With not a bang but a whimper, it’s over.
We’ve come to the final two hours of Persons Unknown. I’m not even sure how many people I mean by “we” anymore, but I don’t care. It’s been a fun ride this summer. If you don’t believe me, ask Stephen King, who took the time to mention it as one of the things he liked about the summer in this week’s Entertainment Weekly. Or ask my colleague Michael, who will be recapping this on Monday since NBC made him watch preseason football instead. But never mind the football, the ratings or the Saturday time slot of doom – let’s go out in a big way, right? Right?
Um…
When last we left, everyone was going to be killed, except they didn’t know it yet. That’s a pretty big deal, but we’re not going to talk about it yet. Instead, we open with Ulrich talking to Janet while she sleeps. Joe finds him, grabs him and threatens him over it. This leads to a hallway discussion of how they’ve wasted their lives in the Program. The confused expression on Joe’s face when he sees what a sad puppy Ulrich has become is priceless. However, it’s Ulrich who finds out from the Director that the town is about to be obliterated, and that he has one last chance to save his own behind. Not that she’ll tell him how, of course.
Everyone else is waiting for the elevator patiently, except for Joe, who freaks out when he can’t find Janet. She’s in the Chinese restaurant where everyone has disappeared. Joe knows what this means, and tells everyone to check all the other buildings. All of them have been similarly abandoned. Erika/Teresa has a bit of a meltdown when she discovers six body bags. There are seven hostages left in the town. Doing the math, only one of them will survive whatever happens next.
Janet confronts Ulrich, who tells her that the body bags are there because they will kill each other until there’s only one person left standing. He says the Program believes she will be the sole survivor, and that he would save her and only her if he could, but she won’t leave without everyone else. She takes that information to Joe, who tells her that he believed he was the last survivor when he went through the Program until Ulrich showed up. That’s what the Program wants: the subjects doing whatever it takes to survive, manipulated to the end that the Program wants – in this case, Janet being the survivor. He tells her to take Ulrich’s offer and get back to her family, but she doesn’t answer him.
Kat and Renbe are still doing their legwork, and meeting with a medical examiner, who tells them the guy whose thumb they have in their possession is alive.
Ulrich calls the Director asking to get out of the town, and she tells him that he’s not going back to his old job. This apparently sets off an alarm in his head, because he grabs Janet and not only that, calls for everyone else to come with them. He’s able to deactivate the electric field surrounding the town, at least for him, as Blackham runs right into it and gets jolted. Unfortunately for Ulrich, the Director is watching all of this, and his head literally explodes (thankfully off-screen). There goes my theory that he had a major part to play in the finale. This only makes Janet more determined to get everyone out alive. She, Joe and Moira find Ulrich’s desk and all the security cameras. Following Erika’s movements, they find a loophole in the cameras’ range.
Kat and Renbe go to visit their guy in a hospital in San Diego. When they question him about the Program, he has no idea what they’re talking about. However, when he starts throwing around the word “vocation” and how he’s part of something greater, they start to think he’s been brainwashed. They do some research leading them to the Mansfield Institute, which just so happens to have also bought the Register. Spooky.
Everyone else has a team meeting in Ulrich’s office. McNair tells Moira he can’t stay with her because they wouldn’t work out in the real world, and breaks her heart. Charlie says he’ll stay with her, which makes Blackham annoyed that Charlie isn’t with him. Erika decides to plant one on Janet. Seriously, what is with everyone falling all over Janet? Thankfully, Janet’s attention is distracted by Blackham getting himself killed. By the time everyone else gets there to help him, his body is gone. Everyone naturally suspects Charlie, who tries to choke Janet when she goes to comfort him. Everyone’s already getting testy.
Kat and Renbe go to visit the Mansfield Institute and see what they can find out. They question a rep about the town and all the things they’ve found out so far. Renbe starts talking to the security camera, which looks exactly like one of the cameras in the town. The two of them cause a major scene before being dragged off by security. Not the way I’d have played it, but no one asked me. The Director ends up alerted to their existence, which can’t be a good thing.
Back in town, Erika baits Charlie, who tries to choke her too whie he’s at it. He doesn’t get far before he just drops on the floor. Erika tries CPR but to no avail; he’s dead. That was sudden. Joe notices injection marks on Charlie’s hand, and Moira deduces that someone drugged him to induce his death. They could all be similarly fated, and decide to start drinking whatever they can in order to dilute anything that might be inside them. At least, that’s what I presume since no one says anything about it. Either that, or Joe is a big fan of pickles.
Erika goes to comfort Moira, who isn’t taking Charlie’s death well. However, she notices that Charlie’s body has disappeared. When she asks Moira about it, Moira decides to beat her to death with the door instead. Everyone else turns up at the racket, she insists that she did it believing Erika killed Charlie and Blackham, but no one believes her. With them in hot pursuit, Moira takes off, despite McNair’s best efforts to get her to calm down. He finds her on the hotel balcony, threatening to jump, and manages to talk her down. He finally tells her he loves her. Moira’s response? She throws him over the balcony to his death. Well, isn’t that lovely. Her next target is Janet, who clocks her with a fire extinguisher and then strangles her with the hose.
In the last fifteen minutes or so, we’ve lost three people, and everyone in the town except Janet and Joe has died in forty-eight minutes (counting commercials). That’s a bit harsh, considering we have a whole hour-plus left to fill. So what’s the show going to do now? Give us our third Undercovers promo, apparently.
Just as Joe and Janet realize they’re the only ones left, they’re startled by sirens and red lights. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what that means. They check the body bags and of course, there’s only one left. She asks what happens to the bodies and he tells her that he has no idea, and that the Program is probably coming to get them. They hug, while she asks what they’re going to do, and he says he doesn’t know. Except for that he’s totally lying, because he poisons her. We find out that apparently his re-education (from “Saved”) must have stuck, because he tells her corpse about how the Program is his vocation and how he could never have chosen her over it. Well, there goes the last reason I had to care about anyone on this show. Count me as one of the people who got totally suckered by his character. I’m actually kind of hoping he gets his after that. Therefore, I don’t care too much when he gets tased right after disposing of Janet’s body. Any show that makes me hate Jason Wiles automatically loses some coolness points.
But what, what’s this? Janet is in her body bag and she’s alive! How’s that? We see in flashbacks that no one’s really dead. Everyone worked together to do a masterful job of faking the whole thing in order to convince the Program that the experiment was over. Everyone’s just been hanging out in their body bags waiting to see what happens next. One by one they emerge in the back of a van which they quickly hijack…or attempt to, because they only succeed in rolling it off the road. At least it lands right side up!
Janet’s wandering the road alone, in the pouring rain, because that’s a really smart thing to do when your life is in danger. She’s also talking to Joe, who is just in her head. Also a good sign. She collapses, and we see a flashback to her life with Renbe. He wants to get a boat when they haven’t even unpacked their apartment yet. She tells him that she’s pregnant. He throws a fit. On that note, Janet wakes up in a hospital. Thankfully, she is not missing either of her thumbs. She finds out she’s back in San Francisco, just before she’s dragged back to her room. She believes she’s still a captive of the Program…but is she? Probably, or this would be a boring last hour, wouldn’t it?
When she wakes up again, she’s met by Detective Gomez, whom Renbe had to deal with last week. He asks her what happened to her, and about her ex-husband. Curiously, he refers to Mark as Mark Cooper, which makes me wonder why he changed his name (unless it was explained in an earlier episode and I missed it, which is entirely possible with this show). Janet wants to know what happened to everyone else, but she just gets knocked out again. This means it’s the perfect opportunity for the show to tell us what happenend to everyone else.
Moira and Erika are in Morocco. Charlie and Bill are on the road (and driving right by Kat and Renbe) in a stolen car. The idea of the two of them stealing a car makes me laugh. Renbe finds out from Gomez that Janet has been found, which is awkward when standing next to one’s current girlfriend. We don’t yet know what happened to McNair or Joe. Meanwhile, Janet has a visitor – who happens to be the Director, who is playing doctor and doing everything she can to discredit Janet’s story as a delusion. Janet overhears all of this and makes her angry face. She later attacks the nurse and tries to make her escape, at the same time that Kat and Renbe turn up at the hospital to see her only to be told she isn’t there. Their subsequent attempt to run from the cops brings them right into Janet. The reunion is short-lived, as Renbe gets tasered and tells Janet to flee.
We end up with some weird camera effects as Janet unwittingly tells the Director about the town and their escape from it. She says she was “sick to my stomach” at having to leave Joe behind, and that she guesses she had feelings for him. After all this time, she still doesn’t have a clue how she feels about him? Joe’s confronted with this footage by the Director, who tells him that Janet is alive as she promised. Joe corrects her that Janet might be alive but she’s not free. She’s trying to get information out of him, and he tells her that he can take whatever she dishes out, because the hostages didn’t tell him anything about the escape attempt on purpose and he wanted it that way. “This one you won’t win,” he says. “Trust me on that.” Not thirty seconds later, Neil the Ex-Night Manager tells the Director that they have a problem. That problem is probably Janet, who has escaped the hospital and made it to her parents’ place to be reunited with her daughter Megan.
The Director has an emergency meeting at the Institute with a bunch of creepy-looking people, including some guy who looks like he’s channeling Christopher Lambert in Mortal Kombat sans the hat and lightning bolts, and doesn’t like her very much. We learn she’s been running things for 25 years, so presumably this has all been going on for quite some time. We also learn that she can call Janet’s mom and refer to herself as “an old friend.” After that phone call, Janet’s mom tells her that everything she knows is true, and gives Janet her daughter and tells her to leave immediately. Obviously, Mom was in on the Program, but was she in on Janet’s abduction?
We cut from there to Kat waking up in a cage in God knows where, surrounded by armed guards. She’s not the only one either. Tori’s father is also in another cage of his own. That fate might not suck as much as the one doled out to McNair, whom we finally see only to realize that he has to be stuck in the white room, presumably pending reeducation like Joe endured in “Saved.” Meanwhile, Charlie and Bill’s Excellent Adventure has them sans car, in the middle of nowhere, talking about how the whole experience has changed them. Charlie realizes Bill is not quite right when Bill knows Charlie’s wife’s name. Awkward.
Janet and her daughter get dropped off at a cheap motel, at least for the time being, because the plan is for them to leave there at daybreak and continue on. I don’t even want to know how Janet is going to explain any of this to her daughter when she gets old enough to start asking questions. There’s another moment where Janet is talking to Joe, wanting him to come to San Francisco and meet Megan. It’s almost kind of cute except for that we know Joe isn’t really there, and that I’m still not convinced Janet really cares for him. Janet wakes up in the hotel room alone. She looks up into a camera before saying, “How could you?”
Joe wakes up himself in another hotel room back in the town. Both of them find Bibles with their room keys in them. Joe is back in the town, and this time, so is Renbe. When he asks where they are, Joe tells him that he doesn’t know. Renbe knows who Joe is and wants to know what happened to Joe. Joe is speechless. The two start to round up whomever is in there with them. Meanwhile, Janet, Moira, Charlie, Blackham and McNair have all woken up in their town together. Everything that they did over the past thirteen episodes was for absolutely nothing. This is only made weirder by the fact Joe discovers Tori is the new Night Manager in his town, and Neil the Pirate Guy has brought Janet, Moira, Charlie, Blackham and McNair to something called “Level Two,” which looks like it sucks a whole lot more than Level One…because it’s on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
I’m going to give everyone a second to process that before I attempt to say anything about it.
Frankly, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this, and not in a good way. The show was conceived as a thirteen-episode miniseries, yet by episode thirteen we really have no closure. We have some ideas of how the Program works and who’s behind it, but with every answer there seems to be another question. I’d forgive this more if the show didn’t essentially just loop around itself to come back to the beginning. We spent thirteen weeks getting to know these people and rooting for their escape, only to have them end up captive all over again, some of them right back in the same town. It’s almost worse because now Renbe is stuck in the town and Kat is presumably still in a cage somewhere, so who is supposed to be looking for them? This is to say nothing of this new “Level Two,” which begs two questions: what are Levels Three through Seven (desert? submarine? space? who knows), and what exactly is accomplished by putting people on a boat in the middle of the ocean? This certainly isn’t Deadliest Catch.
Therein lies my frustration with these episodes, and I suppose you could say with the series as a whole. The show did a great job of getting the audience invested in these characters, and wanting them to succeed and be free of the Program, yet the show not only denies us that, but essentially just makes having watched the thirteen episodes worthless as everyone ends up pretty much right back where they started. I could see a cliffhanger, or maybe even some of the characters not making it out alive, to build some suspense or some dramatic weight, but to condemn everyone to a perpetual cycle of…we don’t even really know what? It’s just maddening. The only way this ending would make any sense was if there would be a second season, but we already know there won’t be. This makes me keep asking myself, what was the point? We didn’t really get many answers, and our heroes didn’t get anything in the end. Neither do the viewers with an ending like this.
All in all, Persons Unknown was a pretty cool show. It had a great writer, and a pretty cool cast. I’ve spent a long time defending it against detractors, and heaven knows I’d love anything with Jason Wiles in it. I’ve given it the benefit of the doubt in all respects. However, these last four episodes seemed to implode the momentum the show had built up, and these last two leave me feeling more annoyed and frustrated than anything else. I knew it was going out, but I had hoped it would go out so much better than this.
ETA: We’ve been seeing so much debate over the finale that it’s opened up a postmortem analysis. You can read that postmortem here.
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i have to agree with you just watched the last two episodes and im sitting here going huh?
the way they introduced Robert Picardo was as if we were supposed to be shocked to see him.
not to mention as you said where the hell are the answers?!
i have to agree with you just watched the last two episodes and im sitting here going huh?
the way they introduced Robert Picardo was as if we were supposed to be shocked to see him.
not to mention as you said where the hell are the answers?!
Nice recap but I'm frustrated too. On another forum somebody suggested this is symbolic of the Illuminati controlling what happens in the world. I had a thought that maybe this is like reincarnation and you keep coming back, for what?
I missed the first word on the boat's name. 2nd word is perdidas which means waste or loss in Spanish. But then how do you reconcile Level 2, which would appear to be an advancement to being a waste?
You, me, and as far as I know, everyone else around me that watched it.
I wonder what the other levels are. I can see how you go from town to boat, boat being more isolated, but where do you go after that? Space? Who knows. It's totally frustrating, and unfair to the audience who hung with it this long. Reincarnation would be interesting, but does that mean everyone's dead already? It'd be a thought.
I think the ending just reinforces that there's no way to escape the Program. As we learned in the last few episodes, the Program is trying to prove that there's no such thing as free will, and I feel that the writers made that point perfectly at the end. In my opinion, a show doesn't need a happy ending to be exceptional television. The disappointment you feel is exactly what the writers probably wanted you to feel: the same disappointment (and hopelessness) that the group felt in the ending.
I totally agree with the reviews conclusion, only I'm even more annoyed that I wasted my time. I thought like the reviewer, it would make sense, if there was a second season. But since there isn't, they didn't deliver what they promised, because they never answered the main questions. What is the reasoning, no matter how twisted, behind "the Program". Why are they doing this to these people? To what benefit to society that every one in "the Program" kept mentioning over and over, again and again to the point of being basically a mantra. What was the compelling reason that made Joe and everyone else believe. As the advertising said "All will be revealed by the end of summer". What!!!! Very little was revealed. What a waste!
I mean symbolically representative of reincarnation. Apparently you haven't learned your lesson so you come back somewhere else in an attempt to finish the journey.
I like the comparison to the Illuminati better; a rather small group that somehow has control over a select group of people and world events.
I'm not saying that the show needed a happy ending. My problem is with the fact that the show essentially loops back in on itself, therefore raising the question of why we watched in the first place. The characters end up in basically the same place they started. It's not so much disappointing as it is aggravating.
Yes, NBC definitely screwed up the advertising, because most definitely, all was not revealed.
The Program seems to be trying to prove that free will can be manipulated. But I don't understand how it really benefits society. It was raised at one point that these people were in the Program because it was beieved they would have some impact on society…yet what does keeping them there really achieve? If, as it's been said, there are seven levels, how do they impact society if they have to go through all this first? It just seems like it keeps going endlessly.
Aha. I get you. Makes me wonder though, if there are seven levels before the Program completes, how long are these people stuck there? If they presumably do what the Program wants them to do, aren't they just wasting a whole ton of time they could be out in the world doing whatever it is the Program thinks they'll eventually aspire to? The logic just baffles me, but maybe there's something I'm not seeing. I've never been clear on how much time passed on this show.
I agree also, I was totally stunned when it turned out they faked the whole killing each other thing, but what was up with that gray haired guy on the council? I wish they would have a second season to show what it is like on ship (even though by the looks of it, dosent seem very luxurious!)
Did Joe go to level 2 when he graduated his first abduction? Looks like they make you resident assistant for the freshmen on your dorm floor. I think the side of the ship said, "Los Perdidos" [the lost] ..anytime the government loses something, get replacements, you'll never see the originals again. It'd be a differnt ending if they grabbed Jack Bauer or the cast of the Expendables.
It would have been a great cliffhanger for a second season. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if it was designed to try and go for a second season…but that seems contrary to everything I read about it being just 13 episodes.
almas perdidas – lost souls
almas perdidas – lost souls
to be honest, I wouldnt mind a second season, its a good substitute for LOST!
horrible ending, the fact there's no season 2 of this coz of it's low ratings. All was left hanging and unanswered :(
Season 1 left us again on cliffhanger…
almas perdidas – lost souls
there is no such thing as free will remeber
LOL! There's a mental image. Jack Bauer would just decimate the place.
That was what the Program was saying, but that didn't necessarily mean the show had to abide by that philosophy.
Yeah, I'm thinking when I get the DVDs, maybe if I rewatch the whole thing in one go things will make more sense. Right now, I'm not impressed.
The reviewer hit the nail on the head. I expected some sort of twist/cliff hanger that denied a totally happy ending, but I still wanted a general level of closure.
I feel like NBC tried to see if they can make me upset enough to abstain from their new programs this fall. They've succeeded.
I have no desire to watch anything new from them for fear of falling to this bait and switch again.
The most infuriating part was the constant promise from NBC's voice-over every week that "all will be revealed." It definitely wasn't.
I couldn't agree more with this review. This had so much potential…what a shame that they blew it. Why didn't they just end it with them all escaping from the body bags…at least we could then hope for a good ending for the characters. Instead, they seem to be trapped in hell. I guess we'll never know…
I loved the show. Are we 100% sure there will be no season 2? I know that they are putting out a season 1 DVD…
It was very depressing though, knowing that there was no way for these people to be free and out of their daily lives…Maybe they could have left Blackham out? Never really cared for him… :)
I've watched it twice already, and I still want to throw my remote at my tv. What few things were answered, a ton more was left open. When the heck did they take Tori's dad, and how was that not made public??? I mean I would think his being missing would be noticed. My husband thinks they were setting it up to try and keep it going. I hope they do. I am invested enough that I would want to keep watching. But as far as this as an ending, I am truly disappointed.
That's what I'm hung on, too. If this was a set-up for a second season, then definitely there were a ton more questions for a season two. But I've read repeatedly that this was only set up for 13 episodes, and this is a horrible series ender IMO.
"all we be revealed by the end of the summer" When I first heard that I thought great, they're not going to pull a fast one on me like "Lost" did. Only 13 episodes so there wont be that many questions to answer and reveal. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'll never believe another word these basterds say ever again. Howie
I think so. NBC's banishing it to Saturdays certainly doesn't show much faith in it.
And yeah, he was always kind of a jerk, wasn't he?
I wonder what they would've done with a second season, totally.
That part was really awesome. I never saw it coming. That would've been a fun place to end it, because they really legitimately got me with the first hour. I totally thought everyone was dead until we saw it the second time.
The reason there is no Season 2 is because there wasn't supposed to be a Season 2. This was a 13 episode mini-series.
I had to muster up all of the "suspension of disbelief' that I could to make it through the last 13 weeks. Why did I do this? Because, I was told "by the end of summer, all will be revealed". LIES!!! I want my 14 hours back!!!
Re-watch? You're a far braver soul than I am. I wasn't too impressed with the show after the introduction of the invisible "pain wall", but I have this weird need to see a show through. Maybe this ending will help me overcome that need.
Well, if you run with the reincarnation theme, it appears some people died in this round as did some previous players who came back and surprised others with their presence.
In faiths that believe in reincarnation, I've not heard of 7 lives, but then again I don't remember hearing the # 7 on the show either like others here cite.
Interesting boat name = 'lost souls'. Like they didn't live up to the standard and are back for "Round 2", maybe not "Level 2".
Then, as for Free Will, that is something we've been told by faiths that we have. Maybe the truth is, we really don't have it…. Wouldn't that be a Revelation outside of the Bible!
"well if you run with the reincarnation theory" Karen, rather then reincarnation, I was thinking cloning. If Joe killed Liam and he came back again, "cloning" would be a logical answer as to how that could happen. The big problem is that they promised us answers, but never delivered. Howie
Check your satellite/cable provider to see if you can view previous episodes. Also check http://www.fancast.com and http://www.nbc.com for free full episodes.
After reading the review and many of the comments, it seems like the writers for the show have one agenda (provide a cliffhanger and segue to a second season) and the producers have another (to either 1) create only a single season or 2) terminate the series in the future due to low ratings). Let's hope NBC isn't as scatterbrained as it appears, and that this show is in fact being canceled due to a lack of viewership? In any event, what a shame! I really dug the premise of this show and got into the story. I was so fired up for a season 2 after watching the last episode, that I surfed the web for acknowledgment of such and found this article — only to be disappointed that the show will not be extended for another season. Let's hope the people at NBC change their minds!
Wooooooow! I can not believe the audacity of NBC! If it weren't for Heroes, Chuck, and the Office I would abandon watching the network all together. Because of this series ending the way it did I don't think I will be watching "The Event" like i had intended to.
So I just finished watching it. And the first thing that came to mind was the movie The Killing Room (2009). Strangers stuck together in a confined space, conflict, observers, and at the end, welcome to level 2. I enjoyed most of Persons Unknown, but I really wanted that drag queen director to get her comeuppance. I hate looped endings, because it is cheap, characters go unresolved and guinea pigs running on a wheel comes to mind.
Yeah, the fact that it was a mini series is what got me watching in the first place.
Some shows are meant to be wrapped up in 1 or 2 seasons. Example, I loved
Prison Break, but it wasnt meant to be drug out, so I stopped watching after season
2. I really hoped for some closure this episode, and expected that at least a few of them would
have a Happy ending. I hate that it ended with more questions than when it started!! Reminds me of that show about a town in Florida after a hurricane. Can't recall the name but I loved the show and they ended it in the middle of first season with a million unanswered questions.
It's a live action video game, where a few people around the world pay big bucks to control living characters. But you can't have successful characters escape the game, or there would be no level 2, 3, 4, …. So Janet and crew had to be recaptured for level 2. Some old characters are recycled back to Level 1, and newly captured ones are inserted.
Unfortunately, the players in control, and NBC, are idiots.
The first hour tonight disappeared off my DVR but the review helped. However, I am so sorry that I ever started to watch this program. I got hooked and forced myself to keep watching so I could find out what it all meant and what a disappointment. Were they visitors from outer space? Were there copies of bodies like in the old movie "invasion of the body snatchers". Is it an offshoot of the CIA? How many good guys were really bad? No answers ever so we are left dangling. It reminds of soap operas that go off the air in the middle of a story line. Ugh!
All of the unknown persons should have gone against the program, investigate it and have it dealt with. The idea that Joe is back in level 1 YET AGAIN is poor, it's like a little pupil who cannot advance through the levels, what is he.. the welcomer of new persons? LOL And I thought once the persons escaped, it's over and done, you can't come back. (Come to think of it, how does Janet wake up in a US hospital and city when they were near a South American, US look-alike town?… or has it all been happening right in Iowa… then what was the point of wondering through South America in the 1st place?)
This is right up Stephen King's alley, so I'm not surprised he likes it: mystery leaves you wondering what the point was to start it in the beginning. It's a fantasy, and the persons are caught in someone's fantasy. I think they all had implanted chips in them, because that is what Janet's mom obviously has, it's what Ullrich obviously experienced, and we know that Moira discovered the implanted ones in the persons bodies so they couldn't escape.
Alternate show name could be "Point Unknown"
Where is Rod Serling? I'm sure I just watched a long Twilight Zone.
I am so over being punked. I won't buy into these failed series again. No "The Event" for me. I am also glad the series is over. I don't want to see another "Lost" dragging on for years and going nowhere. Unlike others here I knew this would end badly. There were too many questions to answer in one show.
BTW..Just one man's opinion but I believe when the series was shot they had no idea if they were being picked up for another season. Their intent was to make more shows not give us answers. This is afterall a business and they have moved on, so shall I..
Guys you are missing the point. The answers were in plain sight! There is no escape from the program!!! Look at all they did to escape and still didn't. No matter what they do they will never leave the sight of the program. The program watches everyone. Look at how the reporters went all around the world to chase this …story and the most they did was find their HQ in Iowa. The director didn't even seem phased by it. That's only about 3% of what they need to bust the entire program. The program has won guys. I would love a season 2, but it's not needed. We learned everything in this episode. None of them will ever go home again. After the great effort they gave, the program still won. Loved the season and have no regrets about watching it. I just hate that NBC treated us viewers so bad. Seems like they just wanted it to be over with fast.
I agree with you. Did you notice that Renbe was not told that the key was in the bible, so how did he get out of his room just as Joe was leaving his?
If nothing else, the last episode gives the viewer an idea of what it must be like to be abducted into the program. We are all back where we started.
I get the feeling this series was written by interns, big on initial creativity, but lacking the know-how to bring it home and write a compelling ending. Was M. Knight Shyamalan involved in this?
In retrospect I thoroughly enjoyed this series. I am only disappointed that from the beginning the mantra was, "By the end of summer, ALL will be revealed". Unless "ALL" is a metaphor for the exasperating futility of watching TV, they lied. Had they not set up such high expectations with this single line (all will be revealed), the end may have been more palatable.
OK this is what I'm getting:
Person's Unknown is loosely based on Dante's Inferno. In Inferno, there are many levels, all numbered and leading further and further into the depths of hell. What I'm guessing is that 'lucifer' is the white haired guy. His lackey is the Director. She's the workhorse behind Lucifer's inferno. That's why he goes along with her, because…he's LAZY. Look at that meeting place! So dark. Like a weigh station in hell. And there's the 'light bearer' himself, practically glowing in the dark.
OK. Virgil, in Inferno, is this guide. Being that Joe is a defunct priest, he gets to be the Guide for all of eternity. Remember, it's eternal- no one is ever free. Very 'burn in hell for all of eternity' type of thinking. So, in the same way of 'reincarnation' in the way that the living world sometimes believes, I think there's a reincarnation in hell, and it goes on forever. These people are 'sinners'… in Inferno, if you sin, you go to certain places. And in P.U., if you break the rules, you go to worse places…such as level 2. Level 2 is just the next step of punishment, if you mess up on level 1 – which all of them did by betraying the rule, which was to kill each other. They fooled the Director, so they get moved 'down'. Not cool to mess with the Director. Joe, on the other hand, hangs out in the purgatory state, where he, because he was a sinner in life though not a killer, gets to work as Charon (ferryman) type figure.
The big ship, Alma Perdidas, means lost souls. One of the first levels in D's Inferno is the level of the lost souls. That's where Janet and the gang go, because on level 1, they proved that they can't be good. (hell rules). What is never explained is how the sinned in life. Some yes, but most no. What did Renbe do? He abandoned his kid, ok. In Inferno, one is punished from the tiniest sin to the greatest, on different levels of hell. What did Janet do? Who knows? And that cage prison? What's that…limbo?
If the only way out is the way through, maybe they mean that the soul has to make it all the way through hell in order to finally become worthy of either a true death or a permanent residence back at level 1, where at least you get food and shelter.
Anyway, that's my take.
Souls don't need either to eat or to drink alcohol, they don't respond to poison or physical pain, they don't need to sleep and take a shower…
So, the first level doesn't make sense in this case either. It looked like they were alive there, not the souls of dead.
They definitely left it open for a second season (Robert Picardo, Victoria' Dad locked up with Kat, Level 2 = Season 2). And I would like to see this series moved to SciFi. However, it DOES have an enclosed point.
The key is in the finale name. Shadows in the Cave. This is a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave which, basically, says that all we can see is shadows on a cave wall (not what is casting the shadows). Thus, the truth is unknowable. Relevantly, he show is called Persons Unknown, with the word "known" even emphasized in the logo.
What does it all mean then? The only way to be a known person is, a full person, is to live in free will, to live with your soul. However, it is impossible to do that when an external force ("The Program") is controlling your every move. Your free will is necessarily limited. Your personhood is limited.
What is "The Program"? It is something setup up to socially engineer the best possible human society. Because they don't believe in free will, they believe that all people are just pieces on a chess board that they can push around to achieve the maximum result. This engineering becomes a lot easier when the best pieces are in on it under the illusion of free will, which is the purpose of the towns: indoctrination.
Except the final episode was named after Plato, not Dante.
How can you say, "All in all, Persons Unknown was a pretty cool show. It had a great writer, and a pretty cool cast," — it was not a great writer! The writer sucks — blank stares from Joe is not "good writing!"
I'm sick and tired of poor writing presented under the guise of "character driven." Who's the idiot who thinks we, the viewers, want stupid unexplained, mysterious, unending plots with REALLY INTERESTING CHARACTERS?!?!?
NBC lied to me — nothing was explained — what was the purpose of The Program? The Director could have slipped that in at the Board Meeting, but I doubt the writers knew what the point was themselves!
I will not be watching NBC shows and I will SPECIFICALLY NOT BE PATRONIZING NBC ADVERTISERS!!!
Mary, I think you've missed the point — its not the answer to "will they escape" that we were waiting for… It was "what is the point or purpose of The Program." WHY have these characters been chosen? To what end? What has Janet's mother promised? THERE ARE FAR MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS — and many stupid inconsistencies (like, how do you cut off the thumb of a "live" person in a body bag without realizing they were alive!)
The reality is we could "debate" the meaning of the show, BUT I DOUBT THERE REALLY IS ONE — I don't think the writer knows what the F*CK he was trying to say…
Let's make a show where a gunman goes into schools (after we get attached to the kid's "characters") and just kills them all for the fun of it — yeah, that would be a really great show… (You can only get away with that in "disaster" movies because "acts of God" are beyond our control or explanation — but some person "created" and thought up The Program and we ALL wondered WHY?)
UNLESS it's a metaphor for how "life" is really just a prison that we can't escape from — but we don't kill ourselves to escape because of the "illusion of free will…"
(P.S. free will is NOT an illusion — its a LIE — when you are a prisoner and you have no control over your situation — except the "illusion" that you can choose your "purpose" in life, and "choose" to be happy, etc.)
Yeah, THAT must be it!
AND THEY DIDN'T AIR ONE OF THE EPISODES — didn't you notice you hadn't seen some of the stuff in the recap at the start of 1.12?
THAT episode had ALL the answers!
PLEASE READ MY COMMENT; IT WILL CLEAR THINGS UP (I HOPE)
Well I was reading some of your reviews and comments and I think most of you guys are wrong. Yes Mary Grace… the Program basically controls and watches over everyone. To the person who wrote about Tori's dad…It doesn't matter if Tori's dad isn't around. There are always people who can speak "on his behalf". That wouldnt matter at all if he wasnt there.
Level 2 basically describes that this Program has set up merely a test for those people. (Also the reviewer missed out that Ericka/Theresa, was there). Anyways, the goal of the whole program was to analyze peoples behaviour and to see how they would react in specific situations. It is like "Saw".. Come on… in a real situation like that, people start doing crazy things and start killing off each other and that was how the final outcome was suppose to be.
THE GOAL OF THE PROGRAM WAS TO SEE WHO WOULD BE THE SURVIVOR. THEY WILL ALWAYS BE IN THE PROGRAM UNTIL THEY KILL EACH OTHER. THE FINAL PERSON THAT LIVES IS GOING TO BE FORCED INTO THE PROGRAM… JUST LIKE JOE WAS WHEN HE FIRST GOT ABDUCTED.
I really liked this show. The beginning of the season was good. A few middle episodes were getting kind of boring but the last few episodes made up for it. Personally, I think there can be longevity in this idea and show but there would have to be a different approach and possible writing team for the series.
reading this section of replies made me wonder:
– why are we assuming that Level 2 is an ADVANCEMENT? Since the name of the boat is "Lost Souls" and was so isolated…
– that thought reminded me of Dante's "decent into the levels of HELL" (another of many inconsistencies is why Neil has been sent into the field after being promoted to the Director's right hand man. Its hard to separate intent from bad writing.)
– Also, I noticed that Janet was the ONLY person who didn't do something really bad in her past? Or did she? Why was she so sure her daughter was in danger with her mother? We are never told what Janet's mother did to her as a child to make her so wary of her mother? Maybe Janet did something to her own daughter and The Program was trying to help her come to terms with it?
But, I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE PURPOSE/GOAL OF THE PROGRAM WAS — and there were many characters who alluded to knowing the answer, just never shared it (the Director should have reminded the board for our benefit)
AND, why does Joe say, "I'm running out of ideas" when he wakes up in the experiment at the end (and the person who "scheduled" Janet's husband into that same experiment should be shot — they were watching him, they knew he knew who Joe was!)
I noticed that too and realized apparently last Saturday there were 2 episodes (10 & 11). I went and watched 11 on demand and then watched last nights episodes
I noticed that too and realized apparently last Saturday there were 2 episodes (10 & 11). I went and watched 11 on demand and then watched last nights episodes
So agree with the reviewer. How disappointing that they end up right back where they started. How the heck did that happen? Seems like they were all on their way to freedom. I thought that was going to be the happy ending. Guess the "Program" people knew how to find them, even in the desert or in Morocco? And then … what is Kat's fate? And that ambassador guy was in the cage next to her. What will happen to them? And yes, I am still confused about the thumb guy who was "dead" and then found alive in the hospital. Joe assumed Liam was dead. I thought Victoria was dead for a while. I am wondering if no one ever really dies, they just somehow reincarnate. And the biggest question … what the heck is this PROGRAM about? I am guessing it is some cruel psychological experiment to see how people behave in certain situations. It's almost like they are treating the participants like rats in a cage … giving them stimuli to see the results. That's part of the "research" they referred too. I think the show concept was excellent, but what a poor ending. I assume they did the cliffhanger at the end, hoping to get another season. They should have taped a second "ending" to tie up ALL loose ends in case it didn't get renewed. Reminds me of the "X-files", which I remember loving to watch long ago. But I lost interest after a while so stopped watching. Seems the mystery just went on forever with no answers in site.
I think it was resolved. All questions were answered. The answer was, no matter what you do, you can not escape the program…
and throughout the series people like Joe said they believe in the program and its purpose, what was the purpose? We know what the program does, but we don't know why?
Crap. I liked this show until you had to put it in a religious context. I am as likely to believe in the Bible or Dante's Inferno as I am to believe in the existence of the "program".. ;-P.
I agree with the reviewer. The ending was horrible and not all was revealed. We don't even know what the program is except that it has something to do with fate versus free will. Stupid and a waste of time.
Except the question was not, "Can you escape the program?" it was, "What is the program?" We have little snippets of vague quotes about what the program is, but there is no answer to what, why, and even really how.
For every "question" that was answered, at least two more pop up.
If that is the goal, how is that good for society, or something to believe in?
When you put it that way it just reminds me of the level "A Linear Series of Scares" from Max Payne 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RrIMM_rIkA In case anyone cared enough to look at it.
I watched the entire series. I read the is reviewers summary and I suffered through many of the comments and I am going to gain closure on this issue by expressing my opinion. The ending of the series absolutely stank! Nothing was resolved. Nothing was explained. Nothing made sense ultimately. The whole, "X-Files" ambiguous, vague open endings has been imitated to death. This does not show creativity on the part of the Writers. In fact it demonstrates how piss poor their imagination and writing skills are and I tired of it.
I agree with some who expressed the point of view that a story does not have to have a happy ending but this was not an ending. It was just a exercise in mental(gratuitous cruelty) and physical torture inflicted on the characters by a cowardly, faceless, nameless organization. And to the faction writing that an ending was shown: you people, in my opinion, are idiots! You either accept or explain such a dismal conclusion by pontificating from a pseudo scientific, intellectual position about the goals of the The Program. I would point out that even if the rats in the cage do not understand what is happening–those conducting the experiment should and that is the perspective the viewer should have since they are observing the events in the Third Person.
What Right does one element of Society have to conduct such experiments others? You people who agree with the ending should consider that question at least then a tangible(if not moral) basis to understand or form an informed opinion could occur. As for the ending supposedly being intentional hopelessness and dread–non sense! Writers, Executive Producer, Producers and Writers–the whole rotten crew–know in advance that a series may be cancelled at any time. So to intentionally craft a cliff hanger in the hopes it will make the Network Brass green light the series is either moronically naive or sheer stupidity.
We were left with a non-ending from a poorly conceived and executed TV series.
Yeah, the one thing that was great was we knew we only had so many episodes, unlike waiting to see what they'd come up with 2, 3, 4 seasons down the line to keep things going. So much of that stuff falls flat (X-Files, anyone?)
I got turned off The Event when they pasted promos for it all over Persons Unknown.
I had that thought too!
I think Joe got screwed because of his complicity in setting the whole thing up. They weren't going to let him go, but they'd knock him all the way back down.
And yeah, I'd like to know how everyone got rounded back up. We saw Erika and Moira in Morocco, for heaven's sake, yet they also ended up right back in Level 2. That would have been interesting to find out how everyone failed to escape.
I know sometimes with miniseries seeing things in one go helps me clear things up, because all the details are fresher in my mind than having to wait a week between installments. I don't know. If anything, at least the show provoked a ton of debate.
I'm split because I can go either way here. You can argue Level 2 is not an advancement and they're being punished for their big escape attempt. But I can also see Level 1 as being the starting level being that if anyone deserved to get punished, it was probably Joe, who continued to be a pain in the Director's side for the longest time. It's so open to interpretation, which is probably the frustrating part.
The closest idea I ever got to the purpose of the Program was what Joe said to the characters at midseason. Something about they were selected because the Program believed they would be significant in society or something like that?
That just makes me think of Nick Arcade. Or God forbid, "Gamer" with Gerard Butler.
The more I think on it, the more I wonder if they never had an actual answer in mind and were leaving it open to the viewers' interpretation to decide your own meaning/answers (like certain TV episodes have done). I guess I could understand that, but I think most of the audience wanted a concrete explanation.
The show you're thinking of is Invasion (2005) with William Fichtner. I remember that one.
That's the same kind of train of thought that I was on, but here's where I get hung up: how does this necessarily help society if these so-called indoctrinated people apparently never escape the Program? Assuming that you do everything right, we don't know how many levels you have to go through, and then what? I've never been clear on how long everyone was trapped in the town, so we don't know how much time is spent on each level. That seems like a lot of time they could be using to place these people in society and have them do whatever it is they want them to do, instead of having them captive in various scenarios. It seems kind of inefficient.
They're too busy promoting The Event and Undercovers.
I'd like to see if Ulrich comes back. I really thought he'd have a bigger part to play in the ending and loved his banter with Joe. The guy just fell for Janet and got his head exploded. Teach him not to do that again.
Major waste of time. None of the important questions got answered. I feel like somebody took a very exciting book away whilst reading it. Na nA na Na na you will never know the ending…… This sucks big time.
I also noticed that one episode was not shown, if it was, my Tivo did not find it! Shame on NBC for giving us false hopes of answers being revealed. I'm not impressed.
Didn't you just say in a comment below "Loved the season and have no regrets about watching it"?
You rock, Brittany! :)
Didn't the Director say (in the first episode she was in) that she thought Janet would make an excellent Level TEN candidate? How bad could that possibly be???
I am still so pissed off at the ending I could spit. ;(
https://tvovermind.com/discussion/other/25-per…
Thank you!
And did she? Oh, God, what the hell are levels 3-10 then?!
I started watching because it was supposed to be one long story and I assumed well-thought-out was implied. Oops on my part. I am not a film critic, I did not study it in school so I realize that my take is not "professional." When I watch a story, I become part of it; if for some reason I am pulled out, because something was "off" then I call bad acting. After Joe was identified as a mole, so many of the conversations between Joe and Janet pulled me out that I was appalled. Especially the cellibacy "talk." Pitifully written, pooly acted. And there were so many questions I still have.
As many have asked, what is the purpose of "The Program"? Why didn't anyone bother asking Joe/Liam as they obviously knew since they were dedicated to it? If Liam was "killed" by Joe but came back to another level 1 (??), wouldn't that indicate an awareness that people didn't stay dead since he didn't – so why worry about burning everyone? What was so special about Janet to the other townspeople with 3 people in love with her? Why was the Director so interested in her? Why did they take her in broad daylight instead of from her home in private? How did Erica and Moira end up in Morocco? Why did they cover the van driver's head and cause a crash (instead of, say, threatening to strangle him forcing him to pull over)? Why did Rembe have a cell phone again? Why did they go to the Evil HQ when they could do nothing but shout at a camera and why did the Evil HQ let them go back out to the public? How were Rembe and his girlfriend traveling and such with no money? What was the purpose of sedating everyone (other than messing with the audience)? They're told that they're probably going to be killed as they're trapped in the hotel – why did they not freak out more? Did they really think that little fall would kill McNair? Did they not check vitals for the "dead" townspeople? Why did Liam ever think Janet was being serious with him – didn't he see her talking to Joe and Erica about playing him? Why did Blackham know Charlie's wife's name (it wasn't in the TV clip and if he was "in" the program already he wouldn't have needed the clip to know about the incident at all)? How is the Program bringing so many people back to life? Why did the Program put McNair in the white room and no one else (with his background he should have been the hardest to catch)? What information did the Director want from Joe? Who designed that distractingly hideous white wig? At least 27 levels 1's and who knows how many other levels – that's a lot of employees for a "secret" organization. Everything will be revealed, my foot. Some of these are intended cliff hangers and I can basically deal with that (except for the promise of a reveal), but many were gaping holes in the story. I didn't appreciate the obvious flaws or the outright lie about answers.
What seems to work best for an explanation is that it is indeed Hell for them. I personally really liked the show, and more may not be better. One can only imagine how you'd 'think' your way through things before the realization of being in Hell– part of the torment.
What seems to work best for an explanation is that it is indeed Hell for them. I personally really liked the show, and more may not be better. One can only imagine how you’d ‘think’ your way through things before the realization of being in Hell– part of the torment.
Just finished watching the finale, and I have the sick feeling of having completely wasted my time. After the nifty little body bag trick, I was really excited to see the finale because it was such a fantastic setup. Oh, well. Bottom line: All was not revealed, very few questions were answered, and the ending made the entire show seem pointless. Very disappointing.
I for one liked the finale. I feel it is the only way to move the story forward with out betraying the previous 11 hours. Phase 1 is a test. How various characters from various socio-religious-economic backgrounds deal with the tests helps provide "the Program" with information on how the world will react to their larger manipulations. This is down on a constant basis, 30 experiments at a time to ensure valid data is retrieved. "The Program" is bigger than any one country or government. They have the whole world wired up and control everything. They are so powerful that they can throw the ex-head of the CIA into a cage in a prison camp if they feel like it. What chance do Janet Cooper and her five random friends have of escaping or besting this organization. Normally, the one test subject who proves his usefulness, by the simple means of survival, is kept within the program to help facilitate further experiments. In this rare case, six subjects have managed to survive, a feat unheard of in the past, although entirely believable due to the high expectations surrounding Janet Cooper coming in. Since all six have survived, all six may now move on to level 2. As for Joe, without Janet around he should be fine back in his previous position, no reason to waste all that good training; and since Mark Renbe has come further than anyone ever has to exposing the program, he may have what it takes to be a company man, too. Let's throw him in Level 1 and see if he makes it.
I thought Persons Unknown was a great series. I've always been a fan of Chris McQuarrie's and had faith that the story would make sense in the end. McQuarrie never betrays his characters. Who they are is who they are, and often times that leads to their eventual downfall. These characters were never strong enough to beat the system, probably no one is, but it was sure fun to watch them try. I'd love to see a season 2, and I think if DVD sales are strong enough we could see it direct to video, but even without, this was a satisfying conclusion.
I loved the show, the actors, storyline, etc…great…
but, the ending was so unsatisfying! When they escaped in the bodybags I thought, wow, this is going to end great and although the kidnappers won't all be caught, the reporter would expose this all this….great, and Janet would be back with her child for good, and we learn that it is a psychological experiment to help people heal the haunting things in their lives(except janet's mom, who wanted to have the child)…..but the ending was confusing, disappointing…..unless there is a season two to clear it all up and to please have the head"evil" boss be overthrown.
Again, great show, just poor choice of ending……
5 words: A BIG WASTE OF TIME! I will never watch it again!
Trust me, some of those questions have popped up in my mind, too. There's a lot of little details that just didn't stick.
Josh, I do understand what you're saying, even if I think you're a bit biased being a fan of Chris McQuarrie's (and I think maybe we give him too much credit since apparently he wasn't involved as much as we think he was). You do raise a valid scenario, even if it's infuriating and annoying as all heck (I would have loved to see a cliffhanger or twist ending that denied a totally happy ending, but still had SOMETHING positive in it somewhere).
Still, I'm not buying it, because it's not what we wanted. The entire entity of the Program and how it works was just never explained enough to anyone's satisfaction. We get bits and pieces there, but as someone else said, for every question two more popped up, or a flaw was exposed. People were looking for more concrete answers than what we were given, not just assuming the Program is rather omnipotent. That would seem to be taking an easy way out, not really explaining much but just assuming a sort of "deus ex machina" approach.
As far as a season two, I wouldn't hold your breath. The show was beaten out by gymnastics when it aired. Also, since it wrapped in early 2009, I'd be willing to bet most of the people involved have moved on to other projects by now.
I'm aware that the ratings were horrendous. Some of the lowest I've ever seen for NBC. However, NBC didn't make this. They bought the distribution rights. The studio that made it did so at a reasonably low cost by selecting locations such as Mexico and Italy for the tax breaks and low sight rentals. When they sold the rights to NBC, they were already in the black. If DVD sales show that money can be made on this in the home video market, don't be surprised if the studio goes for round two. I can't imagine anyone would buy the broadcast rights, but DVD is an entirely different game.
I know there are people who need more definitive answers. I find that knowing every last detail ruins the mystique of the show. Take for instance Lost. I was a die hard Lost fan since day one, and I was very satisfied with the finale. I was less satisfied with the Jacob/MiB episode that aired two earlier revealing all the secrets of the island. I'm not saying this show is anything like Lost. But it was a fun ride, and I would like to point out the McQuarrie wrote episodes 1 and 13, so "Welcome to Level 2" was all him.
The overall concept was very Orwellian. Winston Smith thought he could escape Big Brother, turned out quite the same. Even the room where darkness does not exist. I don't expect everyone to agree with me. I was only hoping that by sharing what I found rewarding, others might see something in it they hadn't seen before. Isn't that why we visit these pages?
Presumably you mean site, not sight? Still, you'd have to find the talent both behind and in front of the camera, and as I said, they've probably moved on to other projects.
Sounds like you're more the kind of person who likes to leave a lot of things open to interpretation, and from your citing of Lost, also a fan of these kinds of shows. There's nothing wrong with that at all, so I think you're taking my comments the wrong way. What I was saying is that the majority of the people I've spoken to, myself included, were looking for a lot more in concrete answers than you were. People can interpret what happened all they want, and we're never going to know what's right; the distinction I'm making is that people wanted to see a lot more than we did.
And honestly, from my personal perspective, I hated 1984 when I read it, so I guess you could say that's another reason I'd dislike this ending.
I think the show did what it wanted to.. as the reviewer said they all ended up back where they were essentially at the beginning of the series. Don't you see how that could be the ultimate point to what they're trying to say? They still don't know what's really going on.. Joe's still at the beginning some are on level two, there's new people to go through it all… it's a constant cycle that isn't stopping any time soon. They have the limited information we do..that's the point of that… to show what they know. bit's pieces… it's really clever i think.
If they ended up essentially where they were at the beginning of the series, the natural question is then why bother watching the entire thirteen hours? And if they still don't know what's going on, then we really don't either, and we wanted to. You've just pointed out one of the major reasons why some people didn't like the ending.
I feel toatally ripped off! I invested a lot of time only to sit through that maddeningly unsatisfying finale! If NBC thinks I will waste my time on any similar ventures they might produce, they are quite wrong; "The Program" has definitely lost one of its "participants" for good!
Your review is really cool. I can watch Teletubies without complain if Jason Wiles is around. I love that guy since Third Watch!
obviously, she's part of the program
Guess they were planning for 10 seasons and then "all will be revealed".
I wanted a mini series and answers to the big questions. All they did was lie and give us more questions. Too much. I'm going to stop watching NBC.
They lied.
Guess they were planning for 10 seasons and then "all will be revealed".
I wanted a mini series and answers to the big questions. All they did was lie and give us more questions. Too much. I'm going to stop watching NBC.
They lied.
in defense of the people who made this show, it's not their fault. the fault isn't even nbc's. When nbc picked up this show, all thirteen episodes had already been made and were sitting on a shelf gathering dust (at least from what i've been told). Seeing that the whole season was already made, nbc decided to pick it up and play it as a summer series hoping it could ride off the cult following of lost, as the shows have similar structure. NBC billed it as a special mini series as a marketing ploy to get more viewers. in reality, they had always hoped it would get enough viewers to warrant the second season. unfortunately it did not. Seen as all the episodes had already been made before the first even aired, when ratings proved to be less than hoped, they couldn't rewrite the final episode. The real flaw was really just that they told us everything would be answered, when that clearly was untrue. But if you really loved it, you should do like i did and send nbc numerous emails about how much you liked watching the show and need closure. i suggested they could even pick it up on one of their affiliates like USA of SyFy.
Billy, I suggest you take a look at our postmortem discussion. You'll see some quotes there from one of the executive producers who said that they still intended to give answers at the end of the season regardless of whether or not the show was greenlit for another one, which most of us believe they didn't follow through on.
heroes is actually cancelled. Besides, everything after the first season was crap anyway. there was no character development, just them trying to overcome the same problems over and over again (i.e. claire's daddy issues, peter feels useless, hiro's powers are malfunctioning… again). and now that the office and chuck are in syndication maybe you should just switch to one of the other networks…or cable even.
LOL! Bravo.
LOL! Bravo.
What I meant was that the show did have a good amount of creative talent assembled for it. As I've said before, I appreciated Chris McQuarrie's work in The Usual Suspects, I've been a fan of Jason Wiles since Third Watch, and Alan Ruck is usually pretty good in anything I've seen him in. My point was that while the show fell apart at the end, it wasn't as if it was completely useless from moment one. It only serves to heighten my dislike of the finale, because I can see how good the show could have been with the people that were involved in it.
Worst TV Series EVER !!!!
You spent money on this garbage? I feel bad for you.
The cycle is the answer. They are doomed to repeat forever, unless they get another position. Although, what the greater purpose is I have no idea, it seems rather pointless. I think the organization just enjoys watching how each cycle plays out.
That conversation between Janet and Joe about san francisco was a flash back.
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Oh My God Can not believe I wasted my life watching this program. What a load of utter crap.