Line #30 Series/TheWhispers


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4	''The Whispers'' is a series on Creator/{{ABC}} that focuses on an entity named "Drill", who is pretending to be an ImaginaryFriend to kids in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, manipulating them into murder and other dangerous acts, all in the guise of a "game", while agents of the FBI and [=DoD=] try to figure out what's really going on.
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6	Based on the short story "Zero Hour" by Creator/RayBradbury, in which [[spoiler:Drill is an extraterrestrial manipulating Earth's children in preparation for an [[AlienInvasion invasion]] of Earth]].
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8	It was canceled on October 19, 2015, ending the series with a cliffhanger.
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10	----
11	!!This series provides examples of:
12	* AdaptationNameChange: Minx in the series is based on Mink from "Zero Hour".
13	* ByTheBookCop: Jessup Rollins is a straight-laced and methodical FBI agent who strictly follows orders to a tee and is practically MarriedToTheJob, as he tells Claire that he's divorced. [[spoiler:He draws the line at kidnapping his partner's son as a bargaining chip against her and is willing to help the Bennigans because he feels that they're onto something more than his superiors.]]
14	* TheChessmaster: "Drill" manipulates children and [[spoiler: Sean Bennigan, and later Lena]] to get his goals met.
15	* CowboyCop: Agent Bennigan annoys her assigned partner Agent Rollins by bending rules of procedure. This ultimately gets her booted off the case when her son Henry gets involved. She does ask Rollins to keep her in the loop.
16	** This bites her in the ass when the Secretary of Defense orders Agent Rollins to [[spoiler:kidnap her son and use him as leverage against the Bennigans to get them to cooperate with him. Rollins does so...but returns Henry back to his parents instead.]]
17	* CreepyChild: Basically the premise of the series, self explanatory. The show seems to particular focus on Minx. [[spoiler: Minx is a RedHerring. Cassandra is Drill's target.]]
18	* CutShort: The series was canceled after its first season, so the cliffhanger remains a DownerEnding.
19	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Cassandra is vaporized by Drill. Minx and all the children except for Henry, are abducted. Claire manages to push him out of the way before the aliens can take him, and she ends up being abducted as well.]]
20	* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Drill's original contacts from the early 1980s become this in the season one finale.]]
21	* EnergyBeing: [[spoiler: What Drill is revealed to be.]]
22	* EntertaininglyWrong: [[spoiler: Drill and the aliens were not invading, they were kidnapping the brainwashed children.]]
23	* FirstEpisodeTwist: The amnesiac bearded man is Agent Claire Bennigan's presumed missing husband, Sean.
24	* GrandTheftMe: Back in the 1980s, Drill possessed the body of [[spoiler:Elliot Harcourt, forcing his brother Thomas to kill him. In the present day, Drill possesses Cassandra, the daughter of the President.]]
25	** [[spoiler: The kids Drill had previously contacted seem to get possessed when Drill destroys Cassandra's body. His previous contacts from the 1980s, now adults, appear to be possessed as well.]]
26	* HumanNotepad: Sean Bennigan has tattoos all over his body and he has no idea where they come from, but they apparently tell him how to keep track of the children and "Drill"'s plans.
27	* IdentityAmnesia: A bearded man is admitted to a hospital in the pilot. He does not seem to remember where he came from, has tattoos all over him and the ability to occasionally speak languages other than English. It turns out he's Agent Bennigan's husband, believed to be dead in a plane crash. [[spoiler:He does eventually regain his memories, including his wife's affair, given the incredibly angry DeathGlare he gives Wes. He does eventually forgive her for the affair because it's just small beans compared to what they're going through.]]
28	* JerkassHasAPoint: Haley asks the president to ignore Wes and [[spoiler: kill Drill at the expense of killing a child. The President ignores Haley and saves the child at the expense of letting Drill free. Drill immediately kills Wes' wife and causes many children to be sick. Oh and he is trying to destroy the planet.]]
29	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: Subverted. After the agents get the clue that something or someone called "Orion" is important to Drill's plans, but before they can learn what it is, a flyer for an "Orion Golf Tournament" can be seen pinned to the wall in a scene set at the FBI offices, but it turns out to be a RedHerring and is never even commented on in-universe.
30	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The Department of Defense gives off this impression, especially since the Secretary of Defense refuses to heed Sean's warnings to destroy Drill.
31	* OhCrap: Drill [[spoiler:was not destroyed by the EMP in "Whatever It Takes".]]
32	* OminousMusicBoxTune: The opening theme song.
33	* PacifismBackfire: They refuse to kill Drill because it will also kill a child. Drill ends up [[spoiler: killing a woman, possesses and kills the president's daughter, makes a horde of zombie adults ready to do his bidding, and kidnaps thousands of children.]]
34	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Minx, a child, is able to access classified defense files by cracking the incredibly easy password of her father. Also, another child is able to break into a safe because his dad keeps three jerseys on the wall which have the safe numbers printed on them.
35	* RRatedOpening: In the first episode, [[spoiler: Harper tries to murder her mother]] ''before the opening credits.''
36	* ThrowingOffTheDisability: "Drill" seems to have very advanced capabilities, as [[spoiler:Bennigan's deaf son has had his hearing restored as part of Drill's manipulations.]]
37	* WeAreEverywhere: "Drill" can seemingly move about unhindered to almost any place, and can even interfere with electricity.
38	* WhamEpisode: "Game Over" ends with [[spoiler:the children successfully being stolen away except for Henry, whose place is accidentally taken by Claire as she pushes him out of the beam that would have taken him up to a spaceship.]]
39	* WhamLine:
40	** "Traveller in the Dark" has two in rapid succession: [[spoiler: "It's Cassandra, she's Drill"]] and [[spoiler: "He's in the White House."]]

Context Series / TheWhispers