Warning: Spoilers Ahead

With the recent remake of Poltergeist, when I screened the Pilot for ABC’s new supernatural drama The Whispers, the first thing I wanted to blurt out was “They’re here!” Of course, I had a good laugh afterwards because I think in this particular case, we’re not dealing with evil spirits and ghosts speaking to children through old box television sets. Actually, if only it were that simple…

The only thing we do know is that there is someone or something that is planning some kind of world domination, and they are using children as pawns in order to further their plans. The only real clue we have initially is the children are told what to do by an imaginary friend, and they call this friend “Drill.” What’s more, all of the children affected have a parent that has a job in the Defense industry. The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An executive of a structural engineering firm that contracts with the DoD. Whoever, or whatever, this entity is, it needs access to highly classified information about the world’s defenses, and it’s using these people’s children to get it — which is actually very smart. Children are easily manipulated and eager to please, and they have access to the information without their parents thinking for a second their own child could be involved.

The rabbit hole goes even deeper as we learn more about the parents as well as the lead FBI Agent, Claire Bennigan (Lily Rabe), assigned to the case. Claire actually had a romantic relationship with one of the children’s father, Wes Lawrence (Barry Sloane), who also used to be her superior officer. It gets even better. Claire’s husband, Shawn (Milo Ventimiglia) , who everyone assumed died in a plane crash 3 months ago, is alive and somehow involved and is the prime suspect in being “Drill” and persuading these children to commit these crimes.

So, now the big question — what in the heck is going on? Well, that’s the beauty of it — you don’t know. Honestly, you don’t. You definitely don’t know by the end of the Pilot, and even after having screened the first 3 episodes myself, I can tell you that you don’t know by then either. But, with every episode, you get a few more pieces of the puzzle and wanting to know the answer is a huge driving force to show back up for the next episode. The likely culprit is some kind of supernatural entity native to Earth or possibly an extraterrestrial being. I’m personally banking on the alien theory, but there are plenty of other clues that suggest otherwise.

With so many new series in an already crowded list of available shows, is The Whispers worth watching? With what I have seen thus far, the answer is a resounding “Yes” — at least until I see a red flag that tells me otherwise. Granted, it doesn’t have the atmosphere of a horror or science fiction series, and so when very critical scenes like the little girl, Harper (Abby Fortson), causing her mother to fall to her near death from a treehouse play out, the scene quickly deflates and appears to fall flat. However, the storytelling and the very compelling plot make up for it 10 times over. I am very busy, and I don’t have time to waste on shows that I don’t find interesting or that don’t reach out and grab me. But, after watching the Pilot, I was so intrigued that I had to immediately watch the 2nd episode and then after that, the 3rd. And, honestly, if there had been more screeners available, I would have stayed up half the night to watch them too. This is how quickly this show draws you in.

In addition, most of the cast performances are absolutely fantastic, with Lily Rabe shining as the extremely talented, but broken personally, Agent Brennigan. However, the true star of the show is Abby Fortson as little Harper Weil who has become the face of the series. Child actors for the most part are hit-or-miss, but I can say that they found themselves a gem when they cast Abby Fortson. I can’t wait to see more of what she can do as the series progresses.

Lastly, the series is executive produced by celebrated filmmaker, Steven Spielberg. One of the foundations for how this show will ultimately be graded is what the mystery turns out to be. We don’t know that yet, but if we make a judgement by Spielberg’s past work, my guess is that it’ll be a really good one. In the meantime, we can have fun each week as we get one step closer to finding out.

The series premiere of The Whispers  airs Monday at 10/9c on ABC.

VIDEO

Official Trailer:

Sneak Peeks:

PHOTOS

All photos courtesy of ABC

 

 

 

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