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- ABC
- Sep 24, 2019
- ABC
- Sep 24, 2019
Summary Police chief Jo (Allison Tolman) finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy when she takes in a child (Alexa Skye Swinton) she finds at the scene of a mysterious plane accident with no memory in this thriller from Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters.
Created By: Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas
- ABC
- Sep 24, 2019
- ABC
- Sep 24, 2019
Summary Police chief Jo (Allison Tolman) finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy when she takes in a child (Alexa Skye Swinton) she finds at the scene of a mysterious plane accident with no memory in this thriller from Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters.
Created By: Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas
Season Episodes
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
69
79% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
21% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
69
79% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
21% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Investing in ABC’s Emergence looks like it could be a winning proposition. And even if the suspense and premise begin to sag, there’s always Allison Tolman to keep hope alive. ... Tolman’s performance is thoroughly grounded.
It deserves a shot, at least on the basis of its first hour. With real tension, uncommon curiosity, and a knockout, chilling final shot, it’s a network pilot whose strength on its own merits is compounded by how unlike the rest of network TV right now it seems.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
6.5
63% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
17% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
20% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
6.5
63% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
17% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
20% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
ABC's Emergence is really on-brand for the network. Just like with Downward Dog, the network is really trying to anchor longevity for Allison Tollman but viewers just won't give her a break with review bombing Downward Dog and now this! Guys please just stop doing this! It's ugly and does real damage to not only the actor's career but also the network. If you have some honest things to say then say it but don't put reviews for the sake of bringing the score down! I mean just come on!!! Not every show can be a Game of Thrones, Lost, The Good Wife or Succession. But they can be Grey's Anatomy, Fringe among others if they are given a chance. So don't just write bad review for the sake of it. I have gone over some of the reviews and they are just saying 'bad vibes' 'i don't trust ABC'. I mean really!! What kind of message are they trying to send. It does not say anything about demerits of the show and how that fails to meet expectations. The reason I gave a 10 is because I want the show to succeed and do well for the talent involved and also because I find it promising that it will deliver on those promises. So here's my 'constructive review' of the first episode. So I'll do a premier review, a middle of the season review and then the finale.
Episode 1 - The opening sequence of the show was thrilling and kept me guessing right from the start. Allison's character is designed in a way to help us stay one step ahead of her. For e.g. the fake parents scene was something I knew right from the beginning but the way it unfolds in front of the character was interesting and adds to the naivety of the character. It is this naivety that help us sympathize with her and understand the story from her perspective. Her taking care of Piper is very Hopper and Eleven from Stranger Things but this seems fresh because of the way Jo is. She wants to protect Piper from anyone who would do her harm and that adds dept and an emotional foundation for their story which could have pay offs seasons later. Another interesting aspect of the show is its lighting. The nights seems really dark and mysterious with a tinge of delicacy. The way the lighting is shown on the characters make them seem delicate especially Jo. The directing was pretty standard, it didn't seem to do anything interesting with the pilot but the writing was one which I really liked. It did not give away plot points very easily except the fake parents scene. The kidnapping scene where Jo and everyone else are trying to find the housebreakers was also good and added real tension. Now, I really like that ABC is trying to market it as a mystery-box show when it clearly has science-fiction elements with Piper's telepathy powers (i'm going with it). The very end seem to suggest to me that Piper knows herself because the face acting sure seem to suggested that and when she takes out the chip from her side neck and then covers that area with her hair implied that fact. I don't know what Piper's origins are but I really hope that it's not an experimental accident because that would be just so boring! We've seen that on Stranger Things already so I don't want to see it happen again. My overall score for this episode: 7.5/10
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SEASON 1
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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SEASON 1
I’d say the early choices are encouraging, though, and the last time Allison Tolman donned a badge, things turned out pretty well. This isn’t “Fargo,” it’s not “Lost,” but better than ripping off either of those shows, “Emergence” might just be good.
Paul McGuigan (“Lucky Number Slevin”) directs the well-paced pilot of “Emergence,” but it suffers from that lingering mystery issue that plagues a lot of high concept shows like NBC’s “Manifest.” ... However, Tolman finds emotional, subtle beats that lesser actresses would miss, and Clancy Brown is an always-welcome presence (as are Donald Faison as Jo’s ex and Owain Yeoman as a reporter). Let’s hope they don’t get bogged down in a spiraling mystery.
The concept isn’t overly complicated — no heavy mythology in the pilot — and the cast, including Clancy Brown and Donald Faison, has strong appeal.
Tolman, with her knack for conveying alert intelligence and sardonic skepticism, is the best hedge “Emergence” has against being a generic broadcast-network thriller. She’s fine as Jo, but it’s a less interesting, more predictable role. ... As for the story, intrigue manages to stay a few steps ahead of implausibility in the first hour, which is a perfectly serviceable setup episode. But implausibility has a way of gaining fast in shows like this.
Maybe you've heard, but there's a lot of TV out there, and to play the long game with a mystery-box network show just seems like the wrong way to go.
As with the last new show i reviewed,Evil ,this is really cookie cutter stuff that is very reminiscent of numerous other shows or films.
A kid with psychokinetic powers who is likely a cyborg being chased down by the government or MIB .
She is adopted by a kindly female cop and her father . The cop keeps guns seemingly everywhere in the house and waves them around as if it's a tv remote.
Kinda comical that nobody seems to care.
There's a lot of deception practiced by the cop,the kid in this which is bound to backfire of course .
Poor series but the cop is body positive and a strong female role model.
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SEASON 1
If I look into a mystery show about a girl that has psychokinetic powers and is probably AI these days, I don't expect anything new. I mean, it's ABC...
So it's no surprise we see mostly stuff we have seen before, but that's not really the problem I have with this show.
The problem is, that it's a timid, boring, thrill-free, mediocre affair with low stakes and gender politics that are so obvious that the show and some of its male characters are simply embarrassing.
You see, it's a mystery show and I would like to get some suspense, maybe even a little excitement from it.
But after a few episodes, after the novelty has worn off, you would hope for the pace to pick up and the plot to move forward, maybe a little action, you know...
Well sure, things happen, you learn things about the characters, some characters involved in the affair get killed, and yet, everything somehow just plods along.
One reason for that is, that the stakes here are remarkably low.
Jo, the local police officer , hosts Piper, a girl they assume to be an android with special powers, at her house. The girl/android belongs to a big company that wants it back, as expected.
But in spite of this the main characters, Jo, who is a divorced single parent living with her daughter and her father in a house, don't seem to be in any danger. Neither is her ex-husband, who often drops by.
There is never a feeling of a threat, when they are at home, except for one night, but the intruder is after a device Jo obtained, not after the girl.
But you would expect that this big company would have minions who could terrorize the family until Jo would give in. Or they could put pressure on Jo's superiors. But that doesn't happen.
So the only character in 'danger' is Piper.
But she doesn't appear to be a human being, so we don't know what kind of danger she's supposed to be in.
So, as I said, the stakes for the main characters are low.
The fact that the family members are in no danger also evades an ethical predicament Jo could face:
Would she risk the lives of her family for a girl that's most likely not even a human being?
The show deliberately avoids this situation to emerge, because in this case it wouldn't be believable for Jo to keep Piper at her home.
Instead for thrills and suspense we get a lot of talking and driving around in cars and...gimmicks.
Like Piper having 'daydreams' in which she communicates with the owner of the company or his **** these sequences don't move the plot forward, at least as of episode 8. It's just gimmickry.
And by episode 8, I got the feeling this will go on and on and on... Nothing really dramatic to be found, no suspense or excitement. I'm bored...
There's one other thing:
Never in my reviews have I ever dealt with 'female empowerment' stuff.
But in this show it's too obvious:
There are no male characters with authority or competence in this show.
Jo is the only one who has anything to say. The officer working under her is a wet blanket. A very nice guy but without energy, being kept on a need to know basis but who does what Jo wants him to do.
Her father is old, gentle and has cancer. Her ex-husband is just...there, talking, driving around in his car, that's it. He's not relevant to the plot. He's black-ish (Donald Faison) and is there probably for diversity reasons.
The journalist who contacts her, Benny Gallagher, is more dynamic, but he has nothing to say or to decide and in later episodes, we really don't see that much of him, e.g. sitting on a hotel bed with his laptop.
In episode 8, the Feds finally come, and the lead agent, having travelled probably hundreds of miles, has nothing better to do than to **** up to Jo, telling her what an amazing job she has done (???). He's not trying to mislead her, he really means it and comes across as a total ****. It's so embarrassing, I cringed. I couldn't believe what I saw.
The Feds have authority over local police, he's sent to take charge of matters, why else? So, wth is this?
As for competence: There are computer/tech experts, the woman trying to crack the stolen hard drive and Emily, a technical whiz working for the company. No men. The FBI agent is a joke (see above).
However, the 'bad guy', the owner of the company, is a **** course.
Many shows are doing this and here, it's so obvious that it rubs me the wrong way.
I don't mind strong women as lead characters, but stop depicting men as weak, evil or irrelevant.
So, as you would guess, I don't recommend this show. I doubt that the time you invest in it will pay off.
Even besides the gender politics, the show doesn't deliver what you would expect from it.
There are enough other shows to pick from. So do that.
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SEASON 1
To be fair, I only watched the first 20 minutes or so, but it immediately seemed like so many other series, it turned me off. That and this idea that a small town sheriff can just tell the Feds to go sit in a corner when they are investigating something is so patently silly and over-used, I got bad vibes. It may be unfair, and I may revisit/binge later, but I really don't trust ABC after the Passage debacle. This is a ham-handed family attempt at sci-fi and it looks to be a slog.
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SEASON 1