Critic Reviews

It's a measure of the skill brought to this script by Paul Scheuring that a first episode so awash in multiplying complications manages to maintain its coherence and even a significant measure of suspense.

Think the (hint! hint!) demon love child of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” meets “National Treasure.” The series seems inspired by all of them, mostly successfully.

Zero Hour has lots of twists and turns that could be worth following. It also has the DNA to be laughably bad.

A serial that's unpretentious, geeky fun but actually needs much more if it wants to be a never-ending Da Vinci Code. [15 Feb 2013, p.61]

Ambitious and intermittently entertaining, Zero Hour--and its celebrated lead--don't quite hit all their marks. But at least the mystery's a hoot.

Some viewers will no doubt find this intriguing, while others will be quick to dismiss it as overwrought poppycock. Fortunately, the show has Anthony Edwards at its center, bringing a much-needed Hitchcockian Everyman quality to his role as Hank Galliston.

It takes a while for Hank and his assistants Rachel (Addison Timlin) and Arron (Scott Michael Foster) to grasp all this, even with the unwanted help of FBI agent Beck Riley (Carmen Ejogo). Once they have, and we have, the setup is solid.

Zero Hour‘s first episode ends on one hell of a promising cliffhanger, including a shock that comes out of nowhere but still makes sense. If director Pierre Morel can ask for a few more takes (occasional scenes feel like actors are still rehearsing) and if the script turns as strange as that episode-ending shock suggests it might, Zero Hour may actually be more new than recycled.

Even within the fantasy context of the show, there are a few elements that don't ring completely true, but it's easy to overlook them, if only because you're not given much time to think about things before Scheuring hurls another engaging plot twist in your direction.

The problem is that Zero Hour is either unwilling or unable to be that crazy all the time.