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I'm always up for a television series that has a quality plot, decent cast, and solid writing and technical features. I'm not one for procedurals, any form of comedy, or anything mythical/supernatural/magical.
Unfortunately, many television series that meet my basic requirements fail to find an audience and end up in a big pile called canceled series. But over the last couple seasons, networks seem to be warming to the serial drama genre, and their pilots continue to venture into unbroken ground in an attempt to find a niche and become the next big thing. Naturally, not all of them succeed when ordered to series, but the networks, to my relief, haven't given up.
Freshman summer drama, The Lottery, is the latest series to catch my eye and meet my basic criteria. The Lottery premieres Sunday July 20, 10|9c on Lifetime, and I'm very excited to see what the remaining 9 episodes of a 10 episode season have in store. I found the pilot to be highly entertaining, and of the dozen pilots I've seen for the upcoming 2014/2015 television season, this one is among the best of the lot.
The Lottery begins proceedings in the year 2025. Nearly a decade prior, in 2016, a sizeable drop in birth rates was observed, and shortly after the world's female population suddenly became sterile, and unable to bear children. In the year 2019, only 6 children were born, and none have been born since. As you might expect, this is a problem the world is very keen to find a solution to, and the higher powers of the US government are heavily involved. The world is at a loss as to what caused this sudden change, with no specific cause being identified to date, and all the while, the male population has been unaffected. Scientists have tried everything, but their attempts have been fruitless.
Until now...
Alison Lennon is the young scientist who successfully manages to fertilize an embryo for the first time in six years. Her assistant, James Lynch, assisted in the breakthrough but their working relationship hits a snag when the Director of the US Fertility Commission, Darius Hayes turns up at Lennon's lab and expels her from the research program, which has fertilized 100 embryos by then. This is the linchpin that determines Lennon's actions for the duration of the pilot. Strangely, her assistant, Lynch, remains part of the program - a fact Lennon uses to her advantage later on.
Meanwhile, Kyle Walker is a single father of one, though not just any one. Kyle's son, Elvis, is one of the last six children to be born since the fertility crisis began. One day, while his son is at school, the school notifies him that his son has a case of the flu. Upon reaching the school, he is interviewed by two agents from the Department of Humanities who then prevent him getting to his son, who ends up in a hospital ward in mysterious circumstances. It's up to Kyle to do what needs to be done to bring his son home.
In the third emerging story arc, Director Hayes meets with the US President and his Chief of Staff, Vanessa Keller. Hayes firmly believes secrecy is the best way to manage the discovery, but Keller suggests a lottery be used as a way of increasing the morale of the population, especially among women, and as a way of retaining votes for the next election. The forthcoming announcement stops the nation, and gives the series its sense of direction. There's plenty more exciting stuff that happens that I won't reveal, but rest assured it makes things even more interesting.
Even the best concepts and plots require a high level of quality in their execution to make them watchable, and I'm very pleased with what the pilot demonstrated in this regard. The plot was very well outlined, the characters given good introductions, and no time was wasted on unnecessary or confusing details, including the science of the successful embryo fertilization. Though I've seen better writing and directing, the quality of both was still high. The musical score caught my ear more than most series manage to, which added a lot to my viewing experience.
The intensity and urgency you'd expect from the plot was evident but not forced - a nice change compared to some of the pilots I've seen. I didn't feel like I was being force-fed expected emotional reactions or opinions to situations, but rather left to develop them on my own. Wikipedia lists the series genres as post-apocalyptic, and conspiracy thriller. I don't believe the former is accurate considering no one is dying - its just no one has been born. The latter fits the plot much more snugly, and the levels of conspiracy and thriller will almost certainly increase. I also liked the tidbits scattered throughout the episode that related to the lack of children, which included women obsessing over another child, abandoned playgrounds and school buses, and men using their previous fertility success stories as a pickup tool.
Marley Shelton plays the protagonist Alison Lennon, and looks very much at home in the role. Her television experience is well and truly surpassed by her big screen experience. It's a different story for Michael Graziadei, who plays Kyle Walker. He's has stints on the likes of American Horror Story, and spent 9 years on The Young and the Restless, with numerous one-off appearances on big name primetime series. His performance could have been a bit better, but I did like the character.
The minor characters are led by Martin Donovan who plays Darius Hayes. Because of my television taste, I've seen many a government agent, though this guy is a little different in that he doesn't appear to be as one-dimensional as other government agents. Donovan's long resume includes Weeds, Ghost Whisperer, along with appearances on Homeland and Hannibal. Athena Karkanis's role as the President's Chief of Staff was quite small and relatively straightforward. You may have seen her in Low Winter Sun. Rounding out the 5 main cast members is David Alpay as James Lynch. Alpay is best known for his role on The Vampire Diaries but has made appearances in Perception and CSI. The way his character's role develops will be interesting to watch.
The Lottery is created by Timothy J. Sexton. He wrote the pilot and also serves as Executive Producer alongside Dawn Olmstead and Danny Cannon, who directed the pilot.
To sum up, I'm seeing real potential in this series. The plot is solid across all the areas I look at, and the characters and the ways they are connected looks to be well thought out. I've got nothing to criticize either, which is a feat in itself. If you're a fan of television series along the lines of Orphan Black, Person of Interest and Homeland, then I highly recommend you give The Lottery a go. Let's hope the remaining 9 episodes of the first season are as good as, or better than, the first.
You can watch a short trailer for The Lottery below:
Thanks for reading my pilot preview of The Lottery. Sing out in the comments below if you have any questions you want me to try to answer. Don't forget to check out my TV ratings website, www.seriesmonitor.com.
Jimmy
