The only thing Zero Hour has going for it is a pretty cool title. I can't tell you how unengaging the show's pilot is. I had much higher hopes for this one seeing as how its creator is none other than Paul Scheuring. You see Scheuring is the man responsible for Prison Break, a show I used to be quite obsessed with. Sadly, this pilot was nowhere near as compelling as Break's superb pilot.
A lot of the blame rests on Anthony Edwards. The guy has absolutely no charisma and is the most boring lead I've seen on primetime in quite a while. Of course I can't completely blame him because the show's premise is laughably generic and convoluted. Nazis? Rusta-whatchamacallits? Demon babies? "Twelve" clocks? It was frustrating to make sense of this messy hodgepodge of a production and I really have no interest in learning how it all comes together (if Scheuring can even manage that).
The rest of the cast is equally irritating. The sorry excuse of an FBI agent is the most unprofessional operative I've ever seen (was she really bickering with the witness after his wife was kidnapped?) and the attempts at making her sympathetic fell insanely flat. I can just picture them making her a love-interest eventually and that notion makes me cringe. The less said about Hank's scooby gang of kids who globe-trot around the world the better. Seriously how is this drivel even allowed to air?
I have to mention the final scene. The voiceover really tried force a dramatic/epic ending down our throats but it was such a preposterous sequence that my eyes almost rolled into the back of my head. Here's the pilot's final line; it's a true comedic delight:
“The storm is coming. It will pit science against religion, country against country. And that storm is called -- Zero Hour!”
Gah! Kill me now.
Conclusion
Contrived and far from exciting, the Zero Hour pilot is a tragic disaster.
1 out of 5 demon babies.
Previously posted on Nad's Reviews.
I could not agree with you more! The only reason I watched until the end was that I kept hoping it would pick up its game. The final ten minutes were so ridiculous as to be laughable. Have you ever heard so much exposition at the end of an episode??
ReplyDeleteNEVER Chris. I couldn't believe my eyes. I usually praise implausible shows (which many people hate) if they're entertaining and crazy but this was just horrendous beyond comprehension! I think this was the first time I actually laughed during a high-concept drama pilot. What a flop.
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