# Threshold (2005)

> A small team inside a top secret government project investigates the first contact with an extraterrestrial species.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/1357

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 41 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: science fiction, drama
- Created by: Bragi F. Schut
- Network: CBS
- Cast: Carla Gugino, Brian Van Holt, Brent Spiner, Rob Benedict, Peter Dinklage, Charles S. Dutton, Lauren Tom, Joe Penny
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460686/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: paranoid, tense, somber, atmospheric, intense

## What critics say

Viewers rated this short-lived science fiction drama positively, valuing its government conspiracy premise and ensemble cast despite its cancellation after one season.

## Synopsis

Threshold (2005-2006) is an American science fiction drama series created by Bragi F. Schut for CBS. Produced by Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer and David Heyman, the single-season run spans thirteen episodes of roughly forty-one minutes each. Carla Gugino plays Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey, a scientist drawn into a secret government project tracking the first contact with an extraterrestrial species, and Brian Van Holt plays Sean Cavennaugh, a figure whose loyalties are tested as the investigation deepens. Brent Spiner and Peter Dinklage add further principal weight to the team, which works in the shadows of Washington DC, where every discovery must be hidden from the public and from the people nearest to it. The engine of the show is the push and pull between a desire for answers and the institutional machinery that keeps those answers locked away, with each episode building small pieces of evidence toward a larger, uneasy picture. The tone is tense and paranoid, with a restrained, somber atmosphere in which dread lingers in corridors, classified briefings and quiet interrogations. Viewers who enjoy the alien conspiracy mysteries of The X-Files and the government secrecy of Fringe will find resonance in its serialized suspicion and its interest in what institutions will do to keep the truth buried.

## Shows like Threshold

- [Pioneer One (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/30411)
- [Extant (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/52010)
- [Salvation (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/61657)
- [Crusade (1999)](https://ember.film/tv/2009)
- [Surface (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/3316)
- [Earth: Final Conflict (1997)](https://ember.film/tv/2700)
- [The Event (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/30125)
- [Project Blue Book (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/68484)
- [V (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/19801)
- [Defiance (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/46303)

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