entirely makes sense, but maybe one of the creators will explain it a bit better at some point.


When Elias and Jarvis were talking, I was telling myself that if he didn't have a recording device on him I would be very disappointed.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by NeilO

I didn't quite catch everything that Agent Lee said about "the event." I thought it was something like if they stayed on the Earth, they would change somehow and the humans would not survive. I'm not sure it entirely makes sense, but maybe one of the creators will explain it a bit better at some point.

My impression was that it was something similar to a prophecy; they knew that them staying on earth/returning to earth would trigger an evolution of their species that would eliminate humanity. I think they believe it to be some sort of metamorphosis, perhaps into non-carbon based lifeforms. I think the Event might be something more subtle, the intermingling of the gene pools. In this case, Leila and Samantha would represent the evolved species, and humanity wouldn't survive because it would slowly breed itself out of existence.


It's a shame we (probably) won't be getting another season.

 

[Patrick Sun]

So the event ended up being Apokalips coming to earth? Holy network TV crossover, Batman!

 

[Jim_C]

Very good ending and it certainly has me wishing there was a second season. Seeing the populations of the two planets battling one another for Earth could have been a lot of fun. Oh well, at least they did the one thing I really wanted to see, which was Jarvis getting exposed for all he has done. I guess they did a good job with the character because I really disliked him.


Does anyone else think the President's wife drugged him and that's why he had the blurred vision and passed out? They had a close up in the previous scene of her handling his drugs. I guess we're supposed to believe that she's conflicted. She appears to be happy that her people have been brought to Earth but on the other hand her actions, driven by her love for her husband, were helping the humans stop Sofia.

 

[Jeremiah]

I thought the First Lady drugged Elias but then he came back to retake his seat so I figured it was just because he needed rest.


Now with the 2nd planet near, it would be aperfect time for John Ritter and James Belushi to get that "Big Gun" and use it on Sophia's planet and not the Russians. I know it's kind of a stupid joke.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Good final episode - I enjoyed it.


It just felt like the series was stalling too long - I think the reveal of the finale that somehow the aliens were here first and not true "aliens" was interesting (the previous episodes, like the ones with Hal Holbrook in the cave, suggested they had been here in past times but not that they had been here first), and the whole "the virus was a mercy killing, what we have to do now is far worse" was interesting as well. It just seemed like all of this, which took 22 episodes, could have been accomplished in about 8 or 10. If all of this had been condensed so that tonight's episode had been a midseason finale, I think it would have been a better show. My problem with it is that while they had interesting concepts, the producers seemed obsessed with not moving the show forward for as long as possible. I think there was at most half a season's plot that was diluted to a full season. What happened in the last fifteen minutes of the show was more interesting than the past fifteen weeks (ok, that's maybe a little over dramatic but the basic point is still there).


I love serial shows. I think the television medium is perfect for them - I generally get bored with shows where the characters stay the same from week to week, and where it's just a weekly mystery and nothing changes - I think the advantage to television over film or books as an artform is that we get to see these guys every week, so we can become invested in what's going on, and learn more about them as characters and have a bigger story to tell. But overall, "The Event" felt like it was saying, "we have a big story to tell but we're waiting to tell it to you" and there never seemed like there was a really good reason to wait. I might just be a defective viewer, I totally understand I could be in the minority - but I'm much more interested in a planet suddenly appearing in space next to earth than whether or not a virus is unleashed on a plane when it's obvious it won't be, or any of the other many stalling tactics employed by the show.


Everything that Adam stated above was brilliant - probably more brilliant than anything that actually happened on the show itself. Arthur C. Clarke famously said that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic; so I love Adam's idea that the stories and gods in the bible might have actually been these aliens. A show that played out the way Adam talked about would be a show I'd watch in a heartbeat. A show with stereotypical pretty boys and girls running around where the showrunners act petrified to use the word "aliens", that's far less interesting to me.


When it comes to making good television, my own opinion is that you don't wait seasons to get to the point - if you have an interesting concept, you don't wait until the last episodes to bring it forward. Make the best episodes you can make week to week, make the best season you can, and worry about next season next year - otherwise there won't be a next year at all.

 

[ScottH]

I guess I'm alone in being underwhelmed by the finale. Seemed like just a bunch of action sequences with no substance.


As ridiculous as it was, my thinking on the ending was that the plan was to have their planet replace earth in the solar system, and it's rotation around the sun. But then again, I forget, was the reason they had to leave their planet because of the planet itself or was it because of the environment around it?


I like the concept of the show, and would have liked to see it survive another season, but I think the hiatus really killed it for me. I can't really explain why, but my interest level went WAY down after it came back and I never regained the interest I had prior to the break. I suppose if it was a better show that wouldn't have been the case.

 

[Hugh Jackes]

I understand where you're coming from, Scott, but I think it was a better show when it came back from hiatus. that being said, I still was ambivalent about whether it was renewed or not.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Does anyone think the writers really gave any thought to the physics involved with the sudden appearance of an entire planet being so close to the earth? Some friends of mine had a good laugh about the "shock" ending. We surmised that the gravity on the side that was closest to the other planet would be more, and the gravity on the other side of earth would be less. Would both planets orbit our sun in tandem, or come into some other weird orbiting "schedule", and does the moon fall into the other planet, being much closer than it is to earth? Would the earth experience weird "night and day" times depending on its relation to the sun and the other planet in an eclipse positon or vice-versa? Did they give us a reason why the other planet wasn't transported earlier, before their sun went supernova? Did they not have the means to do so until "the Event" was to come to bear? This ending was simply ludicrous.

 

[Doug Smith]

I almost choked laughing about the "physics" question. With this shows track record I don't think there are any physicists on the writing team - some cynics might say there might not be any creative writing grads either. I thought the last part of the season was quite well done. And the last show - compared to other season enders we've seen so far this year (I mention "The Office" in passing) - was pretty good, assuming they didn't yet know the series would be cancelled. I would be nice for the Events creators to come clean and let us know what they might have done in the future. eg. I am still completely muddled over what "The Event" might be specifically. And considering that was the name of the show it might be nice to know.

 

[TravisR]

I'm no scientist but even I know that introducing a planet next to Earth would cause havoc so I assume that the writers would have acknowledged it in the next episode. Even if creating that kind of chaos would be impossible for a TV budget, I think they would have had a character at least say something like "Why isn't that planet messing up Earth?" and then never mentioned it again.

 

[todd s]

On a side note. Last Monday night I was lucky enough to go to the Do Something Awards Kickoff Party in NYC. At the event was Jason Ritter (Sean). What a really nice guy. I joked that I was missing the finale to be at the event (no pun intended). We then chatted about the show and how things changed after the hiatus. We also discussed the chances of the show being picked up by SyFy, USA or TNT. Again, he was such a nice guy hopefully he will find a new gig soon.

 

[NeilO]

Just accept it's magic and move on. Thinking about the physics of the situation raises too many problems.

At least it was marginally better than Apokolips arriving in Smallville.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Off-topic: Is it normal that I shudder whenever I see it spelled as "Apokolips"? It makes me think of Brando at the end of Apocalypse Now (pun not intended), where the mangling of the language makes me feel, the horror, the horror! It wasn't clever in the comics years ago, and it's not clever today.


The science (or lack thereof) didn't bother me too much because it had long since been obvious to me that the producers hadn't been concerned with any level of realism. I won't go into another "presidential cell phone rant" (or even a rant on the writers misunderstanding of how the 25th Amendment is meant to work), but suffice to say, accuracy has never been the strong suit of this show. And that's OK, as long as it's entertaining or believable in the context of the show. But too often in The Event, a show I really, really, really wanted to like, the contradictions in the writing left me scratching my head and not being able to suspend disbelief too often. I still find it remarkable that they had the technology to teleport a whole planet across the universe, and couldn't find a spot for it where it wouldn't get in the way of anything else. At first, when it just seemed that they needed our planet for resources, it seemed surprisingly dumb to me that they didn't have the ability to find a vacant planet and terraform it into something usable without the mass genocide of the natives. Turns out, they didn't even need a planet, they just needed a place to put it? And the spacial real estate occupied by Earth was the only suitable location in all of the universe? Really?


Also, if the endgame for this season was that another planet was going to show up and its inhabitants would take over our planet or something along those lines, I think it could have been accomplished much sooner. For the 22 episodes that aired, I feel like they really only had about 10 episodes worth of plot. This would have been an awesome midseason finale. The potential storylines that came up in the last episode were far more interesting than most of what had come before. But I think this goes back to the producers insane aversion to just saying this was a show about aliens - I mean, they didn't even use the word "alien" until like six episodes in. I think they needed to stop trying to be so clever about "we have a longterm plan, you'll never guess what's coming, etc., etc." and have just gotten on with it. If a virus with the potential to kill all humans on the planet wasn't going to be unleashed in the end, why waste six episodes setting up something that was never gonna happen? Why waste an episode with Sean getting shot in the arm and needing emergency medical care that he has to get at gunpoint if he was going to be fine the next episode? Why spend so much time rescuing a little sister who was written off the show immediately afterwards? Why have a subplot going multiple episodes about a guy who needed to steal the essence of little kids in order to prolong his life if he was just gonna kill himself anyway? Why set up a guy like Thomas as being the big villain of the show and someone to be feared, only to have him killed unceremoniously halfway through? The way Sophia just refused time and again to actual level with Martinez, and then acted completely outraged and shocked when he wouldn't take her at her word - that's how I feel the producers were treating the audience - like, we've got something worthwhile going on here, but we're not telling you about it. My problems with this show weren't scientific ones at the end of the day - they were storytelling ones. None of the roadblocks that the producers threw in the characters way were that exciting to be worth taking the time they took on them; they really could have used someone from Monty Python charging in screaming "Get on with it!" in a funny British accent. I think the producers were truly afraid to let their little sci-fi show actually be a sci-fi show. They had huge numbers for the premiere and seemed to avoid wanting to take any of the artistic choices necessary to keep the show going. Sci-fi shows traditionally don't get the numbers that straight dramas do - so I don't know if the thinking was "Well, let's avoid letting it seem like a sci-fi show" in order to keep the numbers, or what, but something went very wrong in the producing and writing of this show in my opinion. If I could have a conversation with the creator of the show, the writers and producers, I'd just like to ask them: what did you think your show was about, and if you could have gone on without canceling it, what did you intend to do? If they had a truly interesting secret to build a show around, that's great, but if they don't bother to ever reveal it to us at all, why should I watch?


If you want to do a show about life on earth as we know it coming to an end - why not actually, you know, show life on earth as we know it coming to an end? None of the characters were well-defined enough (or likable enough, if you prefer) for the show to have truly worked as a character piece - they were all archetypes and stereotypes that existed to drive the plot forward, only someone forgot to take the car out of neutral.


If I seem a little too bitter, it's just that.. in my opinion, there's very little sci-fi actually on TV these days, even less on major networks. I love the genre. I also love serial shows, and I like that better than a sci-fi thing with just a monster of the week. I want to see a sci-fi show get the chance that a show like "24" or "The West Wing" (to name a couple) had to tell a story over an extended period. It seems that each year, there's a new show that comes along that teases with the potential of doing that - and then just wastes the opportunity. Besides "Fringe", what other serial sci-fi show is even on the major networks these days? I wish there was more of this, and it bothers me to see a show given the opportunity and so completely blowing it. "The Event" had great production values, a very talented cast, and a spot on a network that's doing poorly enough in general that they would have accepted lower numbers than what most other networks could - in other words, all the ingredients that might have been needed to give a show like this the chance to take off. It just never felt to me that they got going with it. What bothers me most about that is that it did feel like they had some great concepts or ideas, but just kept stalling instead of starting to lay them out, and that seems unforgivable.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

NBC's 'The Event' May Continue As Miniseries On Syfy