The Passage Premiere Review: Are These Vampires Worth Watching?

"The Passage"premiered on Fox last week. Gotta say, the first episode didnt knock my socks off. I'll reserve judgment though until we're a few more episodes in.

The TV show is based on a trilogy of books by Justin Conin. The are entitled "The Passage", "TheTwelve" and "The City of Mirrors".

As the premiere begins, a team of scientists led by Dr Jonas Lear (Henry Ian Cusick) and Dr Tim Fanning (Jamie McShane) has traveled to South America to check out an extremely old man. He's estimated to be 250. Tim gets too close to him and is bitten. Is he a goner? Sorta... because he becomes a vampire.

Jump forward some three years. Tim (along with other death row inmates) are part of a top secret government program called Project Noah. The scientists/doctors hope to get the positives of vampirism (old age, cell generation, strength, hanging upside down) without the nasty side effects (ya know, like killing people and drinking their blood). They need to figure the solution ASAP because a flu epidemic is quickly approaching. Nothing seems to work. They decide to experiment on children instead.

Agent Brad Wolgasst (Mark Paul Gosselaar) is tasked with bringing in the perfect subject. It's a child named Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney). She wont be missed since her mother (a drug addict) recently died. Brad becomes protective of the child and tries to run off with her but doesnt succeed.

In a voiceover Amy says "I didnt use to believe in monsters but I do now. I saw them change everything". That's a sign of things to come. If the TV series follows the books, these vampires will escape and cause the near extinction of mankind. That should be interesting to watch... I hope.

Grade: 3 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). Unfortunately the premiere of "The Passage" didnt knock my socks off. I'll reserve judgment though until we're a few more episodes in. Right now, these vampires arent very interesting to me. There's nothing novel about them. They have a "The Strain" feel. That show became increasingly frustrating as time went on. I'm also not really sure the world needs another vampire series. And since it's on network TV, "The Passage" cant go as "dark" as it would be able to do on HBO or one of the streaming services.