TCA: 3 Unfortunate Parallels Between The Event and CW's Melrose Place

It may be a political thriller-mystery that exists in an entirely different world than the candy-colored pools of Melrose Place, but NBC's The Event held an uninspired panel at the TCA press tour that inadvertently recalled the CW flop in three unfortunate ways.

1. A Tepid Love Story: Amid the power struggles, there's a budding romance between just-about-engaged youngins'. Jason Ritter fills the Michael Rady role, and Sarah Roemer takes Jessica Lucas's reins. They're sketched as purposely sentimental characters to offset an imagined sense of gritty callousness the rest of the show is shooting for.

2. Not-So-Bon Mots: The people in power are given terrible and/or awkward catchphrases to recite. Just as Amanda was forced to deliver the winner, "I'm not so sure it dissipated," The Event's ever-glowering President of the United States (Blair Underwood) gets to say stiffly, "I am the President of the United States. I need to know."

3. Forever Unsolved Mysteries?: We're promised that every character has secrets they're not revealing, and we're also promised an overarching mystery in the vein of Melrose Place's opening murder. An executive producer commented that certain mysteries will close while others begin, and to me that sounds like code for: "The first mystery will be hastily solved, an ingenue will be fired, and we'll see how it plays from there."