This is the new television series on SyFy. It airs Fridays at 9 PM EST.
It’s based in the same plot as the movie by the same name that was made by Terry Gilliam, and which featured Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, and Madeline Stowe from 1995.
So far, we’ve only had two episodes, and they are showing them relentlessly on cable, and they are available online, so it would be really easy to get caught up to date.
I’ve seen both episodes, being a fan of the movie, and I like them.
The plot, which isn’t a spoiler, because you kind of are expected to know this already - and they beat you over the head with it in the first five minutes - is as such:
Due to an unstoppable virus, something like 99 percent of all of humanity dies. Civilization collapses. Those who survive had to go underground and rebuild some semblance of society down there. And, that is how it is for 30 years.
In the meantime, time travel is invented - but certainly not perfected. The scientists decide to send individuals both to the surface in current time, and back in time to about the time the virus started, to try and prevent it from happening in the first place. All they have to go off of are clues in the form of newspapers and sound recordings that survived the collapse of society and the passage of time.
In the movie, the individuals that they send on these missions are sentenced criminals of violent and insane tendencies - people who can be afforded to be lost. In the show, they still use criminals, but these criminals seem to be smarter and more capable individuals, and lack insanity issues.
The first thing you are going to notice in the show is that there is no plot centering around the protagonist’s sanity. In the movie, a major part of the plot was whether the whole thing was real, or if Bruce Willis was imagining it as part of his insanity - or whether Bruce Willis was even insane in the first place - or just misunderstood. In the show, the protagonist is fully capable, and accepts his mission wholeheartedly.
In the show, there is some whiz-bangery and deus ex machina, but thankfully, not a whole lot, and the plot doesn’t depend on it.
The show holds true to the movie in that mistakes are made when the characters are sent time traveling, and that the scientists make mistakes in their assumptions of what or who caused the virus, causing the protagonist to improvise and change course as new clues are uncovered.
The time traveling and paradox part itself is addressed - actually included into the plot - and so far (even though time travel doesn’t exist, and we have no idea how it would really work anyway) there doesn’t seem to be any glaring mistakes in the mechanics of it. The main protagonist, in speaking with another protagonist, says that they will know if he succeeds if he disappears - because that means that the time lines were altered and corrected.
The other protagonist says, “You mean you’ll die?”
“No. Not death. Just. This version of me wouldn’t exist anymore.”
So far, my only grievance with the show is that the character who plays the committed child of the owner of the pharmaceutical company - in the movie played by Brad Pitt, in the series played by an actress - goes a little over the top with the acting of the “insanity”. Brad Pitt pulled it off well in the movie. But, the actress in the show seemed to say, “Okay! I’m going to be the most insane character of all insane characters that ever existed!”
In my opinion, since the show deviates a little from the movie as far as characters’ demeanors and motivations, her character would be much more engaging if she was solemn, and quiet, and borderline catatonic - instead of this hyperactive “Look at me! I’m crazy!” person.
I know that it is too easy to keep comparing this show to the movie, but I can tell that before long, I will start judging the show on its own merits, rather than trying to compare it to the movie.
Just thought I’d start this thread to gauge the interest of having weekly discussions about this show.