"Persons Unknown" NBC Mini Series - a Lame Attempt at a "Lost" Imitation

Persons Unknown, the NBC summer mini series is a very bad attempt at imitating the TV show, Lost. The show is so predictable that you just know you have seen it before.

It starts off with strangers slowly meeting in the hallway of a hotel and no one knows how they got there. The Persons Unknown group remember being at home or out in the community someplace and the next thing they know they wake up in this hotel. The only people there are the small group of people who were abducted (where have we seen this before?).

Even the first encounters they had with each other were lame. I know we are talking only an hour to tell part of the story, but they are resigned to the fact that they have been abducted too fast for even a hint of reality in the show. Persons Unknown may very well be unknown if the first segment is an indication of the remaining shows.

They go outside to a deserted town and after a few of the people step too far down the street, they fall in an immediate unconscious state. It takes a pile of people dropping before this problem is realized. After the first one went down you knew it was an invisible force that we saw in the movie The Happening except this force just renders them useless until they are pulled away from it and they wake up.

No one appears too upset to be in an unknown predicament. They are not happy, but they do a lousy job playing the part of being afraid and bewildered. They also started looking for common factors that may have played a part in getting them there. An example: Wow, I was down town shopping and the next thing I knew I woke up here., declares the first lady we see. Then the man who just walked into her room asks, Do you owe money to anyone? This was a big jump and it feels as if there is at least a half hour conversation that should have taken place between these two sentences.

Persons Unknown can leave out big chunks of time because it has all been done before, so they did away with the details that make a mystery a mystery and cut right to the high points. All climax and no story? It was actually so familiar that I could say the sentences before the actors did and I got many of them almost exact.

Everything n this first segment of Persons Unknown is borrowed from another science fiction source. The first indication that this was going to be mediocre at best was the cast. None were well known, but some were recognized for being on other TV or cable shows.

None of the cast had starring roles on TV shows in the past, they were characters that were splashed through out as extended family members, neighbors, and co-workers of the stars. A step daughter from Six Feet Under and a co-worker from Spin City are the two that I recognized.

Not something I would recommend to watch, although I will give it one more chance next week just to see if it picks up in its entertainment value. I also like lip syncing with the cast, it is a hobby of mine, and this show makes it easy.

The concept was borrowed, the effects of keeping them captive is borrowed and even waking up not knowing where you are with a group of strangers is borrowed. I also think there is one more thing is borrowed. If the first episode is any indication on how the rest will play out, then the show is living on borrowed time!

Reference: NBC's Persons Unknown