I have commented on Under
the Dome before, which I criticised after seeing the first three episodes
because I felt that the events depicted bore little relationship to the likely
course of events if a town was indeed abruptly separated from the rest of the
world. In particular, the shortage of water and food would begin to hit home
far more quickly than was shown, especially with the lack of power ruining all
of the food in freezers and refrigerators within hours. However, the various
personal dramas and conflicts that have dominated the story held my attention
sufficiently to keep watching, and the shortage problem did eventually take
centre stage – in episode 6! It took even longer for any progress to be been
made in discovering what might have caused the dome to appear, but that proved
to be very mysterious and mystical. Only in the final episode of the first
season did the SF element start to take centre stage, and the episode finished
on as contrived a peak of suspense as could be imagined. It isn't great SF but
has been just about worth watching so far for the performance of the major
characters. I gather that a second season is on the way, but I just hope that it
isn't going to be stretched out until it dies of futility, as so often happens.
A rather different story that I've also been following is Orphan Black, which is based on a novel
premise: Sarah Manning (played by Tatiana Maslany) is a young woman who is down
on her luck when she meets her double, who turns out to be genetically
identical. When her double dies, Sarah takes over her life. Then she meets
another double, and another…. This is a constantly intriguing and frequently
amusing drama as the doubles try to figure out their history while being faced
with an acute danger – someone is trying to kill them. By the end of the first season,
it becomes clear that being hunted is only one of their problems; they are also
under covert observation and their future hangs by a thread. Maslany has great
fun playing the various, and very varied, doubles and the constantly evolving
plot gripped my attention from the start, with one unexpected twist after
another. A second season is on the way – soon, I hope.
Orphan Black is a
Canadian production, which reminded me of another from that country (which
seems to be carving out an impressive niche in TV SF) whose second season I am
impatiently awaiting: Continuum. Why
it is taking so long for this to be available on DVD in the UK I don't know,
but it is frustrating, because the first series was excellent and, as with Orphan Black, left the story dangling
with much to be resolved.
Some good news - Person
of Interest is back on UK TV for a second season! I really enjoyed the
first season, in which the geeky inventor of an all-embacing computer
surveillance and analysis system (Michael Emerson) recruits an action man (Jim
Caviezel) to save people identified by the system as being at extreme risk of being
involved in a violent crime - whether as the victim or perpetrator is not
always clear. The contrast between the odd couple plus the two NYPD detectives
who reluctantly become involved with them is the source of much entertainment,
providing light relief from the action scenes. I didn't review it at the time
as it seemed to me to be more of a technothriller than SF, but the second
season starts with a new and more science-fictional development: the computer
system has developed its own form of intelligence, and can be bargained with.
I'm looking forward to the next twenty-two episodes.
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