The Details

Zero Hour

Thursdays, 8 p.m., ABC

A show whose first scene features the line “The Nazis have made a breakthrough—the prophecies are true!” is going to be either awesome or awful, and sadly Zero Hour falls firmly into the latter category. Like one of those straight-to-video “mockbusters” if it escaped and became a network TV series, Zero Hour ineptly rips off conspiracy thrillers like The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, throwing in secret religious societies, hidden treasure maps, reincarnation, apocalyptic predictions and, of course, Nazi mad-science experiments in its first episode. With overwrought, exposition-heavy dialogue, absurd plot twists and terrible acting, Zero Hour would be at home alongside your typical Syfy movie of the week, and while the first episode is sort of entertaining in its awfulness, it takes itself way too seriously to succeed as campy fun. The show’s prophesied apocalypse can’t come soon enough.