Continuum (UK)

[Guy Gardener]

What I said was in reference to Judge Deaths comments about Jennifer.

There are a number of polite reasons I could have accidentally ignored what Kegg said about Lexa up to and including that it took me an hour to write my post because I was putting the garbage out or dealing with telemarketers and never actually saw kegg's post because it didn't exist when I began typing.

I can tell the difference between Jennifer Spence and Lexa Doig.

 

[Starkers]

Lexa never appeared on SGU. She was the SGC doctor from season 9-10 though. The SGU character you're referring to was named Park, and the actress who played her is Jennifer Spence, who is the female cop here...

That's the one

 

[Kegg]

So, Episode 3.

Speaking of actors I recognized, Hiro Kanagawa! He plays Doctor Gibson in this episode, the guy Keira grills on the sperm donor patients. I knew him as Cyrus Xander from Caprica. That actors from other Canadian-shot sci-fi shows appear is gonna be inevitable, obviously, but he's the first one I actually remember having been in the BSGverse.

As for the episode itself, the series seems to kind of set up a rather obvious connection between Alex's family life and the general story, since his stepfather is anti-corporatist (ah, resentment of a stepfather, there's a novel idea). The series also invests a fair bit this episode in the conflict among the Liber8, but honestly since we barely know these people - at this point the smarmy Kellogg is probably the best defined - it doesn't carry a lot of weight. I spent more time making sure I knew who was who then actually connecting to any of it.

Still this is another solid episode. The action scene at the end was good, the use of future tech wizardry by both criminals and cops enlivens the whole procedural stuff, and so on. Looking forward to where we're going next, why not.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Future is a Utopia with a price, not a dystopia with a price.

Would you rather be a wealthy citizen of Rome in 60 BC, or a some what average Russian Citizen in the 1950s?

Spoiler: It's more sleazy than evil when you get the full facts.

Every citizen has to pay for the right to have children and then those children are born with a "life debt" against their identity of millions(?? the actual sum wasn't disclosed but it's not a little number, kiera had to be a soldier for ten years to clear hers.) of dollars, and I'm assuming that interest is constantly ticking up if you even think about ignoring your lifedebt and something bad happens if you piss off your loan officer or hit some too ridiculous number in the red. The life debt is how the government is still paying off the multi multi quadtrillion (I'm making numbers up again.) financial bailout form the Corporations to dodge the world depression that saved the planet from a new dark age after the balloon went up.

Geez. If it's like that, why would anyone have children at all?

 

[Guy Gardener]

How often do you think about the interest wracking up on your student loan?

Or your mortgage?

it's the government not the mob.

Nothing bad happens.

Besides debt is an asset your creditors can borrow against.

 

[Starkers]

Ep 3 was so/so, I think the fight at the end made it for me. At the moment it still seems a little bland, but hopefully once they expand on the shades of gret between Keira and Liber8 this will improve.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It gets better. Not much better, but better.

Besides, 2 more weeks and you're at the half way mark.

You've come too far to give up now.

 

[Starkers]

Ah I forgot it was only 10 episodes...

don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, I could just see me drifting away if it doesn't grab me a little more.

 

[Kegg]

I agree Judge that it's not that great, but right now it has its crap together a lot more then let's say Falling Skies. Given the relative paucity of sci-fi shows on TV that interest me, I figure I'm in for at least this season.

...but probably also season two.

 

[The Wormhole]

Honestly, Continuum is a bit of a drag until the last three episodes or so. By then they actually start developing the story arcs and move the storylines forward.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How often do you think about the interest wracking up on your student loan?

Those who have it probably think of it every damn day.

Or your mortgage?

Now that's something I *do* have and I *do* think of every day.

it's the government not the mob.

In this case, looks like those two are the same...

 

[Kegg]

So... episode 6.

Yeah I dropped off commenting, I kept meaning to come here every week and then feeling rather bereft of anything interesting to say (although given his name and his connection to a Buddhist temple anyone get the impression Kagame was meant to be Asian at some point?), but this episode tried to mess around with the ideas of corporate responsibility, exploitation of regular citizens, and the role of the police as basically unwillingly or not propping up the corporate position.

It's not at all a subtle episode - the conversation Keira has with a colleague back in the future read like a collection of MAJOR THEMATIC BEATS - and I'm sure there are those who'd have a problem with the show's characterisation of the Occupy movement as a bunch of harmless annoyances easily manipulated into supporting the show's villains. Kind of what to have it both ways - revolution is wrong, corporations are also wrong, so the people who are right are, apparently, the cops who become socially aware.

You know you see the basic outline of this story take place in nine billion dystopia sci-fi stories. A cop who discovers that the system is screwed and then throws away their badge. Continuum feels like it's halfway that, but then emphasizes how malevolent the anti-corporatist lot are so it becoems halfway something else. I'm not sure if that's an attempt at even-handedness, because if it's an attempt to muddy the moral waters by trying to present these issues in a challenging way I don't think it particularly works.

Although Julian could use with a punch in the face.

 

[Kegg]

So, the first season is now over in the UK. Some thoughts.

First about the series generally.

Continuum understood the basics of the weekly police procedural element, and executed it competently enough. It was a little fuzzier on developing Liber8's members either as characters or how their general agenda is supposed to be working. The show was pretty good in getting a handle on Kiera Cameron as the stoic cop and her odd relationship with the nerdy, nebbish youth Alec. The basic idea was sound and I was never that annoyed or bored - it's not great, but it was consistently okay and a pretty fun watch. I'm definitely onboard for next year.

And now some thoughts on the big reveals in the final episode:

A wealthy corporatist, one of the key people in the quasi-dystopian future of 2077, is responsible for the entire plan executed by Liber8, the supposed nemeses of that corporate culture, in 2012. This includes the death of the only person who totally knew what was going on, who kills himself with a bit of poetic license (death on the day of his birth) which in terms of controlling the plan does not make a lot of sense.

Why would Kagame agree to do what Alec says? Alec's goals and his must therefore be basically the same - and given that Kagame consults with Julian for advice, the implication is the goal must be something that Liber8 wants (so he hasn't betrayed, or thinks he hasn't betrayed, his principles).

This is the kind of mystery that could collapse into nothingness and make the show an incoherent mess. Indeed, since Continuum's writing usually doesn't reach above adequate, I'm not completely convinced that they'll have a satisfying answer - but they might, and if they do, well, it could take the show to interesting places. The series has been hinting at Alec from the future's involvement in these events since the first episode, so this plot point does seem to be executed with some subtelty and confidence.

 

[st.barthgirl]

Fyi... Continuum can be accessed online at couchtuner... streaming, no commercials. Homeland, Dexter, and Walking Dead on there, too. i've seen comments from some viewers in france so i'm guessing it'll work in england...

i watched a marathon when i discovered it.. it was nice to have all of season one online/on demand/free/no commercials. it's not superb, but i'm a glutton for Cyberpunk.

 

[Relayer1]

I am about halfway through it and need the space on my Virgin box. Keep toying with giving up on it (I did with Grimm and haven't regretted it) but I don't know...its a bit low rent isn't it ?

 

[Kegg]

i've seen comments from some viewers in france so i'm guessing it'll work in england...

That might be so but the series has just finished broadcasting on Syfy's UK affiliate, which is what this thread was originally about.

Keep toying with giving up on it (I did with Grimm and haven't regretted it) but I don't know...its a bit low rent isn't it ?

It is. I mean I'd say Continuum is one of the weakest TV series I've seen this year, but I've seen so few sci-fi shows - pretty much just Falling Skies, which I would not call better than Continuum.

 

[The Wormhole]

Falling Skies is certainly overrated. Continuum might not be the best show on television (far from it, in fact) but it held my interest a lot longer than Falling Skies did.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Virgin box? I can figure out what that is from context, but box in many countries (also) means vagina, so whoever named the virgin box the virgin box is either hilarious or an ignorant boring fuddy duddy.

 

[st.barthgirl]

Virgin box? I can figure out what that is from context, but box in many country (also) means vagina, so whoever named the virgin box the virgin box is either hilarious or an ignorant boring fuddy duddy.

didn't want to go there... i'm impressed you did, tho

 

[BigFoot]

^ He always goes there.