Continuum the new tv series!

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Snick27, May 14, 2012.

  1. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Episode 6 just aired.

    I assumed that meant that they were half way through. But Wikipedia says that there are 18 episodes this year, so one third the way through but just because wikipedia is not listing future episodes, that only means that airdates or/& episode names haven't been figured out yet, and they're probably on break.
     
  2. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    We just had the finale. There are 13 episodes in season 2.

    Well.. what? Her cop partner was in on something? What? What?

    Excellent action, the suit on suit fight was good. Not that I show up for action, but I still enjoyed it.

    Of course I didn't realize the DNA deal.. it never entered my head that Jason could be his son. So that was cool. And the family business? VERY COOL.

    And the ending, where are they and what the heck is going to happen now?

     
  3. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Alec is creating a new timeline.

    We finally have rules.

    Time travel creates new time lines branching off from the old without eliminating the old timeline.

    Freelancers are not mercenaries with an agenda, they're cops who remove temporally foreign shite from the time line, after which it can continue on unmolested to a natural conclusion.

    The Freelancers are not very good at their job.

    They can't track for shit.

    Alec has gone back in time a couple hours(? a day?) to save his girlfriend.

    He's taken a leap of faith not realizing that the rules are that all time travellers are caught, drugged and locked in a cage before they can do anything truly fucked up....

    Sure he can save his girlfriend, but there's then a glass box with his name on it.

    Different timeline, different room.

    There could be hundreds of rooms each with a Kiera, Liber8 and Alex Saddler in it.

    Remember the last days of WWII when all the POW camps were liberated?

    That awesome clone show was a test Vehicle for a 3rd season of Continuum with dozens of Kiera camerons fighting freelancers crosstime.

    ...

    Were those too suits the same, or specialized for different arms of the CPS?

    Becuase they seemed to be employing completely different tactics and technology.
     
  4. Morpheus 02

    Morpheus 02 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2003
    Location:
    Chicago IL
    OK...the US showing just happened...definitely need to see it again on demand.

    I am getting so confused...I missed the part about Curtis being a Freelancer, and trying to reconcile with his flashforward.

    Next season will be... interesting. Who's allied with whom? i'm disappointed to see Carlos shaking his hand... I was hoping he'd be legitimately just going with the flow.
     
  5. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2004
    Location:
    The Island
    I like this show but damn it's confusing. I'm not sure exactly what's going on half the time.
     
  6. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    Everytime I see a science fiction show where people are locked up in little boxes like that my first thought is always, "what if they have to go to the bathroom?"

    Oh, and multiple timelines confirmed.
     
  7. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Air tight but not sound tight?

    The question of waste and feeding?

    Could they timeloop the boxes?

    That way they have goldfish term memory banks, they don't have to be fed or watered, they don't have to be reclothed or cleaned, and if they do poop or wizz, it will go straight back inside the captive.
     
  8. Borgminister

    Borgminister Admiral Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2001
    Location:
    California
    Crossover with Alcatraz?
     
  9. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    That's actually conceivable.

    Splice in Terra Nova for just course so that Jason O'Mara and Sarah Jones can make out some more.

    Those two got really steamy in Vegas.
     
  10. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    Location:
    the real world
    It seems they've finally realized that it's difficult to work out a storyline incorporating paradoxes. Hence, the throwaway about timelines. My guess is that Kiera is slated to return to her original timeline at the very end of the series, paradoxes be damned. But until this arbitrary happy ending comes, they'll play with the more manageable separate timeline approach.

    Whether they'll manage to invest this with any thematic interest beyond, does Kiera win (get back to family,) is the question. The family issues revealed for Alec are a bad sign. "Family" has become the Hollywood default for an acceptable moral value. Sometimes it seems that it is the only moral value that Hollywood will deign to even notice.

    The real hook in Continuum has been the choice Kiera must make between her family as she knows it and doing the right thing, i.e., preventing her crappy future from coming to existence. But it is very tempting for writers stuck with the limitations of serialization to turn it all into soap. First, the negative possibilities.

    A huge helping of the storyline is suffering Kiera. They rewrote Dillon and Vancouver PD into CPS villains, not very convincingly, to put Kiera under arrest for about the same reasons soaps will accuse their lead actress of murder.

    Escher's emergence as the real architect of future hell rewrites Alec from ambiguous to hero.

    Carlos and Betty complete the martyrdom of St. Kiera by going over to Theseus. Since Julian has a Michael Pitt haircut, it is impossible for him to be anything but an unregenerate villain.

    The positive possibilities?

    The story is a development of Asimov's The End of Eternity.

    Kiera's isn't suffering for the emo of seeing our ideal lay/ideal self/(both?:eek:) crucified by a cruel world. She is confronting failure and the story is how she deals with that.

    Escher isn't the real villain now because we've gotten to like/tolerate Alec and don't want (or can't believe) he's the ultimate villain. Instead, the writers are doubling down: Both Alec and Kiera have to choose between their family and humanity.

    Carlos and Betty are sincere in choosing the right side.

    I wish I could be positive but the consistently negative markers all over Julian (and his father before him and his mother later,) suggest that would be imprudent.
     
  11. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Theseus is a hero with bad press. Really, really bad press. or are you forgetting the mass murder he's accused of in the future, that makes him Kiera's boogy man was really about limiting the use of civilian application CMR that was turning citizens that couldn't repay their life debt into a walking dead zombie slave class who could not be brought back to "full" sentient life.
     
  12. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    Location:
    the real world
    ^^^No, I'm not forgetting. But Julian Randall is consistently portrayed as personally unattractive and sneery and cowardly and a political dissident. He only gets a hint of respect when he promises not to win. In TV and movies, ideas (which are very rarely even admitted to exist!) and actions don't count, it's the looks that code the viewer identification.

    Julian/Theseus is a hero and Kiera is a villain. I watch the show because I understand why Kiera doesn't know she's a villain and why it's hard to accept the truth. Since I can relate to that, her ultimate choice is interesting.
    But what has actually been put on screen and what the show will end up writing as the happy ending, are not necessarily going to be the same thing at all. Most serialized shows end up reversing themselves.
     
  13. Mister Fandango

    Mister Fandango Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2012
    Julian is not a hero. He's a murderous psychopath who rationalizes his actions as being part of a noble cause. Those are two vastly separate and distinct things. There's nothing redeemable or honorable about a scheming little creep who goes around bombing and murdering innocent men, women, and children. Nevermind the flashfoward of him acting as judge, jury, and executioner of all those chipped factory workers.

    Kiera is not a villain. She's a good, compassionate person who tries to do the right thing (mostly; she can be a bit selfish at times regarding her desire to see her son again). Yes, she's from a time where the vast majority of the public have essentially been brainwashed and trained to accept that the horrors of their world are justified and handled both legally and benevolently. But you can tell she's not a villain because now that she's slowly starting to see that, she's adapting and strongly conflicted between her desire to see her son again and helping make sure the future turns out better than it is.
     
  14. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    Location:
    the real world
    ^^^If this is the final position of the series, then the series is crap. Trying to straddle its own issues and themes to allow this kind of interpretation is artless pandering.

    But in defense of the series (since it surprised me once already,) I will just point out that an honest interpretation can't ignore the flash forward.
     
  15. Mister Fandango

    Mister Fandango Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2012
    So the series is only "not crap" if the characters are exactly opposite what they are?

    Okay... Whatever you say.
     
  16. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Julian hasn't bombed or killed anyone?

    He was railroaded by Kagame with an undetonated bomb in season one.

    Since then it's all been talk, and Carlos didn't die.

    But seriously, when anyone that handsome enters the room, you have to shoot them.

    So that was just a natural human instinct.
     
  17. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Do you like to be surprised?

    Not only do some people like to be surprised, but they like to think that they are the smartest person in the room to have already figured out the conclusion of season 5 half way through 1, that most surprises are only for idiots, of which they are not... And when they are proved wrong, they usually have a tantrum like a spoiled child.
     
  18. Mister Fandango

    Mister Fandango Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2012
    He and his friends put together a huge bomb all on their own, fully intent on using it. It didn't have anything to do with Kagame.
     
  19. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    But he was too incompetent to be a terrorist, no matter what was in his heart at the time.

    Making a bomb is not the same as dancing in the rubble of the detritus of a cataclysm you can claim responsibility for.

    American has made thousands, 10's of thousands of Nuclear weapons, and because they built all those bombs with firm plans to destroy Russia, China, North Korea and any one else grating their chaff, should we send all 200 million of them to the Hague for war crimes even though all those missiles are still in their silos?
     
  20. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    I don't really see how anybody could possibly see Julian as anything but a villain. Sure his goals might be understandable, and depending on your position, admirable, but I think his actions have made it pretty clear that he's a major villain for the series. I think the fact that their villains actually have a rather understandable goal is one of the things I like about the show. It's just the way they go about it that makes them the bad guys.