TVSquad

Never before has so little information gotten me so excited about a TV show.

Here's all I know. It's written by Christopher McQuarrie, who penned The Usual Suspects. That's good. It's about a group of strangers who wake up in a deserted town with no idea how they got there. They're being monitored by security cameras and have to work together on solving a puzzle to escape. It's Lost meets The Prisoner. That's it.

NBC picked up Persons Unknown for a thirteen-episode run and we're promised that it will be heavily serialized. I'm sold. I love the idea of different people from different backgrounds having to work together, and I have complete faith in McQuarrie. The Usual Suspects is one of the most brilliantly penned films I've ever seen.

It's also nice to see the US finally embracing the short form series that the UK has been using for years. It makes for tighter stories and nice runs. Harper's Island was a good recent example of a satisfying story told in this format. I hope this means we can look forward to more "maxi-series" on American television.

Of course, it could be a thirteen-episode commitment to start, with a 90-episode back order from TBS if Tyler Perry gets involved. Who knows. If it does go longer, I can only hope that McQuarrie has a definite idea of what he's going to do so the story doesn't start floundering around like Heroes has done from time to time after that first great season. Sometimes the best thing a story can know is how and when to end.