TV REVIEWS : ‘FRONTLINE’ QUAKE

All right. You live in California and you know that the Big Quake is definitely coming. Maybe in 50 years. Maybe tomorrow. The results will be catastrophic. Thousands will die, thousands more will be injured.

So what do you do? Try not to think about being victimized by the awesome forces of nature? Move to Kansas?

That’s the frustration you feel after watching “The Earthquake Is Coming,” a PBS “Frontline” documentary tonight at 8 on Channel 50 and at 9 on Channels 28 and 15.

Unfortunately, you also feel boredom, for producer Irv Drasnin has somehow turned this spectacular topic into a rather dry and thudding monograph. What’s surprising is how graphically and visually drab it is.

The program has a hand-wringing tone. We repeatedly hear that California is unprepared for the inevitable earthquake reaching .8 or so on the Richter scale. But there is no attempt to ask the governor and legislators why something isn’t being done to improve preparedness. If we can’t stop the quake, at least we can limit the damage. Are these the pioneer days? Is survival up to us as individuals?

Drasnin loads the end of the hour with his most telling points: that California’s “big one” will be the quake heard around the world, economically, and that its damage to industry would dramatically weaken our national defense. It would be nice to hear from the Defense Department about that, but alas, this is an hour that seems concerned with problems and not solutions.