Persons Unknown [** Spoilers **]

opr

What peaked my interest most is that Christopher McQuarrie famed for The Usual Suspects is behind the show.

http://www.personsunknown.com/

A surreal mind-game of a series centering on a group of strangers who awaken in a deserted town with no memory of how they arrived, only to realize that there is no escape. Watched by omnipresent security cameras, their every attempt at leaving the town's borders is thwarted by mysterious forces. The only source of information is fed randomly through remotely controlled televisions, and as mistrust begins to breed, every alliance will be tested, especially when new guests begin to arrive.

Opr

JP Liz V1

I enjoyed the film Unknown with Barry Pepper and James Caviezel so I will check this out

opr

First episode was average at best and I feel that's being kind towards it. I know its going to be hard to find an original way in which to set a scene like this and it has some nice quirky touches but in the end it feels like a little of LOST, a dash of saw and a few drops of a whole host of other shows fired together hastily to try and tap into the audience LOST has left behind.

I felt the writing was really hit and miss as at times I did feel drawn into the show but then one of the characters would utter some ridiculous over the top heart felt cheesy line that cheapened the whole thing.

Its suppose to be a summer mini-series which has a 13 episode run. I am hoping this means the Pilot was a necessary evil in that they didn't want a protracted long drawn out opening to show and instead wanted to focus on the end game pretty much as quickly as possible. For this reason I will keep watching as while the idea which the show looks to be exploring is pretty tired I am hoping McQuarrie has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Not the shows fault but trying to figure out in what I had seen one of the characters before did distract and annoy me alot (Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off :pac:)

Opr

I enjoyed it somewhat. Though the pilot didn't really get you involved in the characters. It also seems to have a "Saw" vibe about it somewhat, especially with the ending

when she is told to kill her neighbour to get free

- I'm not sure if spoiler tags work with the mobile Boards so apologies if that does not work

Conor108

brokenlaptop wrote: »

I'm not sure if spoiler tags work with the mobile Boards so apologies if that does not work

Those ones didn't but I think its [ ] instead of < >

Conor108

Conor108 wrote: »

Those ones didn't but I think its [ ] instead of < >

Ah, thanks - edited.

adox

Ah not bad overall. It does have a bit of a b movie/twilight zone feel to it which I like.

Definite Saw comparisons as mentioned earlier.It looks like the type of show which makes you think you are trying out figure out whats going on, but in reality you can switch your brain off and let them lead you through and spell everything out.

Will keep watching to see how it developes.

preytec

it reminds me of "The Prisoner"

all they need is a giant egg and we're all set.

the best thing about it, is that it's a mini series so it won't get dragged out and ruined like so many shows have been.

FortuneChip

I bet it's purgatory
The general tone of the show reminds me of The Lost Room from a few years back, coupled with the opening five minutes of Cube.
Definitely seems like the pilot is trying to hard to lure is in with lots of random mysterious going-ons. I'll watch another few episodes, but don't have much hope for this at all.

Ha, get a load of these "Interesting" characters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persons_Unknown#Cast
"How to write characters for a TV show - Step 1"

opr

If this show could only lose the ridiculously bad dialogue at times it would be quite enjoyable. Butterfly thing was kinda cool in the way it mirrored the situation the group find themselves in.

What happened with the Van and the light ? Did they drive in a Circle or Blackout? The Reveal that Moria is a mental patient also makes things more interesting.

Show has enough to keep me hooked seeing as its only a mini series.

Opr

Richard Dower

I'm saving up Eps. for a "back-to-back" session....seems to be more enjoyable that way.

Monotype

I just saw this thread- I posted in the other one and thought nobody was watching.

Monotype wrote: »

I watched Persons Unknown episode 1. It's passable, I'll give it a few more episodes to see how it takes off, but these types of shows are starting to be overused.

Is yer man a convict or on the run? Nothing waiting for him (jail?) and he seems to know about fighting & survival. It would be better if they had a Bear Grylls type person!
Also can we assume the counsellor is from a hospital/asylum? - Tag/gown/"Did I miss the wake up call?"/drugs.

The second episode wasn't too bad, but I'm not really getting sucked into it. I also find the leading lady a bit annoying and it wouldn't bother me too much if someone killed her to get free.
I could probably watch the series, but I think I'll save up on them as RD says.

Monotype

Monotype wrote: »

but I think I'll save up on them as RD says.

So much for that. I thought this episode was a lot more entertaining with the desperation and insanity of the characters really showing.

Richard Dower

^ it's only got 8 episodes right?....think a show like this would benefit from a "all in one sitting" type viewing, from what i read it's like Harper's Island...which sucked, it's very low rated. Ratings for last last ep. were down again.

Mr E

Nope, it has 13.
I'm saving them up too (assuming it gets a full run).

FortuneChip

Totally underwhelmed by what I have seen thus far.
That Janet character is incredibly annoying, as mentioned already.
She goes on a mad one every now and again, only to be calmed or subdued, throws all the cliched questions at the cameras, then rearrives on scene as a voice of level headed reason. Rinse, lather, repeat.

opr

Pretty poor episode in which nothing really happened up till the reveal that Joe is in on the whole thing.

Opr

Basq

It's being bumped to Saturday.. not a good sign!

NBC's summer series "Persons Unknown" has failed to garner good ratings, so after the Monday, July 5, broadcast the show will be relegated to Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET starting July 17, the story reports.

I've the series so far queued to watch.. but it's not looking good for it's future!

Richard Dower

^ aye....another Summer "burn off" series, The Gates and Scoundrels will soon follow it.

Basq

It's a shame.. as the Summer shows tend to be safer bets - as networks expect less of them (in terms of ratings) than the Fall shows.

But this year.. very little seems to be "safe".

Mr E

Watched the first one this morning (finally). I actually really liked it. Shame it looks like its a dead duck.

Conor108

I had been saving them up but I don't think I'll bother now. I've too much to watch anyway

opr

Not surprised to see it sent to the graveyard day. New episode was better but the show is moving at a snails pace.

I did enjoy watching Bill get the crap kicked out of him.

Opr

Mr E

Caught up over the weekend.... nice little twists and turns. The twist about Joe was well done, and the powerplay between him and Tom is excellent. They're not afraid to kill people off either.

Mr E

Anyone still watching? I really love this show. Its the best kind of conspiracy thriller - you don't know who is involved or what's going to happen next (or who they'll kill off!)

The latest episode was excellent. RIP

Tom

. Very compulsive show.

Richard Dower

^no...there is a reason it's been dumped to Saturday.

opr

I am out, its so ****ing bad that I don't understand why I have given it this long. I want to shoot everyone of them in the face at this stage, except Joe and and his bitch as they both deserve all kinds of cruel and unusual punishment before being killed.

Opr

Mr E

NBC have really given up on this show now. Episode 10 is on next week, Episode 12/13 are on the week after, and Episode 11 will only appear online somewhere in between.

I just hope they wrap everything up before the end.

Last week's twist at the end was very cool, but in hindsight it was completely ridiculous. What were the odds that the town was somewhere in remote South America, and that Mark and Kat would just happen to stumble on it while on the run?

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/08/13/exclusive-nbc-to-wrap-persons-unknown-early-skipped-episode-to-debut-online/8835/

Richard Dower

I'm sure there'll be a webrip of episode 11, the ratings are dire beyond belief....even for a Saturday in Summer!!

Mr E

Even American Idol would get poor ratings on a Summer Saturday night.

Monotype

I'd actually forgotten about this. WTF with episode 11? You can do that with 1980s tv programmes where the episodes don't tie in but this is ridiculous.

Mr E wrote: »

What were the odds that the town was somewhere in remote South America, and that Mark and Kat would just happen to stumble on it while on the run?

... and get trapped in it leaving a cliffhanger!

Monotype

Mr E wrote: »

Last week's twist at the end was very cool, but in hindsight it was completely ridiculous. What were the odds that the town was somewhere in remote South America, and that Mark and Kat would just happen to stumble on it while on the run?

I watched episode 9 last night. I thought that this was a theory. That's hilariously far fetched that they come across it only after a couple of hours of running.

J-blk

Monotype wrote: »

I watched episode 9 last night. I thought that this was a theory. That's hilariously far fetched that they come across it only after a couple of hours of running.

It could be that the town they stumbled across is not "the" town that Janet and co. are in but just another one.. the organization behind everything may have several identical towns around different countries for their experiments. The one at the end of the last episode could be the original town that Joe was brought to (though in one of the flashbacks he mentioned something about the room he was re-born in indicating he was in the same town always, but maybe he just thinks that...).

Basq

Haven't watched a single episode.. have them queued up to watch, but with it's gloomy future, don't think I'll bother.

Article from TVByTheNumbers.com below:

As planned, Persons Unknown has the night off tonight when NBC will air the Visa Gymnastics Championship. Also as planned, it returns next week. But, in a new wrinkle with a weird scheduling twist, it’s ending a week early on August 28th instead of September 4 (the Saturday before Labor Day).

Originally the schedule called for the 10th episode on August 21, both the 11th and 12th episodes on August 28 and the finale on September 4th. NBC will air a repeat of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on September 4th at 8pm instead.

The strange thing is that according to The Futon Critic the 11th episode will never air at all, and will only be available online before the two hour finale (12th and 13th episodes) airs on August 28.

Why not just pull the last four episodes and put them online? Last week, it barely managed a 0.4 rating with adults 18-49 and 1.26 million viewers. It has consistently been NBC’s lowest-rated hour of primetime.

Mr E

Welcome to yesterday morning at 10:33, basquille.

Hang on to them for now. I really like it (despite what everyone else thinks!), and if it has a proper ending, it could be a nice self-contained series to watch when things are quiet.

Basq

Mr E wrote: »

Welcome to yesterday morning at 10:33, basquille.

Apologies.. completely missed that!

FreudianSlippers

So, is this show actually any good? lol

Richard Dower

PU added 2 million viewers to last nights ep. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/08/22/tv-ratings-abc-races-to-lead-with-nascar-on-a-strange-saturday-where-persons-unknown-grew-by-2-million-maybe/60646

Um, actually it didn't....there was a runover for NFL....haha!, ep. 11 is now online at NBC and Hulu.

Richard Dower

Ep. 11 is "out", webrip :-)

Monotype

Why did they knock everyone unconscious in ep 10? Yer man said they had to make some adjustments (to the top floor so that people couldn't go up there?). Was that it?

Mr E

I just watched the last two episodes. Enjoyable but frustrating. The end of episode 12 was great, but 13 was a bit all over the place. Plus it was so open-ended, you could drive a bus through it. No closure at all.

Watch out for Robert Picardo in the finale.... almost unrecognisable.

For those who gave up, or those who were thinking of giving the show a go, the very last line of the finale was

"Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to Level 2"

.

Yep, time for a :rolleyes:

horgan_p

I'll watch it later , but only cause i'm stubborn.

J-blk

Yep, ending was very disappointing, I was hoping for some closure since the show was essentially dead in the water early on (not sure if all episodes had been filmed at that point) but there was none of that, just more questions piled on. I enjoyed the show for what it was, but in the end, it was all pretty pointless, since it essentially goes nowhere...

Richard Dower

Clearly they were hoping for a second season.

Richard Dower

Last nights ratings, dreadful: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/08/29/tv-ratings-cbs-scores-with-nfl-again-on-saturday-persons-unknown-says-goodbye/61354

+ last weeks, when NFL was stripped out it was another ratings plunge: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/08/24/sorry-persons-unknown-fans-saturdays-ratings-down-big-in-finals/60864

Lowest rated Summer show for the net, need not say more.

Mr E

J-blk wrote: »

(not sure if all episodes had been filmed at that point)

The webrip had full credits at the end, and the year is down as 2009. It had been sitting on a shelf for at least 6 months before screening.

Richard Dower

Richard Dower wrote: »

Last nights ratings, dreadful: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/08/29/tv-ratings-cbs-scores-with-nfl-again-on-saturday-persons-unknown-says-goodbye/61354

+ last weeks, when NFL was stripped out it was another ratings plunge: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/08/24/sorry-persons-unknown-fans-saturdays-ratings-down-big-in-finals/60864

Lowest rated Summer show for the net, need not say more.

Wow!...read the comments section in ^ above link #1....people are REALLY peed off with the ending and series as a whole, glad i didn't watch it!

Richard Dower

Mr E wrote: »

The webrip had full credits at the end, and the year is down as 2009. It had been sitting on a shelf for at least 6 months before screening.

Persons Unknown was filmed 2 years ago. I believe NBC bought the rights to air it about 1 year ago, so they had no way of being able to fix the show.

J-blk

Richard Dower wrote: »

Persons Unknown was filmed 2 years ago. I believe NBC bought the rights to air it about 1 year ago, so they had no way of being able to fix the show.

It would actually have made more sense to end it at episode 12 TBH... Yes, it would be a pretty ambiguous ending but it would work better than the last episode did, which was almost entirely setting up a second season...

I read somewhere that the reason most people in the US are really pissed off about the ending is because NBC promoted the show as a mini-series and kept stating that "everything would be answered by the end of the summer", which clearly couldn't be further from the truth...

horgan_p

Awful bloody thing.

"welcome to level 2"

indeed , its game over as far as i'm concerned - and good riddance.

Wasnt their a similar miniseries type thing on a couple of summers ago where they actually bailed in the middle of the season ?? I think tv3 got caught out by hyping the bejaysus out of it.

opr

Judging by reaction I'm very glad I stopped watching.

Opr