The Passage is an American scifi horror thriller television series based on the trilogy of novels by Justin Cronin. It spans years in the life of Amy Bellafonte, as she moves from being manipulated in a government conspiracy to protecting humankind in a post-apocalyptic vampire future. (Wikipedia)
The Passage from Fox, is a good example of why one should never judge a series by its pilot.
By all accounts, the pilot was a plodding and ponderous affair. The trouble was that once you knew that the series was adapted from a trilogy of dystopian post-apocalyptic novels, the pilot looked pretty lame.
BUT the series was effectively a 10-part story and the pilot was the set-up, at least, for how the apocalypse came about and introduced the characters who would ultimately be integral in this dystopian fantasy.
In the final analysis, I am glad the producers and writers took their time to do this as it gave us relatable characters we could root for.
From the heroine of the piece Amy Bellafonte (the immensely talented 13 year old Sanniya Sydney) to the protecting “agent” Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), from the guilt-ridden scientist Dr. Jonas Lear (Lost‘s Henry Ian Cusick) to our villainous “virals” leader Tim Fanning (Jamie McShane), the characters are fleshed out quite well and the motivations are not clichéd and rather identifiable actually.
The season finale functioned as a resolution of sorts, revealing to us the fates of our characters in the aftermath of the climatic escape of the “virals”. There is a time jump of almost a hundred years at the very end, which should bring us into a totally different second season. No news of any renewal yet from Fox but hopefully Amy’s story may continue on The Passage.
Note – The Passage was subsequently cancelled.
Watch on Amazon.
… still there’s more …