The Crossing (2018)

The pilot for The Crossing is reminiscent of "Lost" and "Wayward Pines," signaling great potential for the new series.

The Crossing has its moments, but if you look too closely at its story, it melts away like ice cream cake left out in the sun. ABC is promising flashbacks to fill in the visitors’ stories, another “Lost” tic.

It is watchable, even diverting television; but it is definitely good Zahn.

Even though the premise of The Crossing seems like it’s another TV show that should really be a movie or limited series and not an ongoing drama, the pilot offers (for a broadcast network series) some decent twists, welcome casting against type and a somewhat intriguing plot.

If The Crossing has too much ambiguity to be an effective political polemic, it's perhaps a bit overstuffed to make good television.

It’s also difficult to determine whether this show will be something truly ambitious and must-watch in the same way that Lost was, or yet another forgettable broadcast-network-ized attempt at serialized suspense. The first episode suggests it could go either way.

Despite all of the intrigue, many of the non-sci-fi conflicts within The Crossing feel predictable. We’ve seen the small town sheriff vs. the big-city detective plenty of times before, and Jude and Emma don’t add much to the trope--they just fall into their natural resentful roles.