NBC Pulls the Plug on "The Event"

photo via kitchensofa.wordpress.com

Dammit!  The folks at NBC have decided not to renew one of my favourite shows, and I'm not happy about it.

If you've never watched The Event (and judging from online ratings, discussion boards, and talk amongst my circle of friends, I think a lot of people did NOT watch the series), it's best described as a sci-fi/action-adventure/political thriller involving a group of extraterrestrials that look exactly like humans (with a slight difference in DNA and a considerably slower aging process).  They are detained by the US Government at a secret detention facility in northern Alaska after they crash land into the Brooks Mountain Range in 1944.  The CIA plots to keep their existence a secret, but newly elected President Elias Martinez (played by Blair Underwood) decides it's time to let the world know about them.  From there, the show takes us on a roller-coaster ride involving a computer geek-turned-vigilante (played by the late John Ritter's son, Jason) a foiled assassination plot, a mysterious disappearance, and the attempted genocide of the human population.

Many detractors called this show a bad mix between 24 and Lost.  Good thing for me .... I never really followed those shows, so I was able to enjoy it without unfairly comparing it to something else.

Naysayers also claimed that this show was too far-fetched, even for science fiction.

My answer to that:  Who gives a rat's ass?  The cheesiness of the show was a part of its charm.

I recognize that some of the plot was absolutely ridiculous, and Underwood as the President wins the William Shatner Award for Over-Acting In a Television Series, but I loved his "hands-on" approach to the Presidency.

Some of the other characters in this series were downright hilarious, especially Bill Smitrovitch as the power-hungry Vice-President Raymond Jarvis.  And Sophia Maguire (played by Laura Innes), the leader of the extraterrestrials, started out as a benevolent ally to the government, but soon turned on her "bitch switch" and orchestrated the entire plot to exterminate humankind in order to make room for "her people" here on Earth.  What nerve!

Series creator Nick Wauters had some very interested things to say in the aftermath of the show's cancellation.  Click here to read the comments on his blog.

Here's hoping The Event gets scooped up by another network.

Word on the street is that another network may pick it up, so stay tuned.

-Turnbull