TV GUIDE: The Monday Playlist: Carrie Diaries, Continuum, a Bones Double Feature and More
Jan 14, 2013
by Matt Roush
... TIME COP: I want what she's wearing. That might be your initial reaction upon meeting Kiera (Rachel Nichols), a dogged police "Protector" from 2077 who inadvertently is catapulted back some 65 years — to our present — in pursuit of eight time-tripping terrorist fugitives. Decked out in a snug smart suit that absorbs bullets and has more high-tech bells and whistles than Batman's utility belt, the head-turning Kiera also is implanted with audio-visual bio upgrades in her skull that allow her to converse with a tech geek — because every fantasy-adventure must have one — who guides her through this strange, so-old-it's-new world.
That's the simple if not simplistic premise of Syfy's latest Canadian import Continuum (8/7c), which is also about a "lost girl" of sorts (Lost Girl returns for a new season at 10/9c). Kiera left a husband and young son behind, and as much as she wants to see justice done in her new guise helping the local police — how they buy her cover story requires a major leap of faith — she even more desperately wants to get back home. The most puzzling aspect of the series, judging from the first two episodes, is that the future that Kiera is trying to preserve and return to seems awfully bleak. This civilization is run by giant, soulless corporations that bailed out ruined governments, in the process quashing such values as representation and free speech. The terrorist thugs she's chasing (including Roger Cross, best remembered as Jack Bauer's ill-fated CTU buddy Curtis Manning) are clearly bad guys who've crossed the line in their explosive revolutionary fervor, but they seem to have a point.
The badass Kiera is the best role I've seen Nichols play — I recall being underwhelmed by her in latter-day Alias — but Continuum, like so many contemporary Syfy series, has a drab, perfunctory visual style and often feels like just another shoot-'em-up with a slightly more fantastic hook. I'm still waiting for that next groundbreaking Syfy show to startle me out of my own continuum. Maybe Defiance in April will do the trick...
CLICK HERE TO VIEW A VIDEO SNEAK PEEK OF CONTINUUM'S PREMIERE EPISODE, 'A STITCH IN TIME'
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