"The Event" - a show that wants desperately to be riveting and intriguing

I was hoping the second episode would hook me, or at least get me more excited about "The Event." Alas, I'm still lukewarm on this show. But lukewarm is better than cold hatred, so I'm sticking with it for now.

I was really surprised that they decided to break out "not of terrestrial origin" in the second episode. So much for not embracing SciFi. That said, I'm still not intrigued by their human-looking aliens, why these aliens are here, what they're doing, are they good or bad, etc. I just suddenly feel like I'm watching the less promising bastard offspring of "V" and "Flashforward." There are aliens infiltrating our society for some unknown reason, there's a mysterious event that happened, and meanwhile Jason Ritter is off running around in the desert. The plane crash victims' untimely end surprised me, but I still feel like this show is incredibly scatter-brained. We know that Jason Ritter's missing girlfriend/plane crash storyline is somehow connected to the alien prisoners, but I just don't care because they're going to have to take some giant leaps to connect the conspiracies. I don't know what the plane stunt was for, but I highly doubt the answer is going to be anywhere close to satisfying. These days, shows write giant mysteries to hook viewers then write themselves into corners because they didn't think to develop an eventual conclusion to their narrative. The result is unhappy, bitter viewers who are less willing to trust the Next Big Show. After "Invasion," "Flashforward," "Heroes", and "The Nine," we're just less willing to commit and put our faith in the showrunners. Additionally, the fractured timeline is needlessly confusing and isn't adding much of anything to the show. There are bits and pieces of character development, (Jason Ritter meeting his girlfriend, the CIA agent who is an undercover alien) but not enough at any one time to make us care especially about any one character.

I will say this for the show: I can't help but like Jason Ritter as the sort-of protagonist. Yeah, he hasn't done anything really spectacular or heroic yet, but he does have that Everyman quality every critic has been mentioning. But I could just be getting that impression because I haven't seen him in many things. I think the show needs to stick with him for a little bit as the main protagonist to get us invested in at least one person's business, then they can add on all the other characters they want in more depth. If they narrow the focus from this epic scale a la "Flashforward" and give us a more intimate look at one man's struggle to find the woman he loves while being wrongfully accused of murder, they could just make viewers care about the vast conspiracy. I really think they should take some tips from an older, semi under-the-radar SciFi show, "The 4400." They managed a big mysterious event that changed the entire world while focusing on fascinating characters. That show made you care about what happened to their fictional world because you cared about the people in it. If "The Event" can focus more on its characters and less on its EVENT, then it will turn out to be a much better show. Oh, and if they could get someone to write dialogue that doesn't sound like it was written by a high schooler, it would be greatly appreciated.