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mike_9000

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Reverie

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It's no secret that this series revolves around a totally immersive virtual reality programme. The lead character goes in to other people's imaginary worlds to rescue them when they have become trapped there.

It's a potentially great premise, enabling the writers to explore themes of memory, fantasy, reality - and the question of whether some people might soon find virtual worlds preferable to the real one.

Instead we get a rehash of those old films, in which a psychoanalyst hero recovers a repressed memory, solves the puzzle of a strange compulsion or other dramatic symptom, and cures it. This series dresses that basic plot up in 21 century clothes (that is, virtual reality).

There are, of course, hints of several coming sub-plots, and you can get a pretty shrewd idea of what the major one is going to be without watching (no spoilers here :-)

The performances are kind of emotionally detached and the cast doesn't quite gel - there is a feeling of going through the motions.

In short, it's does'nt come anywhere near the potential of its premise and isn't engaging at all. Sadly, I'd give it a miss.

Marvel's The Punisher

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A dark, violent and bloody power fantasy.

This is part of the Marvel line-up, and we are used to suspending disbelief about 'super powers' for the sake of entertainment. However Frank Castle (The Punisher) regularly takes beatings which should permanently disable ordinary humans, and dodges bullets apparently by magic.He's harder to accept than a guy who can fly.

Yes - I know - he's special forces and all that All the same, no matter how good you are, there's an element of luck in surviving combat, and Frank pushes his beyond credibility.

It's brilliantly acted, and the production values are way beyond the ephemeral TV of the past - but it's a power fantasy that promotes the line that problems can be solved if only you apply extreme violence to them. That's a questionable message.

If you like a power fantasy crowned by teeth-clenching, 'glorious' revenge go for it. Otherwise, stand back and think about how real violence typically turns out, and how the punisher would fare in reality.

The Librarians

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Light, silly, funny entertainment with an ensemble cast - and an obvious debt to "Warehouse 13".
Worth a watch when you definitely don't want to be challenged :-)

Dexter

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It's hard to sustain an anti-hero through a series this long - but the scriptwriters (and the author who wrote the books upon which the series is closely based) did a wonderful job. It says something about the superficial charm and persuasiveness of real-life psychopaths that you don't want him to get caught.

Of course, Dexter operates according to a code of 'ethics' - he only tortures and murders people who 'deserve' it, having done much worse themselves. That's the excuse that allows you go along with his superficial charm.

The rest of the cast are wonderfully eccentric, well-realised and well-acted. The way that in which a variety of cynical cops (with one notable exception) don't detect a mass murderer in their midst says a lot about the manipulative powers of the real psychopaths who are abusing and murdering people out here, in the real world.

If you like your TV with a Gothic tinge, don't mind a little gore (well, quite a lot, actually) you will love Dexter - and wonder why.

Ultraviolet 1998

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An early, British attempt to do what the US series "The Strain" did (with a lot better effects), It put the vampire myth on a kind of scientific footing and introduced a deadly secret government organisation of angst-ridden vampire hunters.

It struggled to create an overarching plot - and ultimately failed. Character development was sparse, too. However, these were the days of episodic TV when episodes disappeared into the aether, unless you recorded them on VHS.

There were good performances but the series didn't really go anywhere, then petered out. Still worth a watch if you like that kind of thing.

The X-Files

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The whole 'UFO' and 'abductee' culture has faded since the X-files first appeared. However, the scriptwriters are stuck with having to continue the dated 'alien invasion by genetic modification' plot, and (hopefully) resolve it at some point.

That's going to be hard, because the point of the original series was to pander to a kind of paranoia that required that none of the mysteries could ever be unequivocally settled one way or the other - endings were always ambiguous, to leave the possibility of 'the unexplained' open.

This is why the big plot arc was always frustrating. Now it's dated, too. It's the least satisfying aspect of this revival.

However, some of the 'stand-alone' episodes (like the 'were-human') were very clever and funny. Those were the ones I liked most about the original series, too.

In short, it's still worth watching, but aspects of the premise seem to have passed through a time-warp into a period where they are old hat (i.e. today). I doubt even Mulder will be able to come up with a solution to that problem

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This was the last, best iteration of the Star Trek formula (until "Discovery") that really worked, because it got away from voyaging ever outward to meet people with strange new noses and ears, and stayed in one place to fill out the Star Trek universe instead.

It also had a story arc with a beginning, and middle and a satisfying end, too. After DS9, was Voyager - travelling home instead of outwards, and running out of ideas for this situation.

I wonder if DS9 wasn't improved along by the challenge of Babylon 5 with which is shared some striking similarities including a proper story arc and complex world building. It's a pity that, when the challenge ended with B5, Star Trek writers went back to the unchallenging same old same old.

Almost Human

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There's a long list of short-lived series like this which deserved far better. This deserves to be near the top.

The short version is that a traumatised cop gets an android partner - an unreliable obsolescent model with individuality and emotion, who contrasts with the soulless automaton that the other cops work with. Are the standard issue androids de-humanising the other cops? Is the hero's idiosyncratic 'almost human' model humanising his abrasive personality?

We never found out, but it's still well worth watching if you don't mind missing out on a final resolution partly because the performances by the 'buddies' were so good and spun off some novel ideas.

American Gothic

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Another series that deserved a lot more than a single season. Brilliantly dark - but apparently too dark for an American audience., it ended, unresolved, after only 22 episodes.

Sheriff Buck runs a small town because, it turns out, he does *favours* for people - favours which almost always turn out to have too high a price. They weren't signed in blood... but the Sheriff is too up-to-date for that.

He's not all-powerful though. He's he sometimes frustrated by people who won't sell out, occasional supernatural opposition and a (brilliantly-acted) kid, who is at the centre of this struggle between good and evil.little supernatural opposition

Prey

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One of those series that was just too good to live beyond a single season - and ended on a unresolved cliffhanger.

A new species of human has arisen among us. They are smarter, better coordinated and getting organised. The biggest difference to us is that they utterly lack compassion. Except one dissident, who is intrigued by humanity...Can we respond, or are we going the way of the Neanderthal?

Great cast and some unexpected reveals. Just a shame it didn't last.