Thursday, April 25, 2013

Day One Hundred and Fifteen - Continuum: Season 1, Pilot, "So Vancouver is going to be the center of the world in 2077?"

I mean, really?

...

Vancouver?

I guess I can suspend my disbelief a little. Probably more than I ever could for Lost Girl in terms of the universe conspiring to have all Fae politics center somewhere in Canada, but still.

Continuum's first season just hit Netflix and various folks have been prodding me to give it a go, so what the hey, am I right? It has a pretty interesting looking scifi bent to it even if main character Kiera (Rachel Nichols) is married to the douchiest corporate tool that I've seen in a while (who is hinted in the opening "timejump" event to be somehow involved or, at least, prescient to what would happen).

It does look stereotypically rough. The future scenes look like they're trying for Deus Ex:Human Revolution, but fall a bit short as it all looks way too clean. This is supposed to be a cyberpunk dystopia, after all, only six months after the main villains have destroyed several buildings in Future-Vancouver's skyline, yet there's not a mote of dust in the air or discarded paper or trash blowing by in the elevated train's platform. The air is smogfree and the view from Kiera's apartment is magnificent.

Bleh.

Say one thing about Future-Vancouver, though... it does have The Smoking Man (William Davis of X-Files fame) playing the future version of Alec Sadler. I have to say, that small smile he gave right after the "timejump" in the first act really worked for me... and I hope, as I continue in the season, that he shows up more and more.

I'm really intrigued both by the old Sadler and the young one (played by Eric Knudsen whom folks might recognize as Dale from Jericho)... especially his own personal connections to the revolutionary groups.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how I feel about Rachel Nichols yet. Her portrayal of a distressed mother was unconvincing and her cop-walk in the future was wooden at best. I wasn't really bothered with her procedural behavior in the past (our present), but we'll see how that develops along with her obviously budding partnership with past-detective Carlos (Victor Webster).

I think what seems to have the most potential for me are the Liber8 cell members themselves... well, a few of them anyway. Tony Amendola, Roger Cross, and Lexa Doig are all veterans of Stargate: SG-1 and it's good to see them back on a scifi show. You can bet I'll be crossing my fingers that they show up often for fun villainy.

Continuum gets off to a shaky start, but I think I'm willing to give it a fair try. Here's hoping that it doesn't disappoint.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~



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