An Event?

The Event

Episodes One and Two

Creator Nick Wauters, U.S.A.

Aired on Channel Four, 23rd October 2010

Billed as literally the greatest event on television (at least on an Friday evening in October) the first two episodes of 'The Event' were reported to be the type of unmissable television which leaves you demanding more and asking endless questions.

Certainly the latter was true, although this was due more to the way in which the two episodes were shot and constructed than the plot. Outwardly there is an interesting premise: an unidentified group of aliens whose existence has been kept imprisoned and under wraps by the American government since 1944, some of their number had managed to escape and, outwardly identical to human beings, live alongside the population at large. It certainly has the makings for an interesting conspiracy thriller. However this was largely undermined by the constant shifts in time, location and character focus which played across the piece. Signposted by a series of irksome on-screen titles such a rapid shift in the story served only to confuse the viewer - perhaps that was the intended effect. If so it seems the most plausible explanation for such a decision would be to cover up a promising, but shallow script.

Like almost every conspiracy thriller the two episodes hinged on the type of 'us' and 'them' narrative which dominates U.S. politics. The American people, personified by U.S. everyman Sean Walker, are eternally portrayed as the 'good guys', the unquestioned holders of the moral high ground. Acting against some unseen, yet potent enemy they seek to prevail. So be it sinister CIA agents (who have an irritating tendency to turn out to be 'OK' in the end), alien interlopers, unknown government departments or perhaps even Al-Qaeda or the once ubiquitous Russians, these good American people are set at odds with an unidentified threat.

It may well be a little unfair to view a series which is still very much in it's infancy harshly and with such media euphoria surrounding the series we must be careful not to expect what we are told we should. There are undoubted twists and turns to follow. The only danger is that a programme which relies on an apparent alien foe with identical human characteristics may lead to tedium as, like the closing scenes of the disappointing Mission Impossible III, enemy and ally blurr almost into one in tiresome twists in plot.

Rating - 2/5