Since The Event was not renewed for a second season, the season finale from last night was the final episode.
I had been hoping that perhaps the writers and producers of The Event had seen the writing on the wall before finishing the last episode of this season. If they’d had time, perhaps they could have written the denouement that we all desire.
Instead, we are left with the continuance that we would expect at the end of a season. I was happy with how quickly the action was moving for the few episodes preceding the finale, and that gave me hope.
Several entire sub-plots were resolved, and lots of questions were answered. Ironic as it may be, the series was finally starting to get good after it was already too late. The final episode however brought back some of the bad conventions from earlier in the season.
The plot blindness that they placed so forcibly on the geek hero in the final scenes was, frankly, terrible writing.
Having the stoic alien turncoat tell him so much, just to leave a few super important words unspoken was dumb, especially since they seemed to have plenty of time to talk.
Also, they played the pregnancy card. Seriously? This is the most blatant string-pulling device in the narrative arts, to be used only in extreme situations, here used gratuitously and unsubtly. It’s like the writers wanted to show us unambiguously that there is a very good reason we should be happy that the geek hero decided to stay with the fiancé, rather than running off with the hot super spy who obviously loves him.
Maybe it just upsets me because I was rooting for the hot super spy.
The final scenes were an interesting revelation, at least, though it makes me wonder why Sofia thought it necessary to try to wipe out the planet. They’ve obviously got plenty of real-estate for everyone now, right? Although, I’m no plantetologist, but I’m pretty sure that adding so much new mass to the orbit of the earth would simply kill everyone anyway.
I guess none of it matters now. Unless a second tier cable station picks up the second season, which is unlikely considering the apparent lack of fan-base, and ratings which declined steadily (though ratings for the finale have yet to be released).
We’ve seen that kind of thing before, but only for shows which had a very dedicated and vocal fan base, like Sliders. Unfortunately Sliders was ruined by the transition anyway – The Cro-Magnon sub-plot was silly and overwrought, but the show really jumped the shark when the emotional bard got pregnant, but I digress.
