FC: A true Y2K disaster: NBC's Sunday night movie

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********
        
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,32578,00.html

                     A True Y2K Disaster: the Movie 
                     by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                     3:00 a.m. 20.Nov.1999 PST 
                     Terrifying the public can be a dodgy
                     undertaking nowadays, and in fin de
                     siecle America it's not hard to see why.
                     After a formulaic procession of quotidian
                     disaster flicks such as Asteroid, Deep
                     Impact, and Volcano, audiences seem to
                     be rendered catatonic by catastrophe. 

                     NBC's Y2K, airing Sunday at 9 p.m., falls
                     just as flat. 

                     Technical glitches and Y2K woes are an
                     unconvincing pretext for what turns out
                     to be a rather pedestrian action movie, in
                     which our Hero Designate
                     (Thirtysomething's Ken Olin as Nick
                     Cromwell) must pull the plug on a Seattle
                     nuclear power plant before it vomits
                     radioactive detritus over much of North
                     America. Bonus incentive: His daughter
                     and wife are downwind. 

                     Sound familiar? It should. Anyone who's
                     suffered through similar
                     brink-of-the-apocalypse flicks knows
                     what happens next. (It's no coincidence
                     that the movie's executive producer is
                     David Israel, creator of the even more
                     banal viral-terror miniseries Pandora's
                     Clock.) 

                     In fact, the most interesting thing about
                     Y2K might be the buzz. Can fictitious
                     depictions of a jet screaming toward the
                     Potomac River, blackouts spreading from
                     Virginia to Canada, and cash machines
                     not doing what they're told panic
                     Americans? 

                     Without even seeing the two-hour movie,
                     industry groups have become as jittery as
                     Bill Gates near a pie factory.

                     [...]



> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 20:20:07 -0500
> Subject: Re: FC: NBC Y2K movie causes panic -- among power companies,
>       bankers
> From: "Rick Cowles" <rick () csamerica com>
> To: declan () well com
>
> As a techincal advisor to the movie during pre-production, it doesn't
> surprise me that critics have already panned "Y2k" as a stinker. 
> (http://www.energyland.net/commentary/guest7.asp).  I didn't expect a whole
> lot, but I haven't seen the finished production yet, either.  I'll reserve
> judgement until Sunday.  What tickles me is that EEI and ABA have really
> tied their panties in a knot over this thing.  The electric and banking
> industries have provided this low budget thrill-o-rama more advance
> publicity than NBC could have hoped for in their wildest dreams.  I'm
> guessing that their incessant whining over the past few weeks will easily
> add another point or two to the ratings beyond what the movie would have
> otherwise captured.  Sometimes silence is indeed golden.
>
> Rick Cowles




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