But maybe part of the reason THE CROSSING didn't debut well had to do with THE EVENT and with SENSE8 and with . . . Since LOST left the air, a lot of syfy, horror and adventures shows have left the air. While some, like ORPHAN BLACK, won praise and multiple seasons, many were gone in the blink of an eye. NETFLIX was, for example, considering grabbing THE EVENT after NBC axed it but, in the end, NETFLIX passed. It did air SENSE8 but then axed the show despite public outcry (the streaming service announced, in the face of the backlash, that they would greenlight a movie to wrap the story up).
It can be a little hard to keep trying new shows of a genre that keeps getting the axe.
Since LOST left the airwaves, for example, some of the genre shows cancelled include: DARK MATTER, 12 MONKEYS, PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD, BEING HUMAN, MERLIN, ALPHAS, BELIEVE, SINBAD, STRANDED, GHOST MINE, METAL HURLANT CHRONICLES, THE ALMIGHTY JOHNSONS, HELIX, WAREHOUSE 13, BITTEN, HUNTER, DEFIANCE, GALAVANT, AMERICAN GOTHIC, EXTANT, ZOO, MINORITY REPORT, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, SCREAM QUEENS, SLEEPY HOLLOW, WAYWARD PINES, GRIM, HEROES REBORN, YOU, ME AND THE APOCALYPSE, CONTINUUM, DAMIEN, DOMINION, HEMLOCK GROVE, DRACULA, THE PATH, RECTIFY, STICHERS, THE STRAIN, ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND, UNDER THE DOME, THE VAMPIRE DIARES, ALMOST HUMAN, LOST GIRL, INCORPORATED, ALCATRAZ, FRINGE, . . .
That's a lot of programs.
And there's really been no rescuing these programs.
NETFLIX hasn't rushed up to grab any of them -- the way they saw fit to rescue ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. HULU hasn't thrown out a safety line. The shows are on and gone in most cases. And a lot of them were quality programs.
Like THE ORIGINALS which THE CW is axing (its currently airing its final season), SENSE8, CORPORATION, ALPHAS, DRACULA and EXTANT. Viewers tune in, they support the shows, and yet the networks keep axing them.
Into this environment, it's hard to imagine any show doing well.
THE CROSSING stars Steve Zahn as Sheriff Jude Ellis. Jude worked in California and left after a pressure play at work that did not go well. He's relocated to the northwest. Things get shaky when bodies start floating to the coastline. Most are dead but a little under fifty are alive including a child named Leah.
Jude's attempting to figure out what's going on when Agent Emma Ren (Sandrine Holt) tells him Homeland Security has taken jurisdiction. The short story? These people who washed ashore are from the future. They are also not the first group to show up. In 2008, an earlier group came through.
Reese (Natalie Martines) came through with the second group. Reese has superhuman strength, hearing powers, healing powers, a little bit of everything because she's Apex.
Apex, according to the "Commons" -- the people who came back from the future, have invented a disease to take out the ordinary humans. 180 years from now, the Apex controls the earth.
Reese discovered Leah in the future when Leah was a baby and refused to kill her. She raised Leah in secret until her superiors found out. At which point, she and Leah traveled back to the past but while she's able to get Leah almost to the surface, she then sinks to what would have been her own death had she not been an Apex.
The first group did not land at the bottom of the ocean when they traveled back in time. Instead, they landed in the middle of the road. At night. Marshall was just a kid, in the backseat of the family car, his father driving, when the group appeared on the road and Marshall's father swerved to avoid hitting them. The car went off the road and then off the cliff. Marshall's mother died in the crash.
Now an adult (played by Tommy Bastow), Marshall encounters Hannah at the county fair. Hannah's one of the Commons who came back with the second group. She's snuck out of the relocation/refugee camp Homeland Security has set up. She sees Marshall and he's the face in the photo of a locket she had. She is taken back to the camp. But Marshall's felt a connection and, not only that, his suppressed memories of that 2008 event come back.
Oh, and Homeland Security? They've got no record of the camp because Agent Emma Ren reports to a man who was . . . part of the first group who returned from the future.
There's a lot going on here and so much of it is fresh and unusual.
We think audiences would really enjoy the show if they gave it a chance (you can catch up on HULU if you've missed it thus far). But, again, we can understand why some might be leery after having invested so much in so many programs that quickly disappear regardless of quality or fan devotion.
