THE MESSENGERS Series Premiere Advance Review: “Awakening”

From Patrick G. Keenan over at Lena Lamoray:

The Messengers is coming to CW. I must admit I’ve been highly anticipating this new CW series as I’m a big fan of anything that combines angels and an impending apocalypse. And right out of the gate it looks like the series will deliver on those two things in spades. The pilot opens in Houston, Texas with two hospital employees having a genial conversation in the parking lot. Suddenly, a man walks up quoting Revelations from the Bible and guns one of them down. We then flash forward seven years to what we can only assume is the present day. At this point we begin to be introduced to our five diverse main characters, who are from different locations. In the desert of New Mexico we have Vera, played by Shantel VanSanten, who is a scientist for the National Deep Space Agency and she is alerted to a meteoric body hurtling towards Earth. Meanwhile in Arizona, we have Erin, played by Sofia Black-D’Elia, who has a daughter and seemingly is going through a tough divorce from her husband. Down in Mexico, we find Paul, played by JD Pardo, an undercover DEA agent who is in the midst of an attempt to bring down the cartel. In Houston, we have Joshua, played by Jon Fletcher, and he’s following in his daddy’s footsteps as a televangelist. Rounding out our five leads is the bullied high school swimmer from Arkansas named Peter. Peter is very well played by Joel Courtney, who my fellow geeks will quickly recognize from Super 8. I’m thinking Peter is sure to be a fan favorite and the champion audiences will empathize with the most. He’s bullied, lives in a foster home and has previously attempted suicide. We get the most background on him and you can’t help but want to cheer him on when he confronts those bullying him.