La Brea

A cross-section of LA denizens fall through a groundswell in Los Angeles that takes them to the stone age and prompts the question "how is this different from a normal day in Los Angeles?" Seriously, I don't know. It seems like an LA thing though from so many films and TV shows I've seen.

The show cross-cuts between two different scenes.

The dad and husband of two of the victims has paranormal premonitions about what's happening and gets the attention of a shadow government agency that is determined to suppress the truth and conduct a rescue mission.

Getting the lion's share of the action is the group of displaced people as they try to figure out what is happening in a loose rip-off of "Lost." The crew includes a wide variety of professionals such that many are the deus-ex-machinas for each other's ailments. There's a kid with life-threatening injuries but fortunately there's a doctor among the stranded to rescue him. Ditto with a stunted child who's been trained to pretend she's mute and a child psychologist who needs to get information from her without traumatizing. Similarly, there's a paleontologist who can decipher the tea leaves and a cop who can keep order.

The coincidental nature of each person's abilities isn't so bad but there's a clunkiness to the dialogue and the character development that's par for the course for standard broadcast procedurals rather than the middle brow serial this show aspires to be. This certainly slows down the show but it's marginally watchable and has enough potential that it's worth finishing the season.

Truly listen to the dialogue each episode. You will see it all sucks... every line. That said, I do enjoy the plot of the show. It has a great sci fi idea. But these generic blah lines without good character development just won't cut it for a season two. No doubt this show is cancelled after one season. Find better/smarter writers!!!

If you're hoping fir land of the lost, lost world, Terra Nova, Lost etc ...keep moving on.

As the first 5 episodes combined don't hold enough plot or character interest of even the worst episode of the fore mentioned show.

Sad really. I had hoped for more. Too bad this looks like someone high up is ensuring this is going still and canceling shows we actually like.

Let me get this straight. A group of people and vehicles fall into a sinkhole and land in 10,000 BC and the writers think that they need, in the second episode, a story line about heroin being found in the trunk of one of the cars? What a wasted premise!

You are going to feel like you are traveling in time all right -- the cheap CGI is going to take you back three or four decades right way!

Worse yet you absolutely will sense you have been transported back to a bygone era: before the golden age of TV, to a time when networks treated their audiences like 80 IQ types who have no problem with the most idiotic of dialogue, and need to be led around by the nose.

What a shame. Premise has lots of potential to be above average series, but is held back by awful acting, writing and laughable CGI.

4/10 at best, based on first two episodes distributed to reviewers.