(Author's note: this essay contains spoilers for the first episode of Zero Hour, so don't say I didn't warn you!)
As I have discussed, I was just giddy with the thought of Trevor going into television scoring, of being able to watch a program with his music every week because, well, of the desire for him to score everything which requires music in the world. A bit wildly ambitious, I know, but hey I'm a fangirl, whaddya want?
Previously Trevor has made the occasional foray into television work, writing a couple opening themes for short-lived shows as well as themes for sports coverage on various channels and scoring a commercial. So this assignment is more in line with what I consider to be worthy of his time and effort.
Zero Hour is a new ABC hour-long drama and the high concept is thus:
Hank Galliston, publisher of a paranormal-enthusiast magazine, while trying to save his abducted wife, learns that he must also save the world from an impending cataclysm.
Returning to the present day we have Anthony Edwards as Every Guy, sorta. Every Paranormal Journalist Guy Hank Galliston. He's one of those old school guys quixotically tilting against the creeping rot of tabloid silliness. He's a schlub - albeit a smart witty loving one - with a beautiful wife (because this is TV) and two really cute plucky editorial assistants (demographically I have to give it up to Casting for providing a matched set in that regard).
Seriously, these two are so cute.
And we have a plot device. And speaking of. okay, so how do we have a clock which apparently is going to decide the Fate of the Free World being sold in a flea market under the Brooklyn Bridge? Just sitting there on a table along with a bunch of other seemingly random and innocuous antique-y stuff.
And after a conversation full of Dramatic Significance which is a bit too obvious for my taste, we learn that his wife Laila is a clock restorer/repairer and it seems as though we can surmise that she is merely a carefully-selected pawn in a larger game of international metaphysical cat-and-mouse. And this mystery forms the heart of the narrative and has something to do with the Rosicrucians, that all-purpose Secret Conspiracy Cabal. And also Nazis, because Hitler was an occultist nutjob.
And then a whole bunch of stuff happens, and people Hank cares about are getting hurt, and he's not gonna take it sitting down, especially after he finds a map engraved on a diamond found inside of The Clock.
(Okay that was cool, I gotta say.)
It's a cliffhanger ending, of course, which I figure it's going to be from one episode to the next but I feel like we have already been told too much about the Grand Conspiracy, or it may just be that it borrows from so many existing mythologies I'm feeling a bit Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before. But it's all at a break-neck pace and that may be part of the problem as well, there's no time to reflect on what all this stuff may mean. I'm assuming this will resolve itself in later episodes.
Hank finds a Scully for his Mulder in FBI Agent Beck Riley who insists on being a part of his quest to find his wife, but not merely where she has gone, but why. Hank is a model of caution who tends to attract spontaneous free-spirited women (i.e.Laila) and so finds a like mind in the quiet intensity of Agent Riley.
Now onto the score...
It is known that Trevor's long-time collaborator on his scoring work is his former tech/assistant Paul Linford and so it's nice to see co-credits in this regard for the show:
The use of an actual orchestra - as Trevor noted in a response to a question posted in the comments of a Facebook entry a few days ago - does really go a long way towards providing a proper dramatic gravitas; it reminds me of other works, of course, especially scores like the National Treasure films and I Am Number Four but the strings are very tasteful and elegant, in some cases the music is far underneath the dialogue - which I believe is something intrinsic to television - so as not to be too intrusive. However, it's obvious that this show has cinematic aspirations in terms of scale so the selection of Trevor as scorer is appropriate. Presumably each episode is going to be like a mini-movie. The main theme for the title and end credit sequences is one of those propulsive intriguing kind of motifs Trevor writes so easily.
And I was happy to note only one use of gratuitous licensed music, which seems to be taking over television. Music can be as important an element as any other in a narrative, not merely wallpaper, and it strikes me that the producers have duly taken this into account, and so bully for them.
Apparently neither the ratings nor the critics have been kind to the premiere episode but I'm living the dream, so we'll see what the future brings...and if nothing else there's always DVD.
