How Long to Watch “Surface”?

Some critics labeled the weekly, hour-long series Surface as NBC's spin on the ABC hit Lost, though in fact it more closely resembled the theatrical feature The Abyss. The basic plotline involved a curious new form of sea life that had appeared variously in the South Antarctic Sea, San Diego harbor, the coast of Monterey, and the Gulf of Mexico. The first person to see this phenomenon was oceanographer Laura Daughtery Carstarphen (Lake Bell), from the vantage point of a bathysphere 5,000 feet below the ocean's surface. Others taking a special interest in the strange life forms included a CIA man, a sinister foreign scientist, a pair of fisherman, and a couple of teenagers, one of whom brought the warm, friendly looking creature's egg onto dry land, hiding it in his mom's fish tank, where it promptly hatches and a creature pops out. As the series' multitude of story arcs were played out, a number of disturbing questions were raised: What is this odd sea creature? Where did it come from? The answers, of course, were not immediately forthcoming, but one thing was clear regarding the creature: First impressions were very, very, very deceiving!!! Featured in the cast were Rade Serbedzija as Dr. Aleksander Cirko, Jay R. Ferguson as Richard Owen, Carter Jenkins as Miles, Leighton Meester as Savannah, and Bobby Coleman as Jesse. Created by Josh and Jonas Pate and originally titled Fathom (until another producer staked a prior claim on that moniker!), Surface debuted on September 19, 2005, with one of the most expensive pilot episodes in network TV history.