Emergence Review: Pilot (Season 1 Episode 1)

Emergence Season 1 Episode 1, “Pilot,” kicks off the series with a plane crash, some mysteries, and a good dose of intrigue thrown into the mix.

To call Emergence‘s first episode particularly noteworthy might be a bit of a stretch. If anything, this series that is so clearly attempting to emulate Lost is perfectly adequate — and that’s precisely what it needs to be.

It’s important to keep Lost in mind when you think about Emergence, especially from the start. It’s the inspiration but it’s also a good blueprint to follow at first. Lost gets a lot of grief for the way that it has plotted itself out, but, from a mythology standpoint, it was very diligent in the way it gave you pieces of the puzzle, at least at first. 

Lost didn’t just come out of the gate and plop a polar bear into your lap. It gave you these little pieces — the monster in the forest, the transmission, the aforementioned polar bears — and let your interest build upon itself. It had these components that teased a larger world and was afterward rather patient in how it unraveled those things. 

A lot of Lost‘s pilot dealt with setting things up that it knew you’d be interested in down the road and letting your mind take you on its own journey from there. Similarly, Emergence is serving to introduce you to the world and some of the larger worldbuilding aspects of the series that it no doubt will get to a later point. 

“Pilot” is serving mostly as a proof-of-concept for the rest of the series and that’s probably for the best. This isn’t The Event or FlashForward, which shoved a lot of ideas and concepts in your face all at once like an excited child coming home from school on a sugar rush. 

It’s managing this nice level of patience while still presenting a lot of smaller plot elements right at the beginning. 

There is a kind of frustration with it, though, as it centers so heavily on Piper and what precisely is going on with her and where she comes from, that you’re almost certain that if you put any measure of thought or analysis into it that you’ll solve it.

A show like this, that comes from the school of Lost, relies in a way on the theorizing. That’s why people watch them.

If you’re not able to do that, then it becomes a little lesser than what it’s supposed to or designed to be. You shouldn’t go into a show feeling like you are as smart, or smarter, than the people writing it.

With almost no thought at all, you can probably guess that Piper is the subject of a government experiment gone wrong, and this secret agency was just trying to save the world from something larger at play. We have all seen this story before. When you’re watching a show like this, you don’t want to feel like your lazy theory is correct and it probably will be. 

Even still, it’s difficult to pass any kind of real judgment upon Emergence based on this episode alone. Right now, all that can really be said about it is it has potential. It could go on to be really satisfying from here or it could crash and burn like the plane in the teaser.

That’s the frustrating thing with a pilot like this: you can’t easily say it’s good or it’s not because it has story beats but it doesn’t really do enough to have a quality level, one way or another. This will undoubtedly turn out to be one of those shows where, if it’s not working by the third or fourth episode, it’s probably not worth it to continue. 

Let’s all have fun waiting until that point. 

What did you think of this episode of Emergence? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Emergence airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

20 TV Characters Who Really Need a Hug