Cool concepts aren’t enough anymore. “La Brea,” which premiered Tuesday on NBC, has a pretty good one: A sinkhole opens at the titular tar pits in Los Angeles and a bunch of people fall through a rift into another reality.
A lame ‘Lost’
But then David Appelbaum’s series goes flat. One character says this feels like an episode of “Lost.” Although I’m not the world’s biggest “Lost” fan (I haven’t desired to rewatch it since it ended), that comparison does “La Brea” no favors.
NBC’s ads promote the questions “Where are they?” and “When are they?” But a bigger one might be “Does anyone care?” When we tune in to an Event Series like this, we’re trading real-world tragedies for a more colorful sci-fi situation.
“La Brea” Season 1 (2021)
Tuesdays, NBC
Creator: David Appelbaum
Stars: Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Chiké Okonkwo
Sure, “La Brea” qualifies as escapism in the sense that it’s fiction. But it’s not different enough from stories of desperate refugees or displaced hurricane and forest fire victims to be pleasurable escapism.
Indeed, “La Brea” is an exercise in “Can’t we all get along?” diversity as it hits expected beats about strangers being forced to work together.
Blunt diversity
The cast’s standout is Zyra Gorecki as teenager Izzy. Gorecki has an artificial lower left leg, and she’s unusually tall – as is noticeable in scenes across from Eoin Macken, who plays her estranged dad, Gavin.
Izzy comes off like a real person who doesn’t fit a mold. Too many others come off as scripted people who don’t fit a mold.
A British-Indian youth (Rohan Mirchandaney as Scott) is stoned on anxiety medication. A suicidal guy (Chiké Okonkwois as Ty) is a psychiatrist. A cop (Karina Logue as Marybeth) stashes a personal food supply away from the communal supply.
Instead of stereotypes, Appelbaum gives us reverse-stereotypes. Oddly, the impression of shorthand writing is the same. He whiffs on the opportunity to write truly weird people. Maybe the sinkhole should’ve opened in Florida.
For all its diversity of races and people who don’t fit stereotypes, everyone is rather normal. And “La Brea” is quite standard.
A separated family
Mom (Natalie Zea as Eve) is joined by son Josh (Jack Martin) — who delivers the requisite “Where the hell are we?” — as a sinkhole victim.
Eve and Gavin are separated as a family and now by the dimensional rift. Gavin – topside, with Izzy – started having visions (this is a second SF aspect, along with the rift, and I bet they’ll tie together) after his military service.
That led him to drinking, and to the breakup. Now those visions will obviously lead the family back together again.
Episode one raises questions then points directly to answers. It gives us more information than “Lost’s” first hour does, but I care so much less.
Not enough intrigue
Even viewers for whom plot is enough will find “La Brea” short on intrigue. Here’s the requisite institutional angle: The officials knew about the rift in advance, and hid it from the public. That’s not intriguing, that’s government being government.
Action fans will note that the extinct (in our own reality) creatures – vicious wolves and huge birds here, and giant sloths in future episodes — of the alternate dimension are CGI creations.
The characters (Izzy aside) and situations are already such fabricated products that we don’t need another reminder of the falsity.
For those who stick with it, let me know if it gets better. There’s too much good TV out there for me to go beyond one episode.