Over a month ago, I posted my top new show picks for the fall season. Among them was the new NBC show The Event. I have since kept quiet about it because for the longest time I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. Even after 5 episodes, I still can’t make up my mind. So when I was reading through my TV news today and saw that NBC had just renewed the show for a second season, I was totally floored. The show brought in just over 6 million viewers for last night’s episode. By comparison, Dancing with the Stars and Two and a Half Men which air opposite The Event brought in 20 million and 13 million views respectively.
In the grand scheme of shows, it’s not even in the top 25. It’s even getting out ranked by Family Guy. Yet somehow, NBC found a way to justify giving it another season (most likely because they have no other options). The show was way over-hyped for what it was. All the promos kept showing a totally implausible happening with the tagline “This is not the event”. Once this impending event occurs, it better be damn good or else no one is going to stick with it. However, if they chose to drag it out into the second season, they’re going to lose even more viewers.
For me, the show takes itself far too seriously. I think that while the plot has some problems, it is intriguing enough to keep me interested, but there’s such a lack of humor. I find myself wanting to know what’s going to happen, but halfway through the episodes I start to get disinterested because there’s just too much heaviness to the dialogue. I’m a fan of conspiracy theories and this show definitely provides it, but the whole structure and character writing is too much. They need to get a comedy writer to join the team or something. Even Lost, which tackled some tough issues, had some great comedy moments to take the weight off – and we know how successful that was.