This 6-episode series on USA debuted Sunday night, and I must say, I was impressed. I will definitely be watching it again this Sunday.
The premise…people who have been missing for years are suddenly returned via a huge ball of light at the base of Mt. Ranier. They haven’t aged, and some of them come back with strange powers. One little girl was 8 when she disappeared in 1938, and she’s come back with precognition.
One black soldier disappeared in 1951. He was in love with a white girl, much the taboo back then, but then meets up with his sweetheart’s granddaughter, who disappeared in 1994. Her husband has remarried and refuses to let her see their daughter, who was six months old when her mother disappeared. This woman has returned pregnant, and she has no idea how.
For me, the most surprising was Michael Moriarty, playing an insurance agent who disappeared on his 35th wedding anniversary in 1979. He has telekinetic abilities, as evidenced by the fit he threw when his insurance company refused to give him his job back. Michael Moriarty has aged quite a bit since Law & Order, and when the Homeland Security agents catch up to him, he does a wonderful job playing a man scared to death, moaning, “I can’t control it” as his mountain cabin shakes to pieces around him.
Anyone else watching this? :waiting patiently to see if Biblio shows up:
I may be too much of a gearhead, but the opening sequences really turned me off. I did think the humanization of the DHS agents when they thought the “comet” was going to strike (basically, they were all on cell phones saying tearful final goodbyes to loved ones) was a nice touch. All too often, government agents and agencies are depicted as faceless killbot ciphers.
But then they fucked it up. When the nukes were launched, and shortly thereafter, the announcement “15 seconds to impact” came up, I thought “OK, the comet is just really close.” Then, the next sequence after the impact, they clearly showed the comet PASSING THE MOON’S ORBIT. I then rolled my eyes, thought, “Wow, FAST missiles,” and changed the channel.
As I said, I tend to be quite judgemental about these things, since they’re so damned easy to get right. It just comes off as laziness to me. I may not be giving it a fair shake.
