Zero Hour Information

Zero Hour (typographically stylized ZERØ HØUR) is an American conspiracy television series created by Paul Scheuring for ABC, starring Anthony Edwards. The first episode aired on February 14, 2013, at 8:00 pm Eastern and 7:00 pm Central. However, in the USA, the pilot became available on Hulu Plus . On March 1, 2013, the series was removed from its airing schedule by ABC due to low ratings. An ABC representative has said that, while it is unknown when the remaining episodes will air, it will "likely be in the summer." Zero Hour was aired in Canada on the Global Television Network until ABC cancelled it.

Plot

Hank Galliston (Anthony Edwards), publisher of a paranormal-skeptics magazine, while trying to save his abducted wife Laila (Jacinda Barrett), learns that he must also save the world from an impending catastrophe.

Production

Zero Hours pilot and second episode were written by series co-creator and co-executive producer Paul T. Scheuring. The two episodes were directed by co-executive producer Pierre Morel. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Dan McDermott are also co-executive producers for the series, which is produced by ABC Studios. ABC placed an order for the series in May 2012.

The series has reportedly been cancelled by ABC after only 3 airings. The cancellation is apparently due to very poor ratings.

Cast

• Anthony Edwards as Hank Galliston
• Carmen Ejogo as Beck Riley
• Scott Michael Foster as Arron Martin
• Addison Timlin as Rachel Lewis
• Jacinda Barrett as Laila Galliston
• Michael Nyqvist as White Vincent

Recurring stars

• Charles S. Dutton as Father Mickle

Reception

Reception for Zero Hour has been mixed. On Metacritic, the series received "generally unfavorable reviews", reflected by a Metascore of 39 out of 100, based on 29 reviews. The Wall Street Journals Dorothy Rabinowitz said the first episode was "so awash in multiplying complications [it] manages to maintain its coherence and even a significant measure of suspense." Verne Gay of Newsday called it "ambitious and intermittently entertaining," adding "Zero Hour"?and its celebrated lead [Anthony Edwards]"?don't quite hit all their marks. But at least the mystery's a hoot." The New York Daily News David Hinckley stated the series "dodges several bedrock problems that have torpedoed other recent attempts to make engaging series TV out of mystery thrillers", adding, "The question is whether Zero Hour can sustain [the setup] for 13 weeks, because what makes a good two-hour movie doesn't always make for 10 gripping hours of television." Mike Hale of The New York Times stated the series "is entirely dispensable, its silliness matched by its comic-book solemnity". The Washington Posts Hank Stuever called the series "rancid", adding "The dialogue is stilted and almost entirely expository. The plot is like receiving a coloring book that's already been colored. The grand mystery here fails to ignite interest." Tim Goodman from The Hollywood Reporter says the series is, "Worth the Ride!"

The premiere "marked the lowest-rated in-season debut for a scripted show ever on the network."

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired (U.S. dates)
			Season premiere	Season finale
	1	13

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
Viewers = 6.38	ShortSummary= Hank Galliston publishes the magazine Modern Skeptic, which focuses on the paranormal. His wife Laila buys a unique-looking clock from a boardwalk vendor and is later abducted. FBI Agent Riley arrives to show Hank and his copy editors, Arron and Rachel, video footage of Laila's abduction. The screen freezes on mercenary White Vincent, with whom Riley is familiar. Hank disassembles Laila's clock to find a flawed diamond. With light shone through it, the stone refracts a map. Hank shows the map and its markings to Father Mickle (Charles S. Dutton), a priest who talks of a language that died in the 2nd century. The priest also mentions the Rosicrucians, a group of Christian mystics of the time, and place called New Bartholomew. The map diamond is left with the priest and Vincent later assaults him, collecting the diamond. Hank leaves his team behind and travels to where New Bartholomew should be, with Agent Riley in tow, as she tells him White Vincent's terrorist history. Arron and Rachel travel to Bavaria to find the clock maker (Jan T?íska), who wears a Rosicrucian cross. He informs them that after the Nazis created a new "eternal life", the Church appointed twelve new "apostles" that assembled in 1938 to protect the war-torn world from doom. A clock was created for each. The apostles then scattered to hide from the Nazis. New Bartholomew was not a place, but one of the apostles. Hank finds the place on the map where New Bartholomew is located. It is a German submarine, stuck in Canadian ice, with some dead people inside including New Bartholomew, who resembles Hank. Outside, Vincent arrives as the clock maker's voiceover warns of the approaching tumultuous "zero hour".	LineColor = B8B8B8 }}	Viewers = 5.39	ShortSummary = Vincent is able to escape from Hank and Agent Riley. Hank had managed to take pictures of what Vincent came afteran old pocketwatchand Riley retrieved a journal from the sinking submarine. Back in the office, Hank, his team and Father Mickle collaborate that the watch offers up another apostle, Thomas. Arron suggests the dots on the watch and its settings are a moment in time that a star constellation was visible. Vincent also surmises this on his own and all paths lead to Chennai, India. Riley hands over the journal to Rachel, who has Arron to translate some of it. They talk to a Nazi collector (Zach Grenier), who shows them a film of Bartholomew and his group studying a young girl in 1938 that could talk with the dead. Riley joins Hank in Chennai and Rachel calls him to suggest this girl is the "new Thomas". Hank and Riley meet "Standing Mother", (Yolande Bavan) a woman who made a defiant vow 70 years ago to never sit again. Hank asks about a clock and Riley translates that the woman was told to destroy it if she ever saw Hank's face again. New Bartholomew had told her it would prophesy the coming of the Angel of Death. Vincent arrives to distract Hank and Riley, kill the woman and take her clock. He escapes again, but not before Hank sees Laila in his car.	LineColor = B8B8B8 }}	Viewers = 5.05	ShortSummary = While Vincent persuades Laila to fix the broken clock he recently obtained, the FBI use the Modern Skeptic office as a new hub. Laila's repairs reveal a new clue, PR642. Vincent whisks her away, but Hank sees her gesture to a camera, which he knows is a clue for the FBI to search their abandoned hotel room. They find she etched the code under a desk and Hank's father (Dan Ziskie) suggests the digits are a 1938 phone number. The physics department of Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, where Albert Einstein had once worked, is the new location. It is revealed Einstein was also an apostle with a clock. Hank's team and the FBI believe Einstein's partially erased blackboard contains the much-sought-after answer in finding his clock. Meanwhile, Hank follows a trail he thinks was left by Laila but finds Vincent, who has lured him there to find a "flaw" in him. Riley interrupts and Vincent traps the two in the building. Before Vincent escapes again, he suggests to her that her husband's death was not incidental. Hank later finds Einstein's clock, and a message inside, believed to be Einstein's last words, gets decoded. The message states not only his remorse for helping creating the atomic bomb, but also his atonement by mentioning others' attempts to kill God.	LineColor = B8B8B8 }}