Persons Unknown - NBC Summer Miniseries from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects

Hmm, hadn't heard of this, but your description makes it sounds like it's at least worth checking out (especially with the lack of competition), thanks.

I liked it. Had a Saw II vib to it without the gore or traps.

I was pretty impressed as well.  The characters for once acted reasonably intelligently in that kind of situation, which is always a plus.  (As opposed to say a horror movie where you want to scream at their stupidity).

The one thing that bugged me is nobody really searched the initial room they were in other than the key in the bible, to see if there was any sort of clue to their situations.  I know when she put her back against the door initially, the first thing that jumped out at me was the "Downtown Hotel Rules" which I thought was going to have some sort of secret message in it (don't most hotels have fire escape locations on the back of the doors?) but obviously I was wrong.

I could of course be very wrong but my guess is it's most likely a sort of reality show they're being forced to star in, similar to The Running Man.  Seems too huge of a production for it to be one psychopath, at least.

Also, seems fairly obvious that Joe has a criminal past.

As for the showing the grandmother and the daughter together out of the 'town', I'm not sure if I like that or not myself.  I can definitely see what you're saying, but the reveal plus the creepiness of the grandmother has my attention and I'll have to see where that goes before I'm sure on it.

Very Twilight Zone. I was surprised they made it outside within the first half hour.

Anyone know what movie the set was used in previously?  I know I saw it before, it was a horror type movie.

Maybe it was one of the new The Hills have eyes?

I didn't mind it because I like sci-fi, but I could picture that transportation thing being the last straw for a lot of people who had been on the fence watching this show the first two episodes.

And yeah, I agree that the outside world stuff they've shown has been pretty much useless so far at least.

What makes you think it "transported them instantly back into town"?    All we saw was them approaching a bright light and then, some unknown amount of time later, coming to their senses in town.  Hours could have passed.  We don't know.  The implants that knocked them out when they hit the boundry and the microwave gun also looked like "magic tech" when we first saw them.  (The latter looked like some kind of force field.) 

And once again we have a plot element of a serialized show being dismissed as "useless" after two frickin' episodes.  "Dear Professor Tolkein:  Who is this Strider guy?  Hes' useless; get rid of him.  He just slows the story down."   Do modern audiences really need everything spoon fed to them, every connection made explicit, every plot point explained?  That seems an especially odd requirement for a show that is intended to be a mystery. 

Sheesh. 

Regards,

Joe

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joseph DeMartino 

 

Do modern audiences really need everything spoon fed to them, every connection made explicit, every plot point explained?  That seems an especially odd requirement for a show that is intended to be a mystery. 

 

 

As usual, Joe has tapped into my mind and wrote exactly what I feel :)

Eh...I don't know.  I just watched the first 2 episodes.  Not really feeling it and I can't quite put my finger on it.  I think it might be the really bad writing.  Hard to believe it's supposedly the same guy that wrote 'The Usual Suspects' (a brilliantly written film).  The dialog in this show seems really poorly written.  And could the overweight car salesman guy be any more cliche?

I didn't get a 'Saw' feel at all, but it reminded me of a little-known movie with a similar name called 'Unknown'.  In fact, if I'm the creator of that movie I might be on the phone with the NBC lawyers right now.

I'm enjoying it so far, but there seems to already be some inconsistent dialogue and a bit of agenda-minded writing.  For example:

- In the first episode, Janet (the main female character) says she wishes her daughter was captured as well because at least she would be safe.  Then in the second episode she is driven to get out because as long as they are separated, she believes her daughter is in danger.

- "Torture never works."  Really?  Morality/ethics discussion aside, I think the case could be made that it surely has been successful in the past.  It sounded to me more like a writer trying to put his/her/their opinion out there and less like something the characters would really say.

On a different note, while the 'real world' stuff may not be as compelling, are we supposed to take the camera shots at the grandmother's and the bar literally?  It isn't a big stretch or anything, but it sure implies that some people are involved (again, no surprise).  I guess they want us to think that the grandmother and maybe the cop are involved, but I'm thinking the twist is much more likely to be that the reporter's boss is the one.

I don't see the contradiction.  In both cases Janet only believes her daughter is safe when the two of them are together.  She'd rather  they were together at home, but her second choice would be for her daughter to be a fellow captive, because at least she'd know where she was and what was happening to her.  (I think there are also hints that Janet knows or suspects why this is all happening, at least to her, and that's why she's so concerned that her daughter is alone back in the "real world.")

No more calls, please, we have a winner.  Torture doesn't work in extracting confessions to crimes, because eventually even an innocent victim will "confess" just to make the pain stop.  However, torture can be and has been used to extract intelligence information from captured spies and soldiers for centuries.  Military personnel are, in fact, specifically trained to resist aggressive interrogation techniques (which stop well short of the kind of genuine torture some of our enemies might employ) in order to prepare them mentally for such an eventuality.  But is widely recognized that everyone has a limit, and that a captive subjected to torture will talk sooner or later.  The idea is to hold out long enough for the information the bad guys gain to be rendered useless by time.  Thus attack plans will be cancelled or altered, codes changed and undercover operatives extracted as soon as possible after an asset is captured, to avoid having them compromised. 

For a U.S. Marine to make that statement is ludicrous, and it sure seems like Joe knows a thing or two about that world, so his agreement makes no sense, either.  The argument against torturing the night manager isn't "torture doesn't work", it's "this guy either knows nothing or has been fed disinformation to fool us if we do torture him."  Personally, I'd bet on the latter. 

BTW, I find it odd that through two episodes none of the characters has suggested the incredibly obvious idea that one of them is a plant.  If the mysterious "They" want to know what is going on at all  times, the best way to do so is to plant a mole among the hostages. 

Regards,

Joe

They have, a few times over, mostly in the first episode.

The mystery is intriguing enough to continue watching but the characters continue to underwhelm.

So, was the big reveal at the end of the last episode real or just a Photoshopped image to get rid of Renbe?  I'm leaning towards the latter though I guess they could make it work.  The main thing for me is that Renbe met the Janet's mother.  While I know their relationship has not been good you would think she would know what her granddaughter's father looks like.

Yeah pretty sure it was a set up.

Yeah wasn't surprised by that at all.  That might be the last episode for me, I'm not sure.  I do have a mild interest in what the hell is going on, but I really have no interest in any of the characters and the writing is terrible.  This entire episode just seemed completely pointless until the reveal at the end.

And if the taxi cab can get through the magic wall with 2 of the captives in it, why couldn't the rest of them go through it with them?  And how did they get back in?  The wall knows which direction you're coming from?

Well, I'm still enjoying this show as a (decent) new version of The Prisoner.  I have no problems with the dialogue.  Maybe the direction is a little flat, is all.  And a pity Alan Ruck's character couldn't finish the job on the "car salesman"...
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottH 

And if the taxi cab can get through the magic wall with 2 of the captives in it, why couldn't the rest of them go through it with them?  And how did they get back in?  The wall knows which direction you're coming from?

It's clear to me that, since everyone's on camera, the bad guys know when a car needs to get through the barrier and so can turn it off and on as appropriate.

Dead Show News: Persons Unknown Exiled To Saturday; The Forgotten Final 2 Episodes

Well at least they are showing the final 2 episodes.

I can't really get into the show,  but I posted the news for fans of the show. I was never a fan of the Prisoner, either. I don't enjoy being frustrated every week. I think about a show like "Lost" which also had disappointments (remember trying to leave on the raft?), but that didn't affect me the same way. I think it's because with Lost, there wasn't just the overall goal (getting off the island) but many smaller goals where the Losties succeeded. Persons Unknown (and The Prisoner), feel like just a bunch of failures until the ultimate final success. It's a bit of a bummer on a weekly basis.

You're referring to 2 episodes of The Forgotten, right?  How many episodes is PU supposed to run?

EDIT: This is referring to Robert's post.  I meant to quote him but hit reply instead.

This show would be so much better if it was played at 2x speed, with the Benny Hill theme music playing in the background.