Television: Meteor

I watched the last hour of the first half of Meteor on NBC last Sunday.  I really had no idea what was going on but this is what I was able to piece together. (I am going to write this before I read the actual description of the movie to see how close I was.)

• An asteroid collided with a comet.  Because neither one would be scary enough on their own.

• Meteors have great timing and morals.  When you are about to be raped by a thug in a Mexican jail, a meteor will save you by crashing nearby giving you a chance to escape.

• Jason Alexander plays a scientist who is either really depressed about the meteors about to strike the earth or about his post-Seinfeld career path.

• Ernie Hudson is in charge of the military.  This is good because the one defense we have against meteors is missiles.  Patriot missiles, missiles from submarine, whatever.  They can target and knock meteors from out of the sky.  Also teams with shoulder launched missiles which seem to run around on roof tops to target the rocks streaking from the heavens. 

• Stacy Keach is a small town sheriff with balls of steel.  Keach is looking more like Jackie Gleason in the later Smokey & The Bandit films all the time.

• They could not afford to show meteors actually hitting buildings and such.  You see meteors streaking over cities (okay, just L.A. or the desert).  Small explosions when they get it by missiles. (We get to see this a lot.  Actually, I never saw a missile miss... which I would think would had some drama and tension.  But, hey, who am I to judge.)  When the meteors do strike buildings, we don't see it.  We see a flash of light and people in the street covering their heads while styrofoam drops near them.

• A lot time is spent driving in the desert.  Not actually talking and driving.  Or being chased.  Just driving.  It was suspenseful in a way. "Ooo.  They're driving!  I wonder if anything will happen... wait for it.. wait for it... wait... nope.  Nothing."

• There seemed to be a lot of subplots, none of which I paid any attention to.

Okay.  I read real synopsis.  Not much to add except I am sad I missed Christopher Lloyd but smart of him to die within the first hour.

Also, NBC is apparent has a thing called "Survival Sundays."  July 26th we are treated to The Storm starting Treat Wiliams and James Van Der Beek.  Wiliams is a scientist that invents "weather creation" technology. Der Beek is a scientist who wants to stop him. Also featuring John Larroquette ), Luke Perry and Marisol Nichols. Screams quality. (By that I mean, it is screaming "Quality! We need some damn quality!")