Premiering in a week, is CBS' latest summer addition Zoo. Along with returning series Under the Dome and Extant it rounds out a slew of unique concepts that CBS would never air during the regular season, but that the network instead opts to try out in summer. Ratings for Under the Dome's first season went through the roof, but waned during the second season, although they were still reasonable for summer television. Extant has seen pretty soft ratings in season 1, and I was surprised it was renewed for another season. Neither of the two returning shows have the benefit of having critical acclaim, so that doesn't help either. The question is: how will Zoo fare among them? I can't predict ratings, but I can tell you something about the show's pilot. CBS has been kind enough to send us a screener of the pilot, so here I am trying to give you an impression of what it looks like without giving too much away.
Meanwhile, two lions escape from a zoo in Los Angeles and kill three people. This piques the interest of LA Telegraph journalist Jamie Campbell (Kristen Connolly), who thinks a change in the lions' food had something to do with them attacking people. She also suspects that the director of the zoo might know something more. During Jamie's research, she comes across animal veterinarian Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke). Mitch, who is investigating the bodies of the dead lions, is someone who prefers the company of animals over that of people. He is initially reluctant to work with Jamie, but the two later team up to research the strange animal behavior.
I consider the pilot a good start to an exciting new series. There is no time wasted in getting to the story, as it soon becomes clear that the show is about animal attacks. In this episode, we only see animal attacks in Los Angeles and Africa, but since the description of the series says that attacks will be global, I suspect we will soon hear of or see other places where animals start behaving strangely. It is safe to start the animal attacks in these two places and then build further upon that in future episodes. The division of screen time between the two locations is fair and gives a certain balance to the episode. On the character side, we get some hints at our characters' backstories but nothing major yet. I think the show is primarily story-driven, but I believe it's important to develop interesting characters in the midst of its story.
A few other teasers from the pilot episode:
-The screener I've seen starts with a voiceover. And no, it's not like a superhero show voiceover that starts with "My name is". I'm also not sure if the voiceover is just for the first episode or if it will be featured in subsequent episodes as well.
-One of the characters' lives is pretty much in limbo when the episode ends.
-There is a mystery in the pilot that concerns cats that have gone missing. Where are they and what are they doing?
-If you have seen the promotional photos, promos and posters for the show, you will have noticed that they all focus on an animal's eye. There is actually a significance to that pupil that you see. The details will be explained in the episode.
-Throughout the episode, we hear bits and pieces about Jackson's father, who had some theories about strange animal behavior.
-During a safari, Jackson and Abraham encounter some illegal animal hunters. They later turn up at a surprising moment in the episode.
Zoo premieres Tuesday, June 30th at 9/8c on CBS. Watch a promo for the show below. Will you be watching Zoo? Tell us in the comments if you will and what your expectations are from the series.
