Chris Carter’s The After Debuts Explosive First Clip
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Fans of The X-Files (and to a lesser extent, Millennium) were overjoyed when creator Chris Carter announced he was headed back to the quasi-television medium to create The After. The show is part of Amazon Studios’ upcoming second pilot season, in which the viewing public watches and votes on what pilots make it to a full series. Though it’s obviously the early going, this preview is already bigger and more beautiful than damned near everything that made it to Amazon’s first pilot season last year.
There aren’t many details known about the potential series just yet, but there aren’t always a lot of details that come along with THE APOCALYPSE! Carter’s take on the oft-used narrative structure follows eight strangers who are all drawn together to help one another survive the destruction of the world around them. Early descriptions call the apocalyptic aftermath a “violent world that defies explanation.” Considering the similarly mystery-laden Lost started off as a series that supposedly had answers, most of which were eventually shat out in one unrealistic way or another, I wonder if The After is actually going about things the correct way by saying from the beginning that there are no answers. I guess we’ll know the answer to that if the pilot makes it to series and adopts the tagline “Shit Just Happens.”
The first clip, via Entertainment Weekly, sees Gigi Generau (Louise Monot) trying to get a cop’s attention to help her find someone. Though the cop’s reaction is kind of harsh, they’re both in the middle of a giant uproar that isn’t going to stop so that she can get in touch with her husband. As if the giant explosions weren’t enough to make one weary of being outside, two helicopters ram into each other and blow up. This is madness!
It’s somewhat disheartening that one of those helicopters falls to the ground directly beneath the mid-air collision, and there are crowds of people just standing nearby watching it happen. Aren’t these people afraid of the oncoming explosion? Or, you know, all of the goddamned shrapnel that should be raining down on to their heads from the helicopter that was blown to smithereens? Also, I’m a little confused as to why Gigi didn’t know that all communications were down since the previous day, as I’m sure she would have been in touch with her husband at some point since then. But I’ll let that one go.
There’s no word on when The After, or any of its competitors, will hit Amazon Instant, but last year’s pilot season took place in mid-April, so it’s possible that’s when we can expect to see it happen this year. Let’s just hope it’s also possible that everything will be better than that Zombieland pilot.
