Lost > The Event > FlashForward

Pilot review: The Event

I did not expect to like this show at all. It seemed a lot like FlashForward which I didn't enjoy. It's being toted as the new "Lost meets 24", both of which managed to be pretty annoying a lot of the time. And it's been advertised like crazy so I was already sick of hearing about it. I was basically prepared to hate it. So it was surprising when I didn't hate it as much as I'd expected. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it, but I'll probably watch again next week.

What's interesting to me:

• Sean and Mike: Sean (Jason Ritter) came off a little twitchy and weird, but I did like the idea of him and his girlfriend's dad, Mike (Scott Patterson), possibly working together to find out what's going on. This relationship was barely evident in the pilot so I'm basically just interested in where I think it's going, but the possibility of it is keeping me interested.
• Where did the plane go?: I'm guessing the plane disappearing was "The Event", and while I'm not super intrigued by whatever is behind the plane disappearing, I am curious about where the plane went. This is probably a question that'll be answered next week, though, so my interest might wane significantly after that.

What's not:

• Everything else. Apparently vague intrigue doesn't do it for me. I didn't care about that prison or what was going on there. I didn't care about Sophie. I didn't care about the President caring about the prison. I didn't care about the conspiracy to keep the thing the viewer doesn't know about a secret.
• Lost at least gave the characters enough downtime to have some fun, get to know each other, establish love triangles, play golf, etc., so that some of the characters actually became likable and the entire watchability of the show didn't hinge on "What's going on?". I'm not sure this show has set up a situation that will allow for that.
  

Unimportant lingering questions:

• How did Sean get the gun on that plane?
• How is the President the President if he's Cuban?
  
• How can I learn to drive like Simon?
  

Common elements:

• People in unmarked cars watching other people. Until this show I hadn't realized that I've seen that in Nikita, Terriers, Outlaw, and this. So that's a thing.
• It has both covert operations of unknown origins and an engagement gone wrong in common with Nikita.
• Latino in government in common with Outlaw.