When a giant sinkhole opens suddenly in the middle of Los Angeles, Eve Harris has only one thought: Run!
This momma throws her car into reverse, pulls up on the sidewalk and tries to get her two teenagers, Josh and Izzy, to safety.
But they don’t quite make it.
The car crashes, and Eve, Josh and Izzy get out and run (made even more difficult by the fact that Izzy has an artificial leg).
But it’s not Izzy who falls behind, it’s Josh. He stops to help a fallen child and then gets trampled by others fleeing the danger. Eve goes back to help him, but she’s too late.
Josh falls into the sinkhole. Moments later, Eve is swallowed up too, leaving Izzy alone to find her dad, Gavin, and find out if anyone survived.
A few years ago, Gavin, who was an Air Force pilot at the time, was in a mysterious plane crash. Ever since then, he’s had strange visions of fields and forests. But coincidentally, right after the sinkhole appears, he sees Eve and Josh among those fields and forests.
He immediately tells the government officials handling the situation. But they brush him off. Not because they don’t believe him, mind you, but because they know he’s right.
Turns out the government of 2076 is responsible for the sinkhole. They created the mysterious Lazarus Project as a temporal experiment to restore depleted resources and de-extinct some species. But every time they create a time-jumping portal (called “auroras”), a sinkhole wreaks havoc on the past.
So, rather than fall to their deaths, Eve and Josh (among other survivors) go through one of these temporal rifts and find themselves trapped in prehistoric Los Angeles. (And it’s this ancient world that Gavin traveled from when he was just a small boy.)
In the sky, survivors can still see the mysterious wormhole they traveled through. But they’re more focused on the ground. Because in addition to this strange world having normal animals, like wolves, they’ve also gotta deal with sabretooth tigers and other pre-Ice Age predators.
They also find themselves at odds with some barbaric locals and some government officials from the future (several of whom are connected to Gavin). The people they arrived with aren’t much better, either. Resources are scarce, and although they’d probably stand a better chance working together, it’s survival of the fittest. Because you don’t have to outrun the wolf to survive—you just have to outrun the other guy running from it.
Fans of ABC’s Lost will find similarities in La Brea. (And it’s supposed to be, according to showrunner David Appelbaum.) It’s all drama and mystery and weirdness.
But there’s some concerning content families will want to watch out for.
Language is mild, but present. Despite fighting for their lives, some characters find time for more romantic endeavors, and one woman becomes pregnant. We learn that Gavin and Eve were estranged (and an old Air Force buddy of his vies with Gavin for Eve’s affections). There are also portrayals of same-sex couples.
Some cinematics are a bit disturbing. People fall into the sinkhole, many of whom don’t survive. Then the survivors must fight for their lives. They’re attacked by wolves, sabretooth tigers and even dinosaurs (once a time portal brings those reptiles to the fray).. One man, defending his family, is dragged off by his throat right before their—and our—eyes. A father (who’s a doctor) is able to bandage and stitch up his daughter after she’s attacked by a raptor, but then he’s helpless to save her from the infection that sets in after. And a man attempts to kill himself in the first episode (though he’s stopped by passersby).
And there’s depictions of drug and alcohol abuse. In addition to a perpetually high character and someone discovering a duffel bag full of heroin, we learn that Eve and Gavin separated because he was an alcoholic.
The show’s one positive aspect is that it’s about family and the lengths people will go to in order to protect their loved ones. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best pick for families.
Gavin searches for clues to Eve’s location after she was pulled into an aurora in the events of the previous season. As he does so, he finds another connection to his past that may affect the outcome of his future.
A few couples kiss. We hear an unwed woman is pregnant (though she’s in a steady relationship with the father). A man wraps his arms around his wife’s waist.
A teenage girl is attacked by a raptor (offscreen). We see her bleeding heavily before she’s patched up, and she begins to exhibit the symptoms of a blood infection. A man passes out after ignoring a head injury. Several people sport cuts and scrapes after fleeing a dinosaur attack. Folks are instructed to build a wall of spikes and several fires surrounding their shelter for protection. But before they can complete the project, their clearing is invaded by dinosaurs, who wreck the place while fighting each other over food. Two people fall unconscious after getting struck with tranquilizer darts.
A teenager jokingly asks if someone has been drinking fermented corn. We hear a man used to be heroin dealer (though he’s cleaned up his act after arriving in 10,000 B.C.). Gavin realizes that there are gaps in his memory from the time when he was alcoholic.
A man worries whether he’ll be a good father, attributing his wayward adulthood to his own absent father. Izzy is frustrated with her dad’s search for her mom since she believes the effort will fail and wants to grieve. Josh defies his dad’s order to avoid an aurora in the hopes of finding a hospital for his dying girlfriend on the other side. A pregnant woman throws up a few times from morning sickness. A young girl reveals that she lied because she was scared.
Christ’s name is abused once. We hear a handful of uses of “h—” and one use of “d–n.”
When a sinkhole opens in the middle of Los Angeles, mother and son Eve and Josh Harris fall through to a prehistoric world while father and daughter Gavin and Izzy are left behind to find out where and when they went.
When the sinkhole opens, people, vehicles and buildings fall in, and it’s obvious that thousands are killed based on the size of the hole. However, there are some survivors since everything (and everyone) that falls in is transported through a mysterious green light to a prehistoric version of Los Angeles. We learn that a similar situation happened three years prior when Gavin crashed an Air Force plane in the Mojave desert. Since then, he’s been having visions of this other world, and he sees his wife and son there after they arrive.
A man points a gun at himself but is stopped from pulling the trigger by passersby. People are chased by wolves and a sabretooth tiger. One man is dragged off by his neck in front of his family. A boy bleeds heavily after getting bitten on his side. Someone shoots a wolf in self defense. We see the corpses of people who didn’t survive the sinkhole.
We learn that Gavin is an alcoholic and see him drinking. Izzy defends him, stating that he only drinks because he is in pain. (But it’s clear his actions have hurt his entire family, who moved away from him.) A man is high and we see him vaping. A girl finds a duffle bag full of heroin.
We see two different dads leave their daughters behind in order to help other people (and both daughters feel neglected). People try to steal and horde supplies despite a promise to share all resources. Government officials lie to the public. We hear misuses of God’s and Christ’s names, as well as “a–” and “h—.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
