First Impressions - 'Aftermath'

Written by Scott Edwards

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

If you are like me, you love to watch movies that have to do with the end of the world. I am not saying that I want to see it happen anytime soon, but with so many theories of how it will happen, there might be some ways to prepare. I have been looking for an Armageddon type of movie or show for some time now and when I saw Aftermath pop up on Syfy, I was more than willing to give it a try, I mean it can’t be worse than some of the movies I have watched in the past.

Josh Copeland is rushing home to make sure his family is alright with an impending hurricane on its way.  With his cell phone signal knocked out, he has no way of contacting them and is forced to listen to the radio and hears about all of the biblical things that are suddenly happening around the country. Not knowing what the heck is going on, he only wants to make sure that his family is safe and when he finds them clueless to what is going on around the area and throughout the rest of the nation, he is very surprised.

Locking down during the hurricane, the family finds hundreds of fish on their lawn, but they find out from the Sheriff that their discovery is not the strangest thing to come out of the storm as another fellow found snakes all over his yard. Keeping an eye out for a missing kid, the Copeland’s find him knocking at their door at dinner time. Seeing that the boy has been through a lot, they don’t really question him, but when he starts to eat their food without using utensils, they have had enough. Seeing a change in the young man’s eyes, Matt tries to keep him from tainting all off the food, but is thrown across the room like he weighs nothing. The young man then takes his attack to Karen who is powerless against him and Matt is forced to pull out the family gun and shoot the kid. When the young man falls, Josh sees something leave the body and knows that he may be able to find some answers in his books.

With the household on lockdown once again, the kids; Matt, Brianna and Dana do not know what is going on outside, but continue to hear stories about it. In the meantime, Josh continues to study his books to Karen’s dismay, but he knows they house the answers he is looking for. With another break-in during the day, the family is forced to watch Brianna be taken away by a person that can fly and have to load up their RV to take a road trip to find her. While on the road, the family starts to see what is happening to the rest of the world and while people are going crazy, the systems are slowly starting to boot back up and civilization as they know it may come back to normal. They still have no clue what infection is running rampant around the city, but Josh is finding clues in these strange occurrences and the Book of Revelations is just the starting point as to what is happening all around him and his family. 

As far as pilot episodes go, this one was not so bad. With plenty of action and things that you never thought you would see on television, wow, some of it has blown me away. The trip further north to a quarantine zone seems to be the best thing to do when facing the end of days, but what happens if the infected or other acts of God take that area out? I do however have a problem with Karen, who is supposed to be retired from the Air Force, and the relationship she has with her husband Josh. She is far from a religious person and has no idea what archeology, religion and myth have to do with each other since Josh is a teacher in the subject and to me it seems like they just met and got married and know nothing about each other, but that is just me. I hope to see them grow quickly as the series continues and as the world continues to fall apart around them. We have to wait until the next episode to see if Brianna is alright and if the family can reunite to face the end of the world together. 

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