I'm Not Sure if I Believe

I watched the first episode of NBC's Believe on Wednesday (March 10) and came away thinking of the Stephen King movie Firestarter. You remember the film - Drew Barrymore is the little girl with special powers running away from the evil government that wants to use her abilities as a weapon.  And David Keith plays her dad escaping from captivity to save her from this nasty world of ours. 

Well, NBC has what appears to be a reboot: 

Levitation, telekinesis, the ability to control nature, see the future... since she was born, Bo (Johnny Sequoyah) has had gifts she could neither fully understand nor control. But now that she is 10 years old, her powers have become stronger and the threat from malevolent forces that would use her abilities to control the world has grown more dangerous. With her life and future in jeopardy, Bo's protector, Milton Winter (Delroy Lindo, "The Chicago Code"), turns to an unlikely source to keep her safe - Tate (Jake McLaughlin, "Crash"), a wrongfully imprisoned death row inmate who's lost his will.

Tate and Bo begin an extraordinary journey, one in which trust must be earned. On the run and traveling from city to city, every place they stop and everyone they meet will be changed forever. But they'll have to keep going to stay one step ahead of the sinister forces after Bo's power... because it will take a miracle to keep them safe forever. 

Overall the pilot was passable, with plenty of extras added by a high-powered team of executive producers: J.J. Abrams ("Revolution," "Fringe," "Lost"),  Alfonso Cuarón ("Gravity," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "Y Tu Mamá También"), Bryan Burk ("Revolution," "Fringe," "Lost"), Jonas Pate ("Caprica") and Hans Tobeason ("V," "Cult.")  However, the set ups were disappointing, such as the flock of pigeons shown for months in the trailer, which during the show do nothing more spectacular than mess up the hair of the murderous female agent trailing our heroes.  As least Firestarter knew how to mess up the bad guys, though I am sure that is coming later if you plan to stick around. 

I am just not sure I will be back after having waited for this show.  It reminds me of the last Star Trek movie, where J.J. Abrams took his much modified story, copied the earlier series after trashing that time-line, and then was so confused at the end of the movie that all he could do was crash a starship into San Francisco and kill tens of thousands of innocent souls to add drama to a dying storyline.  Very sad, and I am not sure if a modified Firestarter will end any better.