Surface

I don't know if anyone else watched Surface tonight on NBC, but if you didn't, you're a loser. This show really has potential to be something great. If you took the movies Jaws, Aliens, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, and Abyss and combined them, this is the show you would get.

For those of you who missed it, I taped it. Not that I would let you borrow it...I'll just watch it again and again so I can rub your face in it.

Okay, for those of you who missed it and aren't savvy enough to download it with BitTorrent, here is what happened: It all began one night when a bunch of drunk, obnoxious teenagers were taking a joyride in Daddy's yacht and one of them started water skiing. Eventually, the kid on the skis fell. While he was waiting to be picked up, he looked over at a dingy in the water and saw a large creature with a tail jump off it into the water. The next thing you know, the thing, or it's identical twin raised its head out of the water behind him. Obviously, this caused some alarm. He started screaming for his friends, and they pulled up alongside him to rescue him seconds after the creature went back under the surface. No one else saw it. Then, the Coast Guard shows up, parents all called, and suddenly the teen who was in the water is grounded.

Next scene: in some icy waters, a large aircraft carrier has pulled up alongside a derelict submarine. A crazy scientist lands in a helicopter and begins communicating with the officials on the flight deck. We learn through a bunch of technobabble chatter that the submarine went missing a few days ago and was found 5000 miles off-course. They've not been able to make contact with anyone inside. When they pop the hatch, it's empty, but all the circuits in the computer systems are fried. Immediately, the military begins to suspect the Koreans have some kind of new weapon. But the scientist has his doubts.

Next: a young marine biologist drops her child off with her ex-husband and heads to work. She's going on a dive to study a volcanic vent in an effort to prove life began there. When her submarine gets to the bottom, she is in for a surprise. There are gigantic holes in the sea floor that seem to be very deep. As she's studying them, something starts coming up through the hole. Several somethings. The turbulence causes her submarine to flip over. She swears she saw some unusual light and a dorsal fin.

Jump to a couple of red-necks about to embark on a grouper spear-fishing expedition. We learn the guys are brothers and this is "little brother"'s first dive. Are they really that ignorant?

Meanwhile, the boy who had a close encounter can't get it out of his mind. He coerces his friend to take a small boat out to the buoy again late one night. This time they don't find the creature, but instead they find hundreds of eggs floating in the water. Naturally, they snatch an egg and take it back home and put it in the aquarium to see what hatches.

When the marine biologist returns to work the next day, word of her underwater adventure has gotten out and the crazy scientist on the aircraft carrier shows up to tell her that her sub is being confiscated. They interrogate her for three hours to learn what she saw. We learn that she's a very hot-headed woman (any doubts why she is a divorcee?). We also find out the submarine originally found has a large bite mark on the hull...from a mouth large enough to probably swallow the sub.

So the brothers take a boat out to an offshore drilling platform. The older of the two says the best fishing is around the platform. They attach their spearguns and into the water they go. It's not long before they find a grouper. But then they notice something much larger heading their way. The swim into the rig's framework for protection, but the younger brother accidentally shoots his spear gun, hitting the creature. It takes off and since the speargun's cord is attached to his wrist, he goes with the creature. The older brother does his best to save him, but is unable to keep up. As the younger brother is carried away, we see a bright flash of eerie blue green light. So long little brother, we hardly knew you. The older brother surfaces too quickly and gets narcosis.

It doesn't take long before the egg in the aquarium hatches and escapes. The teenage boy sees the creature scurry upstairs into his sister's room. He follows it into her bathroom and locks the door behind him to keep it his secret. Wouldn't everyone in the house wonder what the slim trail is all about? Luckily, he catches it in a shower curtain. Hmn, it can break through glass but a shower curtain can contain it? That should come in very useful later.

The marine biologist returns home and calls her father to tell him how she's been shut out of her lab by the government. Her son sees a news story on the TV about a large whale, or something like a whale, that washed up on the beach in Carolinas. He calls his mother in to look at it. Then, the mad scientist guy shows up on the TV (boy, he really gets around!) and relays some BS story about a whale carcass and how they've shut the beach down to protect the public. She books a flight to that area so she can see for herself what is going on.

The red neck, freshly out of the hospital, also sees the TV story and thinks it might help him figure out what happened to his brother. We learn his wife doesn't believe his story about the flash of light and thinks his narcosis caused him to hallucinate. So he heads for the beach, too, leaving her doubting ass at home.

Cut to a secret meeting with the NSA. The scientist unveils a large tooth about the size of a small microwave oven and begins telling them what he knows about the creatures. But of course, the scene ends before we learn anything, really.

Now, we jump to a fishing boat somewhere off the coast of South America. A grandfather and grandson are fishing one night. A meteor shower begins. But the meteors all seem to be falling in the water just a few hundred feet away. And so we are left with our first cliffhanger...WTF does the meteor shower have to do with it?

The trailer for next week was actually a trailer for the next several weeks. All I can say is WOW! This show seems really ambitious in its scope. It looks very expensive to make. It also looks very similar to ABC's Invasion show, which is getting rave reviews. Invasion starts Wednesday after Lost. I can't wait!