REFUGEES LAND,
Refugees from future come ashore in ABC’s ‘The Crossing’
ABC can’t get over that “Lost” high.
Every season the network debuts at least one show that tries to capture the buzzy buzz of the hit that tangled viewers in a vast, time-trippy thriller in which questions multiplied faster than commercial breaks.
“The Crossing,” from executive producers Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin, might be ABC’s most blatant attempt yet.
In the pilot, survivors wash up from icy waters to the edge of a beach.
They’re not passengers from a plane or a boat. They were fleeing a war that devastated their country — America.
“There’s no war here,” one local points out. “There will be.”
The newcomers say they’re from the future — 180 years ahead of us. They arrived via a timey-wimey teleportation device that malfunctioned and dropped them, it seems, a league below the water’s surface. Over 400 people drowned. Forty-seven survived. Now they’d like asylum. You have to admire a show, any show, about refugees in this charged political climate. There could be a lot of great allegorical stories to be told here, but “The Crossing” doesn’t seem to have the strength to be the bridge over our troubled waters.
For one, it introduces another element — the Apex. The Apex are the next stage in human evolution. (Stop me if you’ve heard this before, X-Men fans.) They have enhanced senses, speed, strength and agility. And they don’t like humans. At least, most don’t. There’s at least one among the survivors (no clues from me).
Steve Zahn (“Mind Games,” “Treme”) stars as Jude Ellis, sheriff of this small fishing town on the Oregon coast. He arrived here to put a professional disaster behind him. But as he grapples with investigating the new arrivals, his past haunts him.
Sandrine Holt (“MacGyver,” “Homeland”) costars as Homeland Security agent Emma Ren, a savvy skeptic. “I don’t trust desperate people,” she says.
Meanwhile, the refugees try to adjust to our barbaric time.
“You know, someone said their meat comes from real animals,” one woman says, disgusted.
“The Crossing” has its moments, but if you look too closely at its story, it melts away like ice cream cake left out in the sun. ABC is promising flashbacks to fill in the visitors’ stories, another “Lost” tic.
It could be worse. In this era of rampant reboots — ABC’s “Roseanne” premiered to shattering numbers last week — the network could choose to resurrect “Lost,” maybe with an all-new cast.
You can almost imagine the network pitch.
“This time, there really would be answers, ones that would make sense, even!”
Let’s stick with the unknown. With “The Crossing,” you can at least pretend you’re going somewhere new, even if the road looks well-traveled.