10.5

As with earthquakes, we run when we hear news of a “four-hour miniseries event”—and 10.5’s TV14 intensity and needless subplots only reinforced our skepticism. Beginning with a quake that drops Seattle’s Space Needle, the trembling continues down the West Coast, leaving other well-known landmarks, a moving train, and a full town in its wake. To save the day, Dr. Samantha Hill (Kim Delaney) and a team of scientists must figure out what the hell is happening before the series of quakes send California into the Pacific. The action is impressive for a made-for-TV flick, but the familiar disaster-movie side stories overwhelm the energy in the second two hours. Shots of reunited families and lovers replace shots of sweating brows and falling skyscrapers until an incomprehensible final five minutes forced us to save ourselves and leave this crumbling mess behind.