CBS’ ‘Salvation’ is about an asteroid headed for Earth

In CBS’ summertime suspense drama “Salvation,” the Pentagon is trying to keep a lid on the apocalyptic news that a deadly asteroid is on course to collide with Earth in 186 days. You don’t need a genius to tell you it’s made entirely of cheese.

Still, it can be somewhat diverting to watch “Salvation’s” heroes and villains try to divert doomsday. TV critics are lately eager to praise shows that deliberately move slow (“Twin Peaks,” “Better Call Saul,” “Fargo,” to name a few), while CBS has never lost money by catering to its viewers’ needs for the quick-n-easy approach. In at least that regard, “Salvation” more than delivers.

Charlie Rowe stars as Liam, a floppy-haired MIT grad student who has invented an app to scan the heavens for troublesome objects and quickly calculate their trajectories. When his phone alerts him that his data has scored a big hit (and his mentor professor mysteriously disappears), Liam takes his discovery to Darius Tanz (Santiago Cabrera), a suave, Elon Musk-type space mogul.

Turns out Liam’s data is correct — and the Department of Defense already knows about the asteroid and has come up with a deflection plan that Liam and Darius think is all wrong. Yet the deputy secretary, Harris Edwards (Ian Anthony Dale), seems for some reason determined to thwart outside advice, to such a degree that his girlfriend, Pentagon spokeswoman Grace Barrows ( Jennifer Finnigan), secretly allies with Darius and Liam, feeding them top-secret information that could help them come up with a new plan.

In the first two episodes made available for review, “Salvation” presents itself more as an espionage thriller than a sci-fi adventure, in which people who know too much are targeted for assassination rather than strapped, Bruce Willis-style, to rendezvous rockets.

Viewers might want to do a little math for themselves here — an asteroid that is six months off in deep space seems a bit too distant to produce a fast and explosive conclusion. As fast as “Salvation” moves along, it still seems not quick enough.

Do we really have to sit through all the predictable plot twists and complicated human relationships just to get to the good part? It is indeed a sad state of affairs when you promote a show about an asteroid killing us all and people tune in hoping to see just — and only — that.

CONTRIBUTED BY BEN MARK HOLZBERG,CBS Charlie Rowe stars in “Salvation.”