La Brea

This series is great for turn-your-brain-off viewing; giving just enough thrills, mystery, and intrigue to keep audiences entertained. La Brea riffs on the idea of the King Kong mythos, which envisions a prehistoric world at the center of the earth. But instead of the world existing near the earth's core, La Brea's world exists right underneath Los Angeles. Thankfully, the show is entertaining, with enough intrigue to keep viewers interested. The cast is also multicultural and it appears that the show's writers are intent on providing viewers with characters who don't fall into common racial or cultural cliches. Also great is casting Zyra Gorecki, a disabled actress, to play Izzy, who lost her leg in an accident. It's all too rare that disabled actors get to play well-rounded characters, and hopefully Gorecki's casting will be part of Hollywood's reckoning with its ableist outlook.

With that said, some of the characters' decisions are perplexing, such as the weirdness behind Eve (get it?), Sam, and Ty (Chiké Okonkwo) deciding not to get into an ambulance and drive back to their encampment once they see a sabertooth tiger stalking them, but instead decide to run. The decision makes even less sense once you know the three tracked down the ambulance to get supplies to save Eve's son Josh, who was attacked by a wolf earlier. Instead of merely getting the supplies from the truck, they could have driven the entire truck back so Josh could properly lie down while taking his necessary medication to heal. Most characters also act a touch unrealistic considering they all experienced a traumatic experience -- if most people imagined themselves in the characters' situation, they would probably imagine themselves crying uncontrollably and freaking out, not immediately jumping into action. But since this is an adventure show, some unrealistic reactions are, unfortunately, par for the course.