Stephen King's Favorite Sci-Fi Show Is a Forgotten Series That Blends '24' With 'Lost'

Image via CBS Published Aug 23, 2026, 8:20 PM EDT Jen Vestuto is a TV Features Writer for Collider. A born and raised New Yorker, she started her career on set as a production assistant for shows like Law & Order: SVU and Person of Interest. In LA, she worked in the writers' rooms for The Vampire Diaries and Nancy Drew. Along with her writing partner, she joined the writing staff of Nancy Drew in Season 2 and stayed on the run of the show, which ended in 2022 with Season 4. Jen grew up on Long Island in a loud Italian family. She's been writing creatively since she was in elementary school and would often make her younger sister act out scenes from her favorite movies with her. Jen is also a massive sports fan and was an athlete herself growing up. Writing features for Collider gives her the opportunity to share her passion for great storytelling and compelling characters. Sign in to your Collider account In 2010, iconic horror author Stephen King recounted some of his top-10 favorite TV shows of the year for Entertainment Weekly. The first three choices were familiar, widely acclaimed titles, including Friday Night Lights, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad. But the fourth entry was a less well-known series that he singled out as something special, describing it as a blend between Lost and 24. Unlike those long-running, Emmy-winning shows, this one only lasted a single season on NBC. For a series with such a short lifespan, The Event packed an impressive amount of compelling story and action across its 22 episodes. The ensemble cast was filled with heavy hitters, and the plot twists were ambitious, driving a sprawling narrative that kept viewers guessing week to week. While its cancellation left audiences hanging, in hindsight, it feels like a show tailor-made for the binge-watch era. 'The Event' Was a Very Ambitious Network Drama on NBC Premiering in the fall of 2010, The Event was billed as a sprawling ensemble thriller blending political conspiracy, science fiction, and interwoven character arcs. At the center of the story was Sean Walker, played by Jason Ritter, an everyman who becomes entangled in a global conspiracy after his girlfriend, Leila (Sarah Roemer), vanishes during their vacation. His desperate search soon collides with President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood), who is grappling with the moral implications of a secret CIA prison in Alaska housing extraterrestrial beings who crashed on Earth in 1944. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ The sci-fi element revolved around these detainees, who appeared to be human but were eventually revealed to be extraterrestrials. Their DNA differed from humans by less than 1%, and they aged at a much slower rate. While some were held in captivity, others, known as "the Sleepers," had escaped and were secretly living among humans. This twist provided a rich narrative engine, constantly forcing viewers to question which characters might be otherworldly. The impressive cast also included Laura Innes, Željko Ivanek, Scott Patterson, and Clifton Collins Jr. With multiple timelines, shifting perspectives, and relentless cliffhangers, The Event quickly drew comparisons to Lost. The pilot alone set the tone by unfolding across three different timelines, which was ambitious, especially for a weekly broadcast series. Its complex structure and frequent flashbacks likely confused many casual viewers, while scheduling delays during the 2010-2011 season further stalled its momentum. Ultimately, NBC cancelled the series after just 22 episodes, leaving countless questions unresolved. But with streaming now the dominant way audiences consume TV, it’s hard not to wonder whether The Event would have been a huge hit in a binge-watching era. 'The Event' Would Have Thrived on Streaming Image via NBC While The Event debuted at the tail end of the network boom for serialized sci-fi and thriller dramas, it may have arrived just a few years too soon. In 2010, TV still operated on a traditional broadcast model, with audiences expected to tune in weekly and keep track of shifting timelines and major interwoven storylines. For a show so reliant on sustained momentum and complex plotting, that was a tall order. Other series from that period, like ABC’s FlashForward and V, faced similar fates, each lasting just one season despite big budgets and heavy promotion. It was nearly impossible to recreate the lightning in a bottle that Lost captured, but that didn’t stop networks from trying. Even Lost struggled at times to keep casual audiences engaged, but it benefited from being one of the only shows of its kind at a time when appointment TV and watercooler buzz still reigned supreme. The Event, by contrast, was competing in an increasingly crowded landscape with little room for error. Yet in hindsight, it’s easy to see how The Event could have thrived if it premiered today. In the streaming era, when viewers can binge an entire season in a weekend, complex serialized stories don’t feel like homework. Series like Manifest and Designated Survivor, both of which found second lives on Netflix, proved that audiences are more willing than ever to immerse themselves in layered narratives if they're able to take it all in at once, or at the very least, watch it at their own pace. Had The Event launched on a platform like Netflix, Hulu, or Apple TV+, it’s not hard to imagine it building a dedicated following that would keep the series alive for multiple seasons. It's Not Surprising That Stephen King Loved 'The Event' It makes perfect sense that Stephen King gravitated toward The Event. Much like his own work, especially sprawling ensemble pieces like The Stand or Under the Dome, the show balanced an ambitious mix of everyday characters caught in extraordinary circumstances. King has always been drawn to stories that blend high-stakes suspense with high-concept sci-fi elements, and The Event delivered exactly that. For an author who thrives on exploring how ordinary people react when the world tilts into the surreal, The Event was right in his wheelhouse. It’s also easy to see why a master of suspense like King found himself captivated. In that same Entertainment Weekly column, he called The Event a "clever, suspenseful drama" and singled out Jason Ritter and Laura Innes for their standout performances. His praise highlighted exactly what made the show special, specifically that it borrowed the relentless urgency of 24 while adding the speculative mystery and emotional depth that made Lost a phenomenon. If you’ve never checked out The Event, it’s worth giving it a shot — even knowing it only lasted a single season. Stephen King rarely gets it wrong when he champions a story, and he certainly didn’t here. Yes, you’ll be left with some cliffhangers, but the show itself pulled DNA from other shows and was original in its own right, making it a suspenseful character drama that still holds up. And still, it’s hard not to imagine an alternate timeline where The Event premiered on a streaming platform, found an audience ready to binge, and stuck around long enough to answer its biggest questions. Release Date 2010 - 2011-00-00 Network NBC Directors Nick Wauters