Review: Continuum
Nov. 17th, 2017 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurThe television series Continuum ran a few years ago -- I managed to catch about half of it, in the middle, was pretty confused, and dropped off by the end. I've just finished watching it properly, from the beginning, and -- well, the tl;dr is that damn that's a good show.
The premise in a nutshell -- in the year 2077, Kira Cameron is a cop, an officer in CPS (Corporate Protective Services). She's been risking her life to take down the core of a terrorist organization called Liber8, and is invited to attend their execution. But in the middle of that, the terrorists manage to activate some sort of "time bomb", sending themselves and, accidentally, Kira, back to the year 2012. She embeds herself with the modern police department, and has to stop Liber8 from changing the future. (And find a way to get back to the family she left behind.)
As such, it sounds like a sci-fi police procedural, and initially it looks like one. It's not. Rather like Person of Interest, this is an increasingly intense, well-rounded, ferociously tight story wrapped in procedural garb.
On the one hand, it's one of the best time-travel stories I've ever seen. It wrestles deeply with the question of what time travel is and what its implications are. And just as importantly, does not spend much time worrying about how it works. There is just the tiniest bit of hand-waving to establish that (a) it's Very Very Hard and (b) it takes a Lot of Energy.
What they're really concerned with is the implications. Very early in the series, they explicitly raise the question of whether it's possible to change the past -- and delightfully, they admit that they have no clue. But the series does have a well-reasoned time-travel model underneath, and by the middle of the story we do pretty much know the answer. And as far as I can tell, that answer is followed pretty rigorously and sensibly throughout, a rarity in television SF. There is one detail shown in mid-series that is a bit stupid, and one very explicit time-travel paradox late in the story, but they're minor issues in otherwise fine science fiction.
I should note that this is not some Legends of Tomorrow BS, where people are zipping back and forth through time every episode -- time-travel incidents are rare and major. The story stays grounded in Vancouver, in the year 2012, with frequent flashbacks from our characters' past. (Future. Whatever.)
More importantly, this isn't just a science-fiction story -- Continuum is actually much more interested in the social side of human progress, and has a lot to say about Corporatism, Anarchy and everything in between. What starts out looking like a black and white story of Good Cop, Bad Terrorists gets steadily grayer as it goes along, as we learn more about the world of 2077 that they all come from.
We get to know all of our characters, including the members of Liber8, very well in the course of the story, and are reminded that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. There are no simplistic good guys in this, and almost no simplistic bad guys, just people with very different agendas, all of them trying to make a Better Future -- as they happen to define that.
In terms of theme, this series is about Choice. The underlying tension of the whole thing is whether there is any such thing as destiny, and whether we make can make the future we want. I can't say much more without serious spoilers, but several of our characters spend a lot of time wrestling with this.
For better or worse, the series is fairly short: 3 1/2 twelve-episode seasons, and the first three end with excellent, scenario-changing cliffhangers. The ending is rather rushed, and gets a little hand-wavey -- my suspicion is that this was plotted to be five seasons, they got the axe after season 3, but were given six more episodes to wrap things up. The result is a bit like Babylon 5 Season 4: a loud, frenetic roller-coaster, but decently true to the story. The story does get a good, correct conclusion.
It's currently available on Netflix, and at 42 episodes it's a good extended binge, that gets steadily better as it goes along. It must be watched from the beginning to really understand what's going on, and don't miss any episodes -- most of them turn out to be critical, especially later in the story. Highly recommended -- check it out...
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-17 11:11 pm (UTC)From an article I read once while poking around the internet to see if there was going to be a season 4, that's correct, except they had fantasized ten seasons!
I liked Continuum a lot, but ended up being frustrated with it for three reasons.
One was a pitfall that time travel/alternate universe TV shows seem to have trouble avoiding: at one point, they go down a timeline for a while and then do stuff that resets them into a different version of events, which means we never get any resolution on all the interesting stuff that was happening in the first version!
The second was that their method of gradual plot exposition included retconning/"revealing" a lot of stuff about various characters that wasn't actually very consistent with what we previously knew about them -- it turned out that more and more of the characters had actually met previously, for example, and that people had known stuff where the knowledge didn't jibe with the actions we'd seen them take.
The third, and least forgivable, was that I felt like the show often failed to live up to its own ambitions about exploring ethical grey areas, and consequences, and all that stuff. It had the common TV problem of consequences only existing when the spotlight was on/when it was convenient for the plot, and not all the time.
(Also, bonus points for Kiera never having romance with either Carlos or Alec, but minus points for the random out-of-nowhere unmotivated season 3 love plot.)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-18 05:57 pm (UTC)Okay, *that* probably would have been a bad idea -- I'm fairly sure it would have jumped the shark before then.
I figured that Season 4 should have been the same plot it actually had except not so deeply compressed. Season 5 would have then been about the actual Traveler plot (which got replaced by a two-minute handwave instead), which would probably have made a more solidly thematic finish. But as it was, they did a good job of tying things off.
Honestly, I don't see it. I mean, yes, that did happen once -- and basically, the first version was "and now, the world goes *completely* to hell". Several cast members were dead, Carlos and Julian were about to found Liber8; honestly, I was pretty sure they were going to do a reset at that point because the show was rapidly becoming non-viable.
Yes, they reset back over three episodes, and yes, it might be interesting to fan-fic how that version of the world would have played out. But they then used the reset as the basis for a *ferociously* interesting season. In particular, the Green-Alec / Red-Alec duality was a fascinating exploration of how a few days can change your life completely, and the slow playing out of Alec's and Carlos' very different resolutions of "You're not *my* Kira" explored that problem nicely.
This bit I don't see. Yes, the gradual unfolding does cast a completely different light on a lot of things, but I didn't see much by way of inconsistency. It *felt* inconsistent, but that's because we had originally seen everything from Kira's POV; seeing the details, and the background of the Liber8 members, completely recolored everything.
I'll agree that the first season didn't give enough impression that Kira had actually sparred with most of Liber8 personally before. But I didn't notice anything that was really inconsistent. What are you thinking of here?
I'll grant that there's some of that -- but honestly, I'm having trouble thinking of a TV show (except, notably Person of Interest) that has *less* of it. This show is all *about* consequences, and they come up all the time. That's part of what I love about it: because of those consequences, by the end of the show nobody is even remotely who they started as.
Well, I never expected anything with Alec -- the age difference aside, the chemistry never would have made a lick of sense. But yeah, I was pleasantly surprised that they (probably correctly) interpreted Kira and Carlos as being too close, both as friends and colleagues, to ever be *willing* to go there.
Granted, but I honestly think that works better in light of season 4. This was never "love" in any serious sense -- this is Kira, who is *desperately* lonely by this point, finding somebody who at least *understands* her a little bit, and she's clutching to that. She definitely cares about Brad, but in 20/20 hindsight it never really feels like she's in love with him. (And it's never entirely clear that she actually *likes* him all that much.)
And in a way, it makes a lot of psychological sense. Hooking up with Carlos would have been too real and too serious, and would have constituted a betrayal of her family: it would have felt like genuinely giving up on them. Brad, OTOH, was basically a brief (and ultimately awkward) fling in the middle of desperate circumstances. That feels pretty honest and real to me...
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-19 02:43 pm (UTC)basically, the first version was "and now, the world goes *completely* to hell". Several cast members were dead, Carlos and Julian were about to found Liber8; honestly, I was pretty sure they were going to do a reset at that point because the show was rapidly becoming non-viable.
True. I agree that they couldn't have just gone forward from the reset point.
What I meant was, there was some interesting stuff that happened along the way that I cared about, that I was sad to lose from the story. (I think this was particularly about the Betty plot, which I think still did get addressed in the reset but less interestingly? But I don't remember much about what happened with Betty in the reset other than not dying.)
But they then used the reset as the basis for a *ferociously* interesting season. In particular, the Green-Alec / Red-Alec duality was a fascinating exploration of how a few days can change your life completely, and the slow playing out of Alec's and Carlos' very different resolutions of "You're not *my* Kira" explored that problem nicely.
Agreed, absolutely! I thought that plotline was compelling and well done (and it's the kind of thing that makes me keep coming back for time travel stories).
(Although, minus points for the part where they introduced a kickass ninja girlfriend mostly for the purpose of refrigerating her/saving her.)
I'll agree that the first season didn't give enough impression that Kira had actually sparred with most of Liber8 personally before. But I didn't notice anything that was really inconsistent. What are you thinking of here?
Unfortunately, I can't remember the details, but in addition to the "Kira meeting most of Liber8 before," I felt like there were some scenes that showed individual members of Liber8 learning more about What's Going On In The World than they had seemed to know in season 1. I have a vague memory that one place I felt this was the flashbacks with Sonya and Kagame and the hidden medical base, and that wasn't the first time I'd felt that.
I *don't* think I noticed inconsistencies of the variety where a flashback contradicted something that was positively known/done in an earlier episode (not that I was watching with that kind of fine-toothed editorial comb :) ).
I'll grant that there's some of that -- but honestly, I'm having trouble thinking of a TV show (except, notably Person of Interest) that has *less* of it. This show is all *about* consequences, and they come up all the time. That's part of what I love about it: because of those consequences, by the end of the show nobody is even remotely who they started as.
Hm, I don't think Person of Interest was immune from the "consequences sometimes" TV problem. But I'll agree that both Continuum and POI did a better job with consequences, than, say, Battlestar Gallactica (another show that tried). I don't watch enough current TV to have a sense of what the norm is for consequences in this era of arc plot.
Brad, OTOH, was basically a brief (and ultimately awkward) fling in the middle of desperate circumstances. That feels pretty honest and real to me...
Huh, I didn't read it that way (or rather, I didn't think that's what the writers were going for), but I'd be more okay with the plot in your interpretation. :)
Kiera also gets pretty "serious" about Brad in the sense of emotionally loyal -- the writers make this a central dilemma/conflict of S4, and admittedly S4 is kind of distorted by the "OMG, have to wrap up!" constraint, but that particular conflict seemed pretty important to the writers. I think that feeling of emotional attachment/loyalty doesn't have to indicate "he's my One True Love!" or anything, and in fact it's more interesting if it doesn't, but...the whole thing just felt unearned to me, especially in a show that did so well with gradually-developing relationships in general.
But, I should also say, mostly I minded the Brad love plot because I'd spent 3 seasons rejoicing in the super-rare phenomenon of a female protagonist with no major romantic plot/partner. (Mostly. Functionally. Because let us remember, she does come pre-married, even if the marriage is on the rocks and probably wiped out by messing with the time stream.)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-19 03:30 pm (UTC)That one I'll grant -- the handling of Emily blew hot and cold throughout, and she's one of the few characters I never quite believed. And the "I must change time because my girlfriend has been fridged!" plot felt pretty cheap compared to the rest of the story.
It's possible -- I'm honestly not sure. But it's pretty clear that the story performs a very deliberate misdirection at the beginning. 2077 *seems* pretty utopian at the beginning of the series, because we're seeing it through Kira's *very* privileged eyes. (And as we later learn, messed-with memory.) They then slowly and carefully deconstruct that over the next three seasons, until we see a world that is squirm-inducingly creepy under the surface -- more or less a Black Mirror variation.
So I'd generally look to that for inconsistencies. There might be some actual mistakes -- that wouldn't be astonishing -- but every time I *thought* I had caught an error, I later concluded that I just hadn't understood the timeline. The fact that the flash-forwards are shown in fairly random order makes it tricky to piece together correctly. I actually had a, "Wait, what?" reaction to the Sonja origin story, but later decided that it worked if I rearranged the order of events.
Fair -- the "do you trust him?" plot got stretched significantly too far.
Also fair -- but honestly, I found it in-character. Her loneliness was a fairly fundamental character point from the beginning, and I empathized with that a lot. Mind, I'm someone who does *not* do well alone -- I've been happily married nearly my entire adult life -- so I really felt for her on this. I find the male-stoic "I don't need relationships" character type just plain weird, personally.
So yeah -- I do see where you're coming from here. But it felt in-character for her to grab at some companionship when she could. (And assuming that was always intended to go as poorly as it did, I'm curious where they had originally planned to go after that.)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-20 01:03 am (UTC)Sure -- and I'm also in the "has basically always been in a long-term relationship since I started dating" bucket. But I think there's a difference between "I don't need relationships" and "I don't need romantic relationships" (and also a difference between "I don't need romantic relationships ever" and "I don't need a romantic relationship right now, thanks" and "This story is about other things than my romantic relationships").
The canonical cop-buddy TV show with two male protagonists features a very strong *relationship* between the two cops (or cop-analogues); just not a romantic one. (And thus was slash fiction born...but seriously, I think having a genre that emphasizes intimate, non-romantic relationships is actually a good thing, culturally speaking.) I always rejoice when I come across a mixed-gender example of that setup -- and am always a little (or a lot) disappointed when it eventually gets turned into a romance after all. I did not actually watch enough X-files to reach that point, but just hearing about it made me mad. Another example is Fringe, which I did watch. Or, for that matter, BSG with Apollo & Starbuck. Not that the romance plots are necessarily objectionable in and of themselves. But is it too much to ask to have an on-screen male/female friendship that just stays a friendship?
Anyway, I agree that Kiera is isolated and exiled and lonely, and that that's a major theme of the story. But one of the things that happens over the course of the show is she makes friends and forms loyalties. On the other hand, one of the other things that happens is maybe that's never quite (or never yet) enough. On the other other hand, as a viewer I was pretty invested in the continuing evolution of her relationships with Alec and Carlos and various of the other characters she was starting to become friends with. The show did not convince me to be invested in Brad, because he came out of nowhere and didn't get the slow relationship development everyone else got.