Review of 'La Brea' Season One Finale

An excellent season one finale of La Brea on NBC this week, confirming my view that La Brea is the best new science fiction series on network television in years.

Several crucial questions were answered, at least partially. The sinkholes are not a natural occurrence. They were created by a group of scientists, including Rebecca and Isaiah/Gavin's grandfather. This means La Brea is even much more of a classic time travel story than it may have appeared at first. Scientists building time machines, in which the machines are sinkholes to the past which also can be climbed back up to the present -- all that is catnip in time travel storytelling for me.

We still don't know who Isaiah's grandfather is, and why he was so determined not to let Isaiah go back to the present and become Gavin. In a related development, we saw the outside of the facility that Rebecca built 12,000 years ago, but we don't what's in it. All of that is grist for Season Two.

And also up for Season Two are Gavin, Izzy, and adult Lilly getting back to prehistoric Seattle, presumably to the same exact time 12,000 years in the past as Eve and company. It'll be quite a trip to see the family reunited. My vote is for a boat that travels down south not too far from the shore.

La Brea took its time in getting all of these pieces in place. The first season probably focused too long on the initial impact of the sinkhole in Los Angeles, and the stories of people on both sides of the time divide. But now that almost everyone is where they should be -- if not in terms of what they want, but as players in a superior time travel drama -- I'm happy and all set for what the next season delivers to us. The mammoth on the beach with those tusks is a good start.