Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticEven in what we might call normal times, HBO Max’s “The Event” would have made for strange television.The series, which launched last month and covers the work of Wolfgang Puck’s catering company, presents itself in recognizable garb — it’s a reality show about workers in a high-pressure environment, tasked each episode with deliverable goals that are both easily understood and, seemingly, just challenging enough to fulfill as to generate low-stakes drama.
And yet it’s first less and eventually, more than the show it tells us it is: A vacant infomercial for the brand name of a successful chef-turned-businessman, and a show whose blandness emphasizes just how extraordinary our own circumstances are.
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