First, let me say that there is first-rate acting all around in this show. Sutherland and everyone else do a marvelous job. There are some interesting characters, well-written. And the format, of course, is the inspired part.
But it's as if they spent their whole inspiration budget on that; overall, the show is rather lame. I'm sure it's a tremendous challenge to stretch a single story over 24 hours, keep it consistent and believable and keep the suspense up. Unfortunately, it appears they were not up to the challenge. The plot just gets stretched way too thin, and of course when you stretch something that thin, holes start showing up.
One of the biggest distractions for me was how well-prepared the bad guys were for contingencies they had no idea would happen. I just can't imagine Gaines saying, "OK, Kevin, as soon as these punk kids have the girls, you need to kill her father and pretend to be him, just in case Janet escapes and gets hit by a car and goes to the hospital in critical condition but survives, you can be in the hospital and kill her." I don't think so.
Nina helped way too much all through the show for her to have turned out to be the mole. When she took Kim and Terri to the safe house, she easily could have killed the two agents and then killed the women.
Kim gets kidnapped. Kim escapes. Kim is recaptured. Kim is rescued. Kim is re-captured.....
One of the worst Exploding Car Scenes I've ever seen. A car rolls 20 feet down a soft embankment....and explodes. Of course. I've never understood why people in movies and TV shows carry around raw nitroglycerin in their cars.
This and much more.
But I was willing to overlook all these, until the end. Nina killing Terri was the next to the last straw. After that, I probably wouldn't have watched any more, but I might have. The *last* straw was the EP's lame excuse for why they did it.
There was exactly one rest point in the first season, and that's when the women are rescued from Gaines. I can understand keeping the suspense up all the way through; it's a suspense show. And they do that very well. But at the end you have to give the characters (and the viewers) a rest and a win.
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