On January 14, Fox premiered their new TV drama “The Passage.”
“The Passage” begins in a car with the camera on Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney) as she explains how the world was going to end. She starts by describing how two friends, Dr. Jonas Lear (Henry Lan Cusick) and Dr. Tim Fanning (Jamie McShane), obsessed with the idea of immortality, went searching for a way to make it an actual thing. They come upon a cave with the help of a native in the area and find what can only be considered a ‘vampire.’ Dr. Fanning gets attacked and bitten, and soon experiences odd changes.
Amy then explains how she got where she is by her mother’s untimely death, making her an orphan with no other familial ties anywhere. This point makes her the target of the government who want to use her in trials to figure out how to make people immune to a flu epidemic that is threatening to spread across the United States. The tests, deemed Project Noah, involve the vampire, though the scientists involved in this secret experiment swear that vampires don’t exist. Using the vampire virus, the scientists learn, it tends to show better results with the young than the old.
“The Passage” is a new drama that airs Monday nights at 9 PM Eastern on Fox. @thepassagefox
This is why the government sent federal agent Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a man who once dedicated his job to bringing Amy in. However, he begins to see his deceased daughter in Amy. He changes his mind, going on the run with her, hoping to keep her out of government hands.
One thing that can either be a good or bad thing in the long run of the show was its pacing of the first episode. This pilot episode had a pretty fast pace, not allowing the audience to think about being bored as new information appears in every scene. One can only hope that if it does slow down its pace as the season progresses, that it doesn’t become uninteresting to watch.
A significant part of the show that can either make it or break it is the vampires. The first episode of “The Passage” didn’t give us much information on the creatures adding some intrigue to watch the next episode. But from what was given, the vampires seem to be like vampires already in media: they are blood drinkers, veins prominent on their faces, have a dislike of the sunlight and can interact with each other in some mental state. Most of the victims that were injected with the vampire virus were mainly decaying bodies that only fed on blood, whereas Shauna Babcock (Brianne Howey) looked normal save for the blood drinking and silent demeanor. The differences in reactions to the virus make for an exciting premise.
Saniyya Sidney portrays Amy Bellafonte, the girl who is supposed to help the US Government with the ensuing vampire epidemic. @thepassagefox
Other characters include Brad’s ex Dr. Lila Kyle (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a government official Dr. Major Nichole Sykes (Caroline Chikezie), Project Noah enforcer Clark Richards (Vincent Piazza) and death-row inmate Anthony Carter (McKinley Belcher III). But out of all the characters that were in the pilot, the relationship that makes the show very much worth watching is the relationship between Brad and Amy. The father-daughter bond that started to form is genuine and makes one wonder how things are going to play out.
The show “The Passage” is based off a trilogy by author Justin Cronin. Though it goes by the same name, the TV show made many changes. So, if a fan of the books watches, they should not expect to see a page by page adaptation. For anyone else wanting a mild-apocalyptic vampire drama, this may be a new watch.
“The Passage” airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. eastern on the FOX channel.
Overall 4 out of 5 paws.
