Liveblogging Continuum, Episode 1
So I've been meaning to watch this since I missed the premiere/presentation/thing at FanExpo in April, and I've finally got 'round to sitting down with all the episodes queued up. It's a big shiny deal for there to be a show actually set in Vancouver as opposed to filmed in Vancouver, with Vancouver standing in for Seattle, New York, Washington DC, etc. So much so that I felt like I was morally obligated to at least give it a shot.
(I feel no similar obligation about the Primeval spinoff also set in Vancouver. I mean, I might watch it, and I grant it might even be good, but god, Primeval was SO TERRIBLE, guys. Free pass for me.)
I didn't get around to watching it before because it came out on May 27th and most of May was spent re-watching Avengers over and over. So, y'know, time well spent.
So, Continuum follows Officer Kiera Cameron, who is a future!cop in a dismal, more-or-less-post-apocalyptic future where governments have fallen and The Corporations have taken over everything. It actually looks pretty functional? But the fact that we open with Bra'tac Tony Amendola blowing up a building and killing a whole bunch of people in an attempt to bring them down makes me think that all is not well in future!Vancouver.
He fails, though, and he and his rag-tag band of fellow terrorists - who call themselves Liber8, a bad life choice for which I am deducting a solid 50 Awesome Points for awfulness - are arrested and sentenced to execution.
The execution goes awry, someone sneaks them some kind of future!devices and there's an explosion. The poorly-named villains end up transported back to 2012 Vancouver, along with Kiera who tries to stop them.
What follows is stream-of-consciousness stuff I don't feel like editing.
I support this equal-opportunity future!cop catsuit policy.
So, this show has basically everyone who was in the X-Files, right?
Also The 4400, First Wave, Stargate...
Evil!Future!Vancouver sure is pretty.
AHAHAHAHA we're starting out by criticizing the 2012 Harper Budget? WIN.
Okay, so I'm officially stating this is worth watching IF ONLY for Vancouver location-spotting.
I am highly amused that her first thought upon being thrown back in time 60 years is to get all the bad guys arrested before she does anything.
AHAHAHAHA AND NOW SHE'S WANDERING DOWN GRANVILLE, THIS IS SO WEIRD.
People are staring at her future-y outfit, and all I can think is "they probably think she was at a con."
Oh hey, it's Andromeda! Or Dr. Lam. Whatever. I literally cannot remember her real name.
Oh right! Lexa Doig. I maintain she was more convincing as an android.
I have watched pretty much every one of these actors in iconic roles, it's very disorienting.
So are they weird genetic mutants, with all the knife-catching?
I'm pretty sure I've bought costume pieces from the store the criminals are currently looting.
She's standing at Pender and Beatty. This is seriously disorienting.
Why would her future!cop outfit be designed to help her rob ATMs? What? Breaking locks on crime scenes?
I really can't decide whether I think that all the future!cops are really evil abusive tools of The Corporations, or if The Corporations run things over people's heads and most people are pretty much happy-ish, and the future!cops themselves are just basically cops with bad bosses.
So I just wanna put it out there that my guess? These criminal-guys travelling back in time is what causes the corporate apocalypse and ruins the world government.
Did she just walk into an SRO on Hastings? I'd think even coming from the future basic lizard-brain self-preservation would kick in...
Oh, did little hacker-boy's inventions allow the evil corps to take over the world?
I LOVE CIRCULAR TIME-TRAVEL PLOTS.
I CHOOSE OPTION B.
Thank you for bringing up the two time-travel plot theories early on to placate the fans who are already writing the fic.
Damn, no fic yet. Hm.
Yeah, kid, that was creepy, she's in her underwear. Let's make that the last time that happens or I'll have to stop liking you.
Okay, I'm fascinated by all these implants and her total lack-of-unease with them. Also while I have the usual misgivings about computers implated into your brain, I am intrigued by the prospect of being able to consciously review my memories. Imagine the applications in Alzheimers' treatment!
Okay Continuum, you've got me so far: now, more characters please!
Oh, dear, the cute little hacker boy DOES end up being to blame for the evil corporation, doesn't he? Sadface.
He lives... in a barn? That seems like a really terrible place for all that tech.
Okay, hmm. Delta?
Oh, is his family some kind of counter-government group?
I would like to know what she is injecting herself with, please.
So, future!cop and poorly-named-gang landed by the docks somewhere. Is this a major bridge?
I am always curious about the different pronunciations of database. Is it regional? I don't know. I know I don't say it that way.
She's pretending to be an American? That's an interesting choice. One whose cultural complications she probably doesn't get, so I'm assuming that American/Canadian relations are different in 2077.
Wait, wouldn't she have to show ID of some kind to be let into the police station?
I just... even now, that jumpsuit thing of hers is kind of obviously weird.
SadTech is an ODD name for a massive evil mega-corporation.
Why's he being nice to her? I don't understand.
Oh, come on. Are cops so evil in the future that he spends five minutes with her and believes she'd murder his infant mother? If all the cops were that evil there would be a lot more social unrest. There is some strange interpersonal stuff happening. I've only spent 30 minutes with her and I don't buy her threat.
You crushed the local gangs? We're in 2012, right? o.O
Okay no seriously though, how has nobody asked her for ID yet? Or did she forge some? Just a little bit of consistency consideration, kids.
So Bra'tac didn't make it... except I'm pretty sure he did. So where is he?
These criminals are like the WORST TIME TRAVELERS EVER. You don't make waves, guys. Otherwise you might accidentally end up never being born because you kinda-sorta-accidentally killed your grandparents.
I am like 98% sure his vest should say VPD on it.
Okay, I'm seeing now why she kept her crime!suit on. Never mind. Actually I want one.
Also it's telling her how to electrocute the bad guys. Her suit is kind of a psycho?
Okay no I definitely want one anyway. A gauntlet-glove with a touch-screen? I'll take six.
Oh, okay, maybe/probably the electricity-conducting gauntlet thing is supposed to be for first aid? It sounded like a defibrillator charging up.
They robbed... a hospital? The police station? OH. They robbed the police staton.
Funny thing: nobody will look twice at her walking down the street talking to herself via her brain-implant future!cop-radio because they think she's on a Bluetooth.
Oh, dear - does hacker!boy get assassinated by the bad guys in the future? In the giant explosion? Or did he turn evil? Or did the bad guys come back to 2012 to kill him before he could build an evil empire?
Where is this courtyard and WTF is that sculpture?
OMG ADORABLE HACKER BOY IS THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN THIS IS SO WEIRD.
...did he send people back in time to asassinate HIMSELF?
HE TOTALLY DID, look at the look on his face.
So I have this really strange feeling like they're going to turn this all around on us - like she's going to find out she's on the wrong side? I mean, murdering 30,000 people = bad, but OTOH, intellectually future!Vancouver looks like it kind of deeply, genuinely sucks. Corporations literally take over the government? Objectively nightmarish. Hmm. It'll be interesting.
...yeah, okay, I'm hooked. It's like The 4400 without the infuriating plot twists and random departures from reason.
On to the next episode!
(I feel no similar obligation about the Primeval spinoff also set in Vancouver. I mean, I might watch it, and I grant it might even be good, but god, Primeval was SO TERRIBLE, guys. Free pass for me.)
I didn't get around to watching it before because it came out on May 27th and most of May was spent re-watching Avengers over and over. So, y'know, time well spent.
So, Continuum follows Officer Kiera Cameron, who is a future!cop in a dismal, more-or-less-post-apocalyptic future where governments have fallen and The Corporations have taken over everything. It actually looks pretty functional? But the fact that we open with Bra'tac Tony Amendola blowing up a building and killing a whole bunch of people in an attempt to bring them down makes me think that all is not well in future!Vancouver.
He fails, though, and he and his rag-tag band of fellow terrorists - who call themselves Liber8, a bad life choice for which I am deducting a solid 50 Awesome Points for awfulness - are arrested and sentenced to execution.
The execution goes awry, someone sneaks them some kind of future!devices and there's an explosion. The poorly-named villains end up transported back to 2012 Vancouver, along with Kiera who tries to stop them.
What follows is stream-of-consciousness stuff I don't feel like editing.
I support this equal-opportunity future!cop catsuit policy.
So, this show has basically everyone who was in the X-Files, right?
Also The 4400, First Wave, Stargate...
Evil!Future!Vancouver sure is pretty.
AHAHAHAHA we're starting out by criticizing the 2012 Harper Budget? WIN.
Okay, so I'm officially stating this is worth watching IF ONLY for Vancouver location-spotting.
I am highly amused that her first thought upon being thrown back in time 60 years is to get all the bad guys arrested before she does anything.
AHAHAHAHA AND NOW SHE'S WANDERING DOWN GRANVILLE, THIS IS SO WEIRD.
People are staring at her future-y outfit, and all I can think is "they probably think she was at a con."
Oh hey, it's Andromeda! Or Dr. Lam. Whatever. I literally cannot remember her real name.
Oh right! Lexa Doig. I maintain she was more convincing as an android.
I have watched pretty much every one of these actors in iconic roles, it's very disorienting.
So are they weird genetic mutants, with all the knife-catching?
I'm pretty sure I've bought costume pieces from the store the criminals are currently looting.
She's standing at Pender and Beatty. This is seriously disorienting.
Why would her future!cop outfit be designed to help her rob ATMs? What? Breaking locks on crime scenes?
I really can't decide whether I think that all the future!cops are really evil abusive tools of The Corporations, or if The Corporations run things over people's heads and most people are pretty much happy-ish, and the future!cops themselves are just basically cops with bad bosses.
So I just wanna put it out there that my guess? These criminal-guys travelling back in time is what causes the corporate apocalypse and ruins the world government.
Did she just walk into an SRO on Hastings? I'd think even coming from the future basic lizard-brain self-preservation would kick in...
Oh, did little hacker-boy's inventions allow the evil corps to take over the world?
I LOVE CIRCULAR TIME-TRAVEL PLOTS.
I CHOOSE OPTION B.
Thank you for bringing up the two time-travel plot theories early on to placate the fans who are already writing the fic.
Damn, no fic yet. Hm.
Yeah, kid, that was creepy, she's in her underwear. Let's make that the last time that happens or I'll have to stop liking you.
Okay, I'm fascinated by all these implants and her total lack-of-unease with them. Also while I have the usual misgivings about computers implated into your brain, I am intrigued by the prospect of being able to consciously review my memories. Imagine the applications in Alzheimers' treatment!
Okay Continuum, you've got me so far: now, more characters please!
Oh, dear, the cute little hacker boy DOES end up being to blame for the evil corporation, doesn't he? Sadface.
He lives... in a barn? That seems like a really terrible place for all that tech.
Okay, hmm. Delta?
Oh, is his family some kind of counter-government group?
I would like to know what she is injecting herself with, please.
So, future!cop and poorly-named-gang landed by the docks somewhere. Is this a major bridge?
I am always curious about the different pronunciations of database. Is it regional? I don't know. I know I don't say it that way.
She's pretending to be an American? That's an interesting choice. One whose cultural complications she probably doesn't get, so I'm assuming that American/Canadian relations are different in 2077.
Wait, wouldn't she have to show ID of some kind to be let into the police station?
I just... even now, that jumpsuit thing of hers is kind of obviously weird.
SadTech is an ODD name for a massive evil mega-corporation.
Why's he being nice to her? I don't understand.
Oh, come on. Are cops so evil in the future that he spends five minutes with her and believes she'd murder his infant mother? If all the cops were that evil there would be a lot more social unrest. There is some strange interpersonal stuff happening. I've only spent 30 minutes with her and I don't buy her threat.
You crushed the local gangs? We're in 2012, right? o.O
Okay no seriously though, how has nobody asked her for ID yet? Or did she forge some? Just a little bit of consistency consideration, kids.
So Bra'tac didn't make it... except I'm pretty sure he did. So where is he?
These criminals are like the WORST TIME TRAVELERS EVER. You don't make waves, guys. Otherwise you might accidentally end up never being born because you kinda-sorta-accidentally killed your grandparents.
I am like 98% sure his vest should say VPD on it.
Okay, I'm seeing now why she kept her crime!suit on. Never mind. Actually I want one.
Also it's telling her how to electrocute the bad guys. Her suit is kind of a psycho?
Okay no I definitely want one anyway. A gauntlet-glove with a touch-screen? I'll take six.
Oh, okay, maybe/probably the electricity-conducting gauntlet thing is supposed to be for first aid? It sounded like a defibrillator charging up.
They robbed... a hospital? The police station? OH. They robbed the police staton.
Funny thing: nobody will look twice at her walking down the street talking to herself via her brain-implant future!cop-radio because they think she's on a Bluetooth.
Oh, dear - does hacker!boy get assassinated by the bad guys in the future? In the giant explosion? Or did he turn evil? Or did the bad guys come back to 2012 to kill him before he could build an evil empire?
Where is this courtyard and WTF is that sculpture?
OMG ADORABLE HACKER BOY IS THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN THIS IS SO WEIRD.
...did he send people back in time to asassinate HIMSELF?
HE TOTALLY DID, look at the look on his face.
So I have this really strange feeling like they're going to turn this all around on us - like she's going to find out she's on the wrong side? I mean, murdering 30,000 people = bad, but OTOH, intellectually future!Vancouver looks like it kind of deeply, genuinely sucks. Corporations literally take over the government? Objectively nightmarish. Hmm. It'll be interesting.
...yeah, okay, I'm hooked. It's like The 4400 without the infuriating plot twists and random departures from reason.
On to the next episode!