ZERØ HOUR: A Glimpse into how Religious Extremism & Technological Advancement Could Make for a Scary Combination

It’s too early to chime in yet on the Fall debuts and returns (I’ll save that for next month), so instead today I want to spend a few minutes discussing one of the casualties of last year’s television season.  ABC’s ZERØ HOUR (2013) was a one of the earliest promoted dramas of the 2012-2013 season, despite the fact that it was not even set to launch until February 2013 as a mid-season replacement.  (This was perhaps the first nail in the series’ coffin).  The promotional material was vague, but intriguing, and the show landed a strong male lead in Anthony Edwards (who played the beloved “Goose” in Top Gun and the long-term fan favorite, Dr. Mark Greene on ER).  When the show finally launched I thought it had some good potential, although I sensed its early demise early on when pacing problems (coupled with the Lost-esque plight of trying to walk the difficult tightrope between developing a complicated series-long mystery and not alienating viewers with implausible scenarios and too many unanswered questions) were evident.  But it wasn’t until well after it was canceled that the show hit its sweet spot, revealing a narrative that would have been a novelty on network television.  ZERØ HOUR ultimately wove an intriguing plot that forced viewers to contemplate what would happen if religious extremists stumbled upon the most advanced scientific technology to date.  But, alas, the show didn’t start there and didn’t get there in nearly enough time to ensure itself a second season. 

So where did it start?  The opening minutes of the series flashed back to 1938 Nazi Germany where a group of priests had gathered to move and hide a mysterious religious relic that they feared could bring about the end of the world if captured by Hitler.   The show then shifted to its modern day narrative arch.  The main plot began by focusing on Hank Gallistan (Anthony Edwards), the owner of Modern Skeptic (a magazine specializing, fittingly, on investigating conspiracy theories).  Not long into the pilot episode Hank’s wife, Laila, is abducted from her clock repair shop.  This event starts the first segment of the show:  a scavenger-hunt-like race around the world to rescue Laila (and, as a result, solve an ancient mystery and capture a well known terrorist).  In a previous post I called this show a modern day version of National Treasure and it did have that flavor.  Hank and his team of young magazines, along with an FBI agent with a grudge against the man who captured Laila, White Vincent (he was thought to have killed her husband), begin to solve riddles housed in clues within ancient clocks scattered across the globe.  Among other surprises, this adventure brings them face to face with some inexplicable things, most notably the frozen corpse of a Nazi solider preserved in a submarine in the Antarctic… a corpse who is an exact double of Hank.  Finally they collect all the clocks, rescue Laila, and then the narrative morphs into its next focus (following the revelation that Laila is not who they think she is).

Slowly the mystery that drives the series is revealed.   The twelve clue-containing clocks were hidden by the Twelve New Apostles (the priests seen in the opening moments of the series).  The item that they were hiding (the item that could only be found by piecing together the clues found in these twelve clocks) was the original cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on.  A hunt for a religious relic – not a unique premise for a narrative (Indiana Jones, anyone?) but that, of course, was only half of the mystery. 

Hank et al. learn that Laila is really a (…wait for it…) nun with a shady past, who is working for the Rosicrucians, a group of Christian mystics dating back to the 17th century.  The Rosicrucians (later referred to in slang as “the Angels”), who are trying to prevent the cross from falling into the hands of “The Pirates” (the group for which White Vincent works).  These modern day “pirates” are actually religious extremists, hiding under the front of an organization called The 41 Trust – a nonprofit organization known for their philanthropy.   In truth, their charitable acts are actually masking their unethical scientific experiments – the most horrific being the continuation of “Project Zero Hour,” a human cloning study began by the Nazis.  (The cloning aspect of the show, which should have been evident from Hank’s first encounter with his double on the submarine, was also foreshadowed with other footage that showed both he and Vincent as WWII German soldiers and later as 1970s inmates in an insane asylum).  The head of the 41 Trust, Melannie Lynch (referred to as “Mother”), is after the cross so that she can scientifically bring about “the second coming” by cloning Jesus.   

Viewers learn that Hank and Vincent, modern day foes, are clones of the two WWII Nazi soldiers – best friends who “parted ways” (Hank’s original killed Vincent’s original) after they disagreed with what to do with the crucifix (during the Apostle’s efforts to hide it from the Third Reich).  Hank is a “successful” clone in that he has no imperfections, Vincent is an imperfect clone (in that he is an Albino, hence the nickname “White Vincent”).  The 41 Trust wants to use both of them to determine how to create a “perfect” clone of Jesus. 

At this point the suspense of the series is really good.  Viewers now have a real reason to want Hank and his crew to beat the Pirates to the cross.  Both parties arrive almost simultaneously and when the ancient crate is dug up, all that is inside are bugs:  the cross has disintegrated and its remnants have been eaten by beetles.  End of danger, right?  Wrong.  Somehow the 41 Trust had anticipated this and had abducted a bug expert (this just happens to be the supposedly dead husband of the FBI agent tag-teaming with Hank in this quest).  With the help of the bug doctor, the Trust is able to extract some blood from the beetles and after studying Hank and Vincent, they are able to create cloned embryos to be inserted into female carriers.  After one successful trial, one girl (Alima) is impregnated, the leader of the 41 Trust decides that she will be the one to carry the new son of God and orders Vincent to kill Alima and all of the other would-be carriers.  Instead Hank and Vincent help her escape.  An explosion kills Melanie and (at first glance) Vincent.   The series ends eight months later.  A scene shows Alima healing the sick in an African Village – one of those sick being Vincent who had escaped the explosion after all.

Overall, besides for a lot of moments that required really turning up one’s “suspension of disbelief” dial, it was a pretty interesting plot.  I’m not sure where the storyline could have gone after this first season but as a one-series unit it did a good job of presenting a unique narrative that highlighted the danger of advanced scientific knowledge in the hands of religious fanatics.

As I turn away from last season’s shows to focus on those debuting this year, I’m not sure I see any new network dramas that offer this level of complexity.  I suppose I should be happy, since these types of shows tend to simply get canceled (wasting my time and frustrating me to no end), but instead I am sad, already feeling that my DVR is lacking in any novelty and high-end intellect.  But perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

NBC Stands for “No Bleeping Clue”?: The Struggling Network’s Identity Crisis (From Last Year’s Success with Revolution to This Year’s Sitcom Debuts)

NBC, a once powerful primetime force, has lately become everyone’s favorite punching bag.  The past few years has found the network hemorrhaging viewers at an unprecedented rate and so television critics have been quick to poke fun of its programming attempts and missteps.   I myself have said that NBC is the place where good programming ideas go to die.

As we prepare to head into the new primetime season I find myself reflecting on their recent identity crisis.  The past few years has found them trying to draw in viewers with hyped up dramas – most of which have failed splendidly upon arrival, or soon after.  One of the first of these was The Event (2010-2011), the show that was marketed to be the next Lost.  It lasted just one season.  In 2012, inspired perhaps by Fox’s Glee, it launched Smash (2012-2013), a novel addition to the primetime scene – an hour-long musical/drama hybrid.  It was one of its most successful programs of the year but then flopped in its sophomore year (after NBC did not bring the show back until the winter season) and was canceled after only a two-year run.  It most recent big-ticket drama is Revolution (2012-present).  And while I like the show quite a bit and can see great potential, I worry with NBC’s track record that this year will soon see the program falling to pieces and landing in the televisual graveyard which houses all too many other potentially great shows that met their early demise. But, while it is alive and well, I’ll take some time to discuss it here.

Revolution is yet another dystopian tale of the United States post-national disaster.  However, this story offers some unique variations on this common plot.  Viewers are first led to believe that a scientific experiment gone wrong has left the country (and world) without electricity.  As the first season stretches on this slightly unfathomable premise becomes (while not scientifically sound) more believable.  An invention which utilizes nanotechnology to deplete electricity within a specific parameter has been adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense and, apparently, a rogue official has decided to mutate this technology so that its effect is wide reaching and disastrous.  Or so we thought until the season finale.  While this disaster serves as the backdrop for the series, like most post-apocalyptic narratives, at the heart of the story is a community simply trying to survive.   It is not basic survival (such as shelter and food) that they seek, as it is 15 years after the blackout and communities have formed across the States fashioned after the American Revolution-era, they are trying to survive assassination and capture.  The family is being hunted down by various powers because it is believed that in their midst is the knowledge (and technology) to restart the electricity.  And so the long game of cat and mouse begins.   

What I like best about the show is the way that it imagines the not-so-futuristic post-disaster United States.  The blackout has caused the country to divide itself into various warring territories, which the show often reveals in quick glances at a map of the country.  

 For the majority of the first season we are only privy to the happenings within the Monroe District – a military state run by a tyrannical general headquartered in Philadelphia and his wide-reaching, violent militia forces.  However, as the first season drew to a close, the characters travel into the neighboring territories and we learn that it is not as bleak in other sections of the country.  For example, the Georgia Federation is led by a female President, who rules with the safety of her citizens, not her personal glory, in mind. 

Aesthetically I find the show to be well constructed.  The set decoration is most impressive when viewers are show scenes of familiar national monuments or famous locales in their ruined state. 

 While some have found the frequent Samurai-like fight sequences to be unrealistic, I am able to suspend my disbelief and appreciate the role they play in making this drama blend into the action genre. 

And while the acting is uneven (I found the teen characters that we were supposed to invest in early on so annoying I was half hoping for their deaths), the main character, Miles Matheson(Billy Burke), a reluctant hero (bad guy turned bad) is terrific.  As is his former best friend, Sebastian Monroe (David Lyons), the evil villain that we slowly gain sympathy toward (hinting at the fact that in the coming season he won’t be our principle bad guy).  Rachel Matheson (Elizabeth Mitchell, formerly of Lost and V), plays her typical stony, strong female role well.  And a cast of minor characters have led to plot moments where I have teared up at the deaths (or potential deaths) of the supplementary community members. 

Finally, the show did what any debut show needs to do:  it built up to a cliffhanger climax that makes viewers eager to return for season two.  [Spoiler Alert].  In the final episodes the bad guys achieve their goal of turning the power back on – an accomplishment that will give them the power to bomb their enemies off the map; before killing himself, the same rogue official who started this all in motion, Randall, detonates a series of atomic bombs aimed at major U.S. cities; and our main characters (and the world) are left in peril.  But it doesn’t end there.  The final scene reveals a presidential bunker in Guantanamo Bay where the President of the United States has apparently been hiding since the blackout.  He receives word that Randall has successful accomplished his goal and viewers are left understanding that the pending destruction of much of the country has actually been ordered by its commander in chief.

This is the type of drama that could revitalize NBC’s flailing Neilson Ratings.  And while NBC is launching a few new dramas that could run beside it (The Blacklist looks interesting this year), it is boasting of its new lineup of sitcoms).  It seems to this viewer like the network just can’t figure out what direction it wants to go in or who it wants to be.  I’m not saying the focus on sitcoms is a bad thing, the genre definitely is slowly returning to prominence on primetime and such shows do make more money in syndication than dramas.  And maybe it’s a good idea to try to return to its glory days of “Must See TV” where NBC made money hand-over-fist with shows like Friends, Seinfeld, and Fraiser.  But will this generation of viewers relate to a show like Welcome to the Family, Sean Saves the World, or The Michael J. Fox Show like those of us in the 90s did to the fun-loving, coffee shop-dwelling gang of Friends?  I’m betting not.

So, as a television scholar who primarily studies network television, I’ll be cheering for this behemoth to return to its former network glory days.  But I won’t be holding my breath or investing too much time (or DVR space) to their shows as I’m not quite convinced that this will be their comeback year!