Posted April 18, 2014

By ASHLEY ZIMMERMAN

“Believe” is a fast- paced, thrilling and emotional journey that’ll keep viewers on the edge of their seats. This sci-fi fantasy TV show is sure to be another one of J.J. Abram’s (Alias, Lost) hits.

The show centers around a little girl with special abilities named Bo (Johnny Sequoyah) whose physic gifts could easily be used for mass destruction, in the wrong hands.
In the pilot episode, Bo’s foster parents are killed by the bad guys, leaving her alone and vulnerable.

That’s when the good guys come in to save the day, which in this case means freeing a convicted killer who’s about to be executed.

A scene from “Believe.”

Tate played by Jake McLaughlin, is the prisoner who takes a deal from Winter (Delroy Lindo) and earns his freedom in exchange for a new babysitting job with high risks.

Tate, who swears his innocence, has no idea that he’s actually Bo’s biological father, something that is revealed at the end of the pilot. With Bo’s mother dead, he’s the only living relative she has and the one best fitted to protect her.

While there’s a bit of a love-hate relationship in the very beginning as Tate resists the idea of getting attached to the young girl and finds her to be stubborn and difficult, by the end of the pilot there’s an obvious father/daughter-like connection between the two as he finds himself protecting her on instinct and learning to understand her.

Characters are quickly introduced as we meet Bo first, followed by Tate and Winter. Winter plays a grandfather figure to Bo, as someone who knew her mother and once worked closely with her. Bo’s mother, as it turns out, had the same gifts and was working with an agency to cultivate her gifts in order to protect people.

Winter, however, left this agency when it became clear they had less than pure motives. Winter’s team consists of a few people who are helping out behind the scenes but the main player besides him is Channing played by Jamie Chung, a feisty and tough woman who’s passionate about protecting Bo.

Quickly after meeting the cast of characters the audience is thrown into a full blown chase as a dangerous redhead, who has a gun and knows how to use it, is on the hunt for Bo. While Tate is running from the enemy and doing his best to protect the young girl he barely knows, he also struggles to keep her in line as she wanders off on her own.

Part of Bo’s abilities includes a strong gift of intuition and her empathic nature leads her to people who are struggling. With a mixture of fast-paced action and emotional scenes, this new sci-fi fantasy drama has a lot to offer TV fans, looking for a new fix.

While there’s a bit of meat missing in the pilot as we know very little of the backstory of any of the characters, the show like “Lost” and “Alias” seems to be one that will go into backstories more and more with each episode, with the use of flashbacks, fleshing out the characters and their connections to each other.

Fans of J.J. Abram’s past project Alias will love the similarly fast-paced structure and intense cliffhangers. While the episodes connect, they each have their own mini-story which allows them to stand on their own. But the overarching story of Bo is one viewers will have to keep tuning in for.

Creators Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) and Markus Friedman have offered up a great new sci-fi / fantasy show that will keep lovers of this genre coming back for more. Appealing to fans of shows such as “Heroes” and “Alias” the unexpected twists and turns, excellent acting by the entire cast and gripping storylines, should make this show an instant hit but only time will tell whether it attracts a cult following like “Alias” or receives the kind of mainstream following “Heroes” did.

The show is attention grabbing, interesting, unusual and heart-warming all at once. And even though sometimes Bo’s abilities are hard to believe, her most impressive superpower is her compassion. The human element of the show, the way Bo helps others and the relationship she’s developing with the man she doesn’t realize is her only living relative, make this show so much more than a typical sci-fi / fantasy series.

• Title: “Believe”
• Network: NBC
• Airtime: Sundays 9/8c
• Actors: Johnny Sequoyah, Jake McLaughlin, Delroy Lindo, Kyle MacLachlan, Jamie Chung
• Creators: Mark Friedman, Alfonso Cuarón
• Executive Producers: J.J. Abrams, Alfonso Cuarón, Bryan Burk, Jonas Pate, Hans Tobeason
• Produced By: Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television
• Director: Alfonso Cuarón (Pilot)
• Writer: Alfonso Cuarón (Pilot), Mark Friedman (Pilot)