As kids, most of us were told never to get in a car with strangers. But for Amy Bellafonte, it seems like it’s working out about as well as could be hoped.
Oh, things aren’t peachy, that’s for sure. The world’s about to end, for one thing—not by fire or flood or even a zombie apocalypse. No, it’s a vampire apocalypse that’s coming, and the bloodsuckers are psychic, too.
Ah, the irony. The scientists that created the vamps were actually trying to prevent the apocalypse.
Doctors Jonas Lear and Tim Fanning discovered this vampiric condition in the wilds of Bolivia years earlier, and they were thrilled that it seemed to give its bearers complete immunity from disease as well as significantly longer lifespans. Sure, it also turned them into murderous monsters, as Tim discovered in the worst possible way. But still, at least they were healthy monsters. So for the last three years, Lear and his fellow scientists have been trying to modify the virus and eliminate its less-positive, homicidal side effects.
The secret? The scientists believe it’s youth. The younger a victi—er, patient bonds with the condition, the more symbiotic the two organisms become, and the less likely the human host will be to chomp on someone’s neck. So goes the theory, anyway. They’ll need to try it out first—on some kid who won’t be missed.
Enter 10-year-old Amy.
Everything (from the scientists’ point of view) was going swimmingly at first. Amy, whose mother died of a drug overdose, was successfully kidnapped by lethal operative Brad Wolgast and his equally capable partner. She was on her way to become, scientists hoped, a wildly successful guinea pig.
But Brad, who lost his own daughter not so long ago, decides that Amy deserves a better future than whatever the scientists have in store for her. Now the pair of them are on the lam, pursued by nefarious (if ultimately well-meaning) forces.
Does that mean that Brad kidnapped Amy twice? I’m unsure, but no matter. The review must go on.
Fox’s The Passage is based loosely on a book trilogy by Justin Cronin (the first of which was likewise titled The Passage and published in 2010). While the trilogy covers a good thousand years, Fox seems to have smaller ambitions, at least initially—focusing on the relationship between Amy and her abductor/surrogate dad, Brad.
But the drama still retains the novels’ horrific trappings. This is a show about vampires, after all, and not the shiny kind, either. Blood splashes and sprays and pools quite a bit—not Walking Dead-levels of gore, mind you, but more than you expect to see on network television, even today.
Sexual relationships take a backseat to all the bloodletting, naturally, but they turn up occasionally, too. Language can be coarse. And obviously, if you think too much about the show’s premise, it comes with a bit of discomfort: Y’know, the whole don’t get into cars with strangers thing. Real-life kids should never run off with dangerous, gun-toting men, no matter how well-meaning they seem.
But in Amy’s case, Brad really did mean well, and their familial bond feels sweet and real and affecting. Maybe for the first time in her life, Amy has a parental figure in her life that she can trust. As such, The Passage feels at times like a heartwarming family story, even if the hearts in other places are hitting room temperature.
In short, The Passage is about as positive a television show predicated on ravenous vampires and the end of the world as I can imagine. But while Amy might eventually save the world, is it enough to save this show? I’m skeptical.
With an incurable epidemic on the horizon, the efforts of scientists at Operation Noah to save humanity hit a critical point: They’re hoping that a vampiric-like condition might make folks immune to all disease—if only they can keep their test subjects from turning into murderous bloodsuckers. But the scientist believes that any kids who might be infected could escape the whole “bloodsucking monster” thing. But when they pick up a suitable kid (Amy), her abductor, Brad, has second thoughts.
In flashback, the infection’s originator (a 250-year-old guy in Bolivia) bites the neck of Dr. Tim Fanning: Blood sprays and spurts out of the wound. Fanning seems destined to die, but he walks out just fine. The only problem, initially, is that he’s losing some of his teeth and bleeding profusely from the mouth. Later, we see the same victim—very much alive, but his face is covered in a network of ugly, ill-colored veins.
Other vampires have the same skin-marring symptoms: They all are fed straight blood, which pours from a tube into a sink-like contraption (from which they drink deeply and messily). A future victim has a vision in which he’s attacked and grotesquely bitten by Fanning. (He’s also injected with a needle that draws a bit of blood from him.)
Brad and secret operatives engage in a lethal shootout: One mostly innocent sheriff is shot in the chest and killed. Brad beats up and knocks out one man, and incapacitates another via a chokehold. Earlier, Amy sees the body of her mother, who has died of a drug overdose, covered as she’s wheeled away. Kids get into fights. We see news footage of the bloody victims of a terrible disease. Brad’s abduction partner hits Amy across the face (mostly off-screen): Brad slams his partner’s head into a dashboard and says that, if he ever does something like that again, he’ll shoot him in the face.
Operation Noah’s head scientist is sexually involved with the operation’s chief of security. We see the two kiss passionately and, later, share a bed, apparently naked. (The security chief has a vision in which his lover turns into a vampire who grows fangs as she straddles and leans over him. It’s suggested that he and the vamp had a prior relationship before she “turned.”) Brad talks with his ex-wife. Both still love each other, it’s clear, but his wife is talking about remarrying to have another child. (They split, the show suggests, because of the death of their daughter.)
A scientist holds what appears to be a rosary. We hear characters, including children, use words like “d–n,” “h—,” “p-ss” and “b–ch.” God’s name is misused three times. People lie and act in underhanded ways.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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