Although i'd wish or a more known and famous cast. I dont know any of them
Anthony Edwards, who plays the main protagonist of the show is quite known for his Golden Globe winning and Emmy nominated role on Emergency Room, while sporadically also appearing in blockbuster movies now and then.
Michael Nyqvist also has a role on this show, who came to prominence with the original swedish film version of the Millenium Trilogy. He played Mikael Blomkvist.
Carmen Ejogo has had quite a moderately going movie career, is married to Jeffrey Wright and recently appeared in Whitney Houston's last movie Sparkle, where she also performed 4 songs in it.
Checking this out for Dr. Greene, Cappie and I'm a sucker for stories like these (even though the reviews have been mixed/negative and is airing in the death slot on ABC)
Talking about reviews, here are the 4 reviews that were actually positive about it, even though the show currently holds a very mixed 41% rating at Metacritic right now. All odds may be against it, but I really loved the pilot, so I at least hope it's successful enough to run its full debut season course.
In its pursuit of seduction, "Zero Hour" begins with the reliable—jackbooted Nazis marching through darkened streets, crowds heiling, swastikas everywhere and, over all, a menacing gloom. The year is 1938. In a church cellar where clockmakers are engaged in their work, mysterious figures in religious garb share a secret—that the Nazis have made a breakthrough and end times have come. End times and Nazis—an irresistible draw. The link between the two will connect with ancient mysteries and current dire threats that grow more complicated by the minute in this series starring Anthony Edwards as Hank Galliston, a present-day magazine editor and professional debunker of the irrational.
Hank is catapulted into the greatest of all mysteries—on whose outcome humanity's fate now depends—by the kidnapping of his wife, purchaser of an antique clock from a Brooklyn flea market. A clock, we understand, related to the menacing Nazis of the opening scenes and the terrible power they had unearthed. It's a measure of the skill brought to this script by Paul Scheuring that a first episode so awash in multiplying complications manages to maintain its coherence and even a significant measure of suspense. It doesn't hurt, of course, that Nazis and images of Nazis keep showing up, along with suggestions that Hank has a past he knows nothing about. We await further developments with interest, if not driving hunger.
Maybe it’s sheer exhaustion at how many shows have failed lately that even with its rather large leap, I’m hoping Zero Hour works. And by works I mean makes sense first, gets an audience second and keeps it third.
Because who doesn’t like a show about Nazis and Rosicrucians and clocks and science-lab babies and fate and clocks? Did I mention there are clocks?
Zero Hour, from ABC Studios, is a thriller, a conspiracy and one of those historic/religious/Old World-type of tales that so enthralls Dan Brown/The Da Vinci Code fans. Whether it works as a television series is another matter, because it’s definitely going to be complex and serialized and there are large portions of the pilot that are a little flat, plus a presumption that the viewer will want to take a tumble down the rabbit hole of mystical religious orders.
Anthony Edwards plays Hank Galliston, editor-in-chief of Modern Skeptic magazine, which is quite handy given where we’re going with this. He recently married Laila (Jacinda Barrett), who co-edits the magazine and runs an antique-clock shop. Out looking for bargains, Laila comes across an old clock, and sure enough, it causes trouble. Her store is ransacked, and she’s kidnapped by “White Vincent” (Michael Nyqvist), the most-wanted terrorist on the FBI watch list.
This is the part where Zero Hour delves into its mythology and mystery and viewers are just going to have to jump on for the ride. The story reaches back to 1938 Nazi Germany and the Rosicrucians -- a secret society, allegedly nonreligious but played as religious here, that first appeared in 17th century Germany and is concerned with applying ancient truths to modern life -- who are making a last-ditch effort to save the world. I’m not sure how far the show will go with the Rosicrucian angle because the group remains active, but the facts about them have been debated for centuries, leaving room for writers to get creative and build drama.
For the purposes of Zero Hour, the writers are focusing on the period when the Rosicrucians were protecting something sacred. If it fell into the wrong hands -- those of the Nazis -- the world would be in an awful mess. Of course we have no idea what this secret is.
OK, let’s pause right here for a second. On the one hand, you’ve got a show that’s able to dabble in all kinds of interesting mythology and take hooked viewers on quite a voyage. On the other hand, the one episode sent for review is not proof enough that the writers know what to do with this. Remember, there was only one Lost, but tons of Lost imitators that failed spectacularly.
Zero Hour has lots of twists and turns that could be worth following. It also has the DNA to be laughably bad. It takes decently big risks with religion -- a no-no on most series -- as the show’s Rosicrucians posit that there were 12 apostles, 12 numbers on a clock and 12 men left to save the world. Those 12 men, in 1938, were the “new apostles,” and they knew “a secret that could bring about the end of the world,” so they protected it. When priests in the mystical order realize the Nazis have created a human in a laboratory, one exclaims: “The prophecies are true. The end times are here.” Cue scary music.
Now, this is your opt-in or opt-out moment. For me, I’m in. Broadcast television is a graveyard right now; so few shows make it that have originality or take chances. Hell, few series have tried to rattle the establishment like ABC’s own Last Resort -- a submarine with nukes, the White House in disarray, a rogue leader, etc. -- and that was rather quickly canceled. They fired nukes in the pilot! Still, no takers.
So I’ll take Zero Hour even though I have concerns. For starters, Edwards can deliver his lines with piercing accuracy, but when called on to be frantic, he moves like he needs more espresso. And the magazine he runs has two young copy editors, Rachel (Addison Timlin) and Arron (Scott Michael Foster), who seem more like they came out of the Magic Tree House children’s books than any hard-core J-school for Internet sleuthing. (And why spell Arron like that? Don’t make this hard on us. Your task is difficult enough.) Oh, and unless we find out later that Hank is a trust-fund guy running this weird magazine, it’ll be hard to swallow that he can afford his amazing loft offices in New York and the spur-of-the-moment travel he greenlights.
But I’m willing to put that behind me. Nazis, clocks, Rosicrucians -- hell, if you can make me forget about life for an hour, I’m in your corner. Best of luck, you crazy Zero Hour.
MY SAY A little more than 10 years ago, Anthony Edwards essentially boot-kicked his career and walked away from playing Dr. Mark Greene on "ER." Few exit interviews. No tear-choked "farewell Hollywood" speeches. Just a simple goodbye and that was that. He left for New York to raise a family, travel the world with the kids, and then, after a few years, slowly, deliberately re-entered the biz as a producer ("Temple Grandin") and actor in the occasional flick ("Big Sur").
But "Zero Hour" represents a broken promise. Upon leaving "ER," he said he was done with one-hour dramas, and in the Galliston role it's easy to read his lingering ambivalence. Edwards is not fully present and accounted for here -- maybe due to a 10-year accumulation of rust. He was probably the single best actor (of hundreds) over "ER's" run, but there's none of that old swagger and confidence, none of that Dr. Greene arrogance or even soul -- and the absence is a little jarring. Sure, given time that should all return, but will "Zero Hour" get that time?
If you move beyond the hokey dialogue and the Dan Brown-lite Ancient Conspiracy business, you'll probably find yourself hoping that it does -- if only to see one of TV's more accomplished actors hit his stride once again.
BOTTOM LINE Ambitious and intermittently entertaining, "Zero Hour" -- and its celebrated lead -- don't quite hit all their marks. But at least the mystery's a hoot.
