Emergence First Impressions

“My guess is that it’s dissociative amnesia. Something happened, and her brain is protecting itself.”

Emergence really hits the middle ground of quality without actually being dull. A lot of shows that are only passable fall to that level because they fail to do more than the bare minimum. Those are the bland procedurals that come and go without anyone really taking note. That isn’t to say that Emergence is all that groundbreaking. It really isn’t. However, this is an instance of a title maintaining a precarious see-sawing balance between good and bad which is the result of a notable positive factor being countered by a negative factor of roughly equal significance. The show benefits from a solid cast which includes Allison Tolman, Donald Faison and Clancy Brown. On the other hand, the actual premise feels highly derivative of a half dozen other shows where a mysterious child exhibits odd abilities and is at the center of some form of conspiracy. I’d love to be able to recommend this show on the names involved in it alone, but, unfortunately, it lacks the hook needed to make it stand out from its ilk.

Emergence centers around the family of Jo Evans, the sheriff of a small New England coastal town played by Allison Tolman. When a plane mysteriously crashes into the beach in the middle of the night, Jo is surprised to find an unharmed, amnesiac girl on the beach. Concerned about peculiar governmental action surrounding the girl, Jo decides to hide her at her family home where her teenage daughter and her father, played by Clancy Brown, can watch over her. The family is relatively quick to embrace the new, if temporary, addition, and names her Eleven Piper. Jo’s concerns are quickly proven to be warranted as fake parents show up trying to take custody of Piper, and Jo is forced to enlist the aid of her ex-husband, played by Donald Faison. Like I said, I love half of this cast. I didn’t even recognize Owain Yeoman when he showed up, but it’s nice to see him around. That being said, the caliber of the cast does little to elevate the show’s by the numbers and execution.

I know I referenced Stranger Things just a minute ago, and that is definitely the title that Emergence most closely resembles, but, even if you never watched that series, many of the plot points of this first episode would ring familiar due to countless other sources. I could run out of fingers counting the cliches. There is an eccentric journalist who gradually starts sounding more and more reasonable. Amnesia. There is a girl with the ability to move things with her mind. Amnesia. There are imposter parents who show up to claim the child, but have no family pictures of her. Amnesia. Piper is the mysterious sole survivor of a plane crash. Amnesia. Piper evidently has memories of what appears to be a sensory deprivation process. Hell, the episode essentially recreates one of the most famous images from the first season of Stranger Things when Piper ends up flipping an SUV. Also, I almost forgot to mention the amnesia. This feels derivative of almost every Sci-Fi TV show that’s been made since Lost, and, frankly, the fact that Terry O’Quinn will be showing up at some point doesn’t do much to undermine that sense that we’ve seen this all before. I hope this show can find something to lean its narrative on, but, currently, there isn’t enough here to get me coming back for a second episode.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• Allison Tolman is best known for playing Molly Solverson on Fargo. Donald Faison is probably best remembered for his role as Turk on Scrubs. Clancy Brown… Do I really need to explain who Clancy Brown is? Shawshank Redemption, the voice of Lex Luthor, the “Blacksmith” from Daredevil Season 2 & Punisher, and countless other iconic live-action and voice roles.
• I’m not really on board with either of the child characters so far. I think that may be due more to the writing than the acting though. Jo’s daughter feels too… precocious maybe? There’s something about her that doesn’t quite work in this first episode. I think it’s that she’s never has an opportunity to be anything but chipper and onboard with whatever comes next. Piper suffers from the show’s efforts to make her mysterious to the point that she lacks definition. Is she innocent? Dangerous? Malicious? Naive? I don’t know.
• I decided to just think of the shows that this reminded me of off the top of my head: Stranger Things, Touch, Manifest, Believe (I remembered that show existing, but had to look up the name), Fringe. Hell, it even ends up feeling derivative of Fargo because they’ve got Tolman playing a small town cop who finds herself investigating an incident that’s outside her jurisdiction or authority, but she’s the one with the most insight.