posted
Watched a new Canadian show yesterday (I guess it premiered Sunday) called Continuum. At first I thought it was going to be an exact replica of that 90s show Time Trax, but it took the initial premise and made it much better.
In a future where democracy has given way to corporate control for government, recently captured terrorists escape prison and escape to 2012. Rachel Nichols, playing a sort of cop, (that Orion girl from Star Trek) gets caught up by accident and goes back with them. The terrorists begin a war and she must work with local law enforcement to bring them down.
The soon to be kid sidekick is very likable to, playing a sort of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs before he becomes rich and famous.
I like how in some ways you don't really know who the good guys really are. The cop trying to apprehend terrorists? The terrorists trying to prevent corporations form taking over whole countries?
Hopefully SyFy will pick it up like they did Lost Girl, or Soap did Being Erica.
[ May 29, 2012, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: Stephan ]
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I remember hearing about this a while ago and thinking that the premise sounded interesting. I'll check it out.
ETA - Okay, now that I've watched it. I really like it. The were a couple of wobbly script moments, but that's normal in pilots. There are also some plausibility issues with the story moving forward (and I don't mean with the sci-fi) but perhaps those will be ironed out, and the futuristic ideas are very interesting and well done. She's really going to have to change her suit at some point though, or people will get curious.
I always love seeing 'that guy' Canadian actors show up. It's nice that they actually set it firmly in Vancouver as well.
I'll definitely be watching this since it looks like the most interesting sci-fi available this summer - thanks for reminding me about it.
posted
Eh, mediocre. Reminds of Life on Mars very much. Same concept, but acting here sucks, so does the writing. Special Effects are cool, though.
Posts: 723 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Weak characters so far -- I can't think more than two sentences to tell about each of the main characters. Not a very original plot either (criminals having escaped in time, someone else hunting them down).
And the show hasn't yet utilized the most interesting thing about fish-out-of-the-water time-travel stories: namely commenting on the *societal* changes. Life on Mars (the British version at least, only one I've seen) did it, because it had travel to the past and we know the vast amount of changes that have occurred since; and it was excellent for that reason. Continuum has to extrapolate into the future more deeply and more imaginatively than "coorporations take over".
Of course it may improve in the future; it may be very unfair to judge it just from the first ep. But am currently unimpressed. I will watch 2nd episode too, though, in case seeds of anything more meaningful can be glimpsed there.
Posts: 676 | Registered: Feb 2003
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