ABC’s last announced new series of the season has a Lost vibe without the initial scope or thrill of discovery.
Already streaming on abc.go.com, The Crossing makes its conventional TV debut on Monday, April 2, at 10 p.m. ET, following another two-hour edition of American Idol. ABC has made just the first episode available for review, making it difficult to render a verdict on whether The Crossing seems to know where it’s going.
Here’s the premise: Jude Ellis (Steve Zahn, top), sheriff of a small fishing town, is pulled out of a yoga class when a dead body washes ashore. Ellis and deputy Nestor Rosario (Rick Gomez, left) then are stunned to see hundreds of bodies floating in the near distance. And 47 of them turn out to still be alive. Hey, Jude, what’s up with that?
The survivors all stick to a story that they’re in fact refugees who’d been living roughly 180 years in the future under the thumb of Apex, an oppressive minority population with a “heightened cognitive function.” Yeah, sure. But what if they’re telling the truth?
Strong-arming Department of Homeland Security agent Emma Ren (Sandrine Holt, left) is soon on the scene and telling Jude to buzz off.
“I can handle chaos,” he insists.
“Your time in Oakland would indicate otherwise,” she retorts. What’s she mean by that? Dunno yet. But it would have been kinder for Emma to tell him, “Anytime you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain. Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders.” (Sorry.)
Still, what’s a guy to do when another survivor, rescued separately from the others, abducts Jude at rifle point? Her name is Reece (Natalie Martinez), who turns out to be something of a wonder woman in terms of strength and jumping power. She’s also searching for her little daughter, Leah (Bailey Skodje, below), who washed ashore nearly dead but isn’t.
There are other entanglements and deceptions. The 47 survivors supposedly were preceded by other visitors from the future who are hiding in plain sight and may have diabolical plans.
A thumbnail ABC description of Episode 2, subtitled “A Shadow Out of Time,” says that “in a flash-forward to 2187, Reece finds Leah, an orphaned Common baby, and goes against her Apex cohorts to take her in as her own.” Meanwhile, Jude is “blindsided by a mysterious black-ops team’s intent on capturing Reece by any means necessary.”
The Crossing has just enough going for it to invite a second look. Then again, it doesn’t yet seem dynamic enough to be worth a long-term investment -- or a short-term disappointment if ABC cancels it without resolving much of anything. The network has done this before with string-along, but eventually dead-end, serial dramas such as The Nine, FlashForward, Resurrection, The Whispers, Missing and, going back a little farther, Push, Nevada.
Don’t be unduly surprised if The Crossing likewise unspools a lot of threads before viewers are left dangling. For now, though, the hook is embedded just a bit more than skin deep.