Personages Unknown

There's a slew of new series starting up over in Americaland, with the first out of the block (that's I'm at least glancing at) being Persons Unknown. So far, I've only seen the first episode, but I'm willing to make some predictions for the series.

The basic premise is that a group of "persons" who are "unknown" (to each other) wake up to find themselves in a hotel in a town. They don't know where they are, or if they can trust each other. There are cameras watching them, and people who are in the town who are just doing their jobs and know less than they do. They will have challenges to face and the aim will be to get the hell out of there. Or survive.

In the first episode, the structure was to follow one of the people, see her getting grabbed and then show her meeting people, and also what happens back in her real life. I'm predicting... each episode will show someone's before-life and other details as we concentrate on them. (At least, for a bunch of episodes, there are only eight of them after all.)

The problem is... this smacks of "Lost"ness. And I can easily see this series being branded as "the New Lost!". Which it isn't. That's just a short hand marketing technique to get people to watch (obviously), but this also puts a shape on the series it doesn't have. Which means it won't be what people expect. And thus it's going to be cancelled.

Okay, it's just me (as far as I know) that is saying Lost-like, I haven't been watching the marketing, and it's only thirteen episodes, so it's unlikely to be pulled before it gets fully aired. But... it is made by Fox (although shown on NBC), so I don't think I'm that far off the mark in the 'getting canceled' call.

Anyways, it's intriguing enough to make me want to watch more, and that's what the basic aim of any series should be. Just need to ignore any hint of Lost or Survivor or... and judge it on itself.

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