Heroes’ Jesse Alexander On NBC’s Day One

“Day One” is a very interesting sounding Post Apocalyptic story about a group of folks dealing with the end of the world as they know it, all from their California apartment complex. It has been described as a cross between Cloverfield and Lost.

NBC picked up the two part pilot for consideration for their fall schedule. Newsarama (via Quiet Earth) has a nice interview with Jesse, where he spills some further beans. Here is a brief taste.

JA: Well, first of all, the serialized nature of those shows can be quite challenging. So I’m looking to do something that’s more episodic, but definitely has a serialized condition, in the way that China Beach did it.

I don’t remember if anyone remembers China Beach, but it was about a M*A*S*H unit during the Vietnam war. It told of this small group of people in the midst of a larger situation, but it wasn’t serialized, it was more episodic tales within this condition, and that’s what I’m looking for.

I think having a very clear beginning and ending is very important in television these days. Serials are working in certain forms, but it’s really challenging to do a Lost or an Alias or something like that. I think what Fringe is doing is very cool, how they’re trying to balance serialized stories with anthology stories. I still look at X-Files as a show that did that incredibly well, that had an overarching conspiracy serial and very exciting self-contained anthology episodes.