Huddled masses arrive in promising sci-fi drama
difference between ABC’s “The Crossing” and the ongoing debate over U.S. immigration policy is that no one’s calling for the construction of a wall in the sci-fi drama premiering on Monday, April 2. At least not yet. On the surface, the series isn’t terribly original. The pilot, the only episode made available to critics, begins with a whole lot of people in the ocean, some dead already, others swimming toward the surface, evoking the opening of the superb French sci-fi thriller “The Returned,” based on the film “Les Revenants.”
When bodies start washing up on the beach, the local sheriff, Jude Ellis (Steve Zahn), and his deputy, Nester Rosario (Rick Gomez), discover that some of the new arrivals are still alive, like 8-year-old Leah (Bailey Skodje), who was separated from her mother, Reece (Natalie Martinez), in the water.
In all, there are 47 survivors among the hundreds of dead. Jude is stumped, but he has little time to work the case before he’s summarily pushed aside by government forces led by Agent Emma Ren (Sandrine Holt) and banned from the beach. Emma herself is a refugee, we learn, having arrived in the U.S. when she was 6 years old. We don’t know where she was born or how she got here yet, but as the plot basics unfold, we begin to piece together various possibilities.
What we know about Jude is that he has taken the supposedly low-key job in the small coastal town after some as-yet-undeOne
fined trouble in his former job in Oakland. There are a few too many references to Oakland’s notoriety for crime. (Frankly, it feels like the city is an easy target for writers who don’t know what they’re talking about. Oakland has a crime problem. So does every city in the United States.) We also know he’s divorced and shares custody of his young son, Oliver, with his ex-wife. That’s as much backstory as we get for any of the major characters in the pilot.
Bit by bit, though, we realize that the waterlogged newcomers are looking for asylum from war.
But there is no war in the U.S. at the moment.
“There will be,” young Leah promises.
That’s as much as you need to know without spoiling key elements of the promising plot. Although the refugees at the center of “The Crossing” are not from another country, they are still “them,” “the other.” They are treated relatively well at the moment, but are still quarantined from the rest of the population, and Jude is given vague and evasive “talking points” to make at a press conference after word of the newcomers spreads.
The seeds of xenophobia are already planted as the fundamental theme of the drama.
Creators Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin take their time establishing the plot and characters, which is commendable, since broadcast TV is generally so desperate to grab your attention with both hands, most pilots are a whirlwind of so many “resume” details, you’d think the characters are standing in line at a job fair. “The Crossing” has a European feel and a more deliberate pace to match. That’s a good thing, but without other episodes, it’s not easy to assess the real potential of “The Crossing.”
Fingers crossed on this one.