REVIEWED: SEASON 1 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: FOX UK, NOWTV
It’s amazing what you can do with science these days, and sometimes it’s hard to draw a line between science fiction and ‘science-fiction’. With a foot in both camps, although definitely leaning towards the latter, what with its superpowers and sentient A.I.s and whatnot, Emergence is a story about artificial humans and real humans and exactly what makes someone ‘human’ in the first place.
Fargo’s Allison Tolman is Jo Evans, a newly-divorced police chief in a small Long Island town, who is called to the scene of a plane crash on a local beach. The wreckage makes it extremely unlikely that anyone will be found alive but Jo finds a young girl hiding in the sand dunes, and rushes her to hospital. Government agents clean up the crash site and then demand Jo hands over the girl, but she sends them packing only to encounter the real government agents who have only just arrived. Deciding that something just isn’t right, Jo takes the girl home for safekeeping.
The girl – who has no memories, and who Jo names Piper – is the key to the story; what happened on the plane, how did she survive, and who are these shady figures who want to get hold of her so badly that they will lie, steal, and even kill to get her? A mystery begins to build, one that involves futuristic tech companies, investigative journalists, terrorist groups, and a reclusive genius, and if this all sounds a bit like Fringe then that’s a very good thing, indeed.
Tolman is wonderful as police chief Evans, wearing her feelings on her face, a very physical performer who brings every scene to life with her huge charisma. Playing opposite her are a cavalcade of well-known actors in some unfamiliar roles; Scrubs’ Donald Faison as Jo’s ex-husband Alex, and Highlander’s Clancy Brown as her quiet, unassuming father Ed, give a depth to Jo’s household – a place of safety and comfort for Piper – that envelops the viewer as much as the young girl.
And then there’s Terry O’Quinn, set up as the show’s big bad, Richard Kindred, a sinister Elon Musk figure with all the creepy aura of John Locke and Jerry Blake. Like Fringe, just who is the big bad is a changeable thing, with twists and turns, and questions of trust and motives, keeping the viewer hooked from one episode to the next.
Emergence has been renewed for a second season, with the final moments of season one setting up a doozy of a twist, and with the show’s core premise – which we won’t spoil here but becomes evident halfway through the thirteen episode run – allowing for characters to return, everything is up for grabs. There’s a warmth to Emergence – that starts with Allison Tolman and spins out through the rest of the show – that you rarely find in network TV shows these days and that’s worth rewarding. What’s emerging isn’t just the next phase of humanity, it’s an intelligent and wholehearted story that can’t help but evolve you with it.
