Ok, what do you get when you put knock-off versions of Christian Bale and Bridget Moynahan in a deserted town with invisible electric fences? The new Lost? Maybe. But really it’s just NBC’s summer mini-series Persons Unknown.

NBC has been doing this for the past several summers – that is, creating self-contained mystery series that only last 13-14 episodes. To be honest, this is the only one that I’ve watched. It’s written by a guy name Christopher McQuarrie. He’s worked on a few small films you probably wouldn’t know: The Usual Suspects, X-Men, Valkyrie. And stars a bunch of no names alongside the great Alan Ruck who I’ve referenced once or twice already.

HOLD UP! Did you say this might be the new LOST?

Well, let me give you some context. 7 people wake up in this deserted town. They don’t know how they got there, not unlike the great film Cube (go, rent it, now, finish reading later). Who’s good? Who’s bad? Who do we trust? Why are most of the abandoned shops named after people? Who’s the creepy guy at the hotel desk? Why does he magically get promoted from night manager to day manager? (A: Because it’s easier to film during the daytime) Why is there a Chinese restaurant? These are the questions we are left asking – and according to Wikipedia, NBC (unlike their vowel-led counterpart) is prepared to answer.

Oh yeah, there’s also an invisible force field that fries people’s faces with microwaves. Those who get past said force field somehow always travel in a circle and end up right back where the started. And (even though I called it 30 minutes in advance) the move of expelling fake poisonous gas to trick people to put on gas masked rigged with real poisonous gas was brilliant.

Character development is a bit slow, with most of the drama centering around the main female lead. All of the action outside of the town has been devoted to her – and it is pretty compelling. I’d like to know more about the other characters, though. Ruck’s character is great and it’s awesome to see him take something of a darker turn. And, yeah, the main male lead really does wish he was Christian Bale (as John Connor).

So, we’re 4 episodes in with 13 scheduled. I linked to it on Hulu in the first line up there, so go watch it and get caught up. If we’re lucky, it will end better than that “airplane crashes on a mysterious island that doesn’t really matter” show… that should have ended like this.

Related posts:

1. TV Throwdown: If They Made it a Movie
2. TV Throwdown!
3. TV Throwdown: LOST Finale