"The Event" which "Wasn't"!

On Monday night NBC debuted their highly-touted new series "The Event" and I've gotta tell you, it really wasn't much of an .... event.

What it seemed like to me was a misguided ripoff of "LOST". I mean do the math. Flashbacks, an airplane in distress, passengers disappearing, people held against their will in a remote location and hints of supernatural phenomena. Yeah, that sounds like "LOST" to me, too.

Now add in more shady characters acting under duress, shadowy government agencies with secrets to keep - at all costs - and implied conspiracies. Sorry, it still sounds too damn much like "LOST".

Honestly, how this cliche-riddled waste of time earned so much advance hype is beyond my understanding. Plus the show is packed with actors that I detest. I've never liked Blair Underwood or Laura Innes in anything that they've appeared in. Now I can add Jason Ritter to that short list as well. I have occasionally liked Bill Smitrovich, Scott Patterson and Zeljko Ivanek in other roles, but in this case each seems cast in roles that will make them unlikable from the outset.

You know there was an "event" last night, but it occurred after the show was over when I immediately reported to the bathroom in order to purge myself of the gut roiling bile that this crummy pilot left me with. I refuse to commit to another round of endless seasons of slowing unfolding mysteries, especially when last years far better genre-bending television series has already tilled this particular soil, so I won't be watching a second more of "The Event".

On another note, CBS rebooted and re-imagined "Hawaii 5-0" was a real crowd-pleaser with all my buddies. I enjoyed the original series and didn't know what to expect from this new effort, however I was pleased with the opener and not at all put-off by how the character dynamics were changed. Hawaii 5-0 is one to watch!