A first look at Continuum
by Doc on Jan.05, 2013, under Television
Syfy will begin showing the Canadian series Continuum on Monday, January 14th, at 8/7c. The series, which aired this past Spring/Summer on Canadian channel Showcase, follows Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols, Criminal Minds, Alias), a cop from 2077 who finds herself back in the present day tracking down terrorists who escaped execution by traveling into the past.
Sounds a bit like the short lived PTEN show Time Trax, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought when I first heard of it, and kind of what I was expecting when I watched the first two episodes.
It’s not Time Trax. That’s good.
Cameron is a loyal member of the City Protective Services of Vancouver – essentially a cop, but with all sorts of tech enhancements, like a built-in communications system, recording technology, contacts that provide a heads up display, and clothing with interesting properties as well. And by “loyal”, almost robotically so. But she has a personal side – she is also a wife and mother.
The government is now run by corporations as a police state – there is little personal freedom or privacy. A terrorist organization called Liber8 fights for a return to democracy, but the major members of the organization are captured and scheduled to be executed. In a widely covered public execution which inexplicably involves a strange room and apparently an energy beam, the Liber8 members quickly assemble a small device which uses the energy beam, and in a flash of light they all disappear – as does Cameron, who rushed in to stop them.
She wakes in 2012 Vancouver, wondering why she can’t communicate with CPS, and tries to chase the terrorists while not understanding what happened. She then manages to contact someone – Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen, Jericho), a technical whiz-kid who has developed his own wireless communication technology – one that becomes pervasive by 2077. He is able to aid her with information and his hacking abilities. But Cameron also knows something about Sadler’s future.
Cameron then teams up with Vancouver cop Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster, Castle, Melrose Place), who is also trying to figure out who Cameron really is, as she tries to track down the members of Liber8 and stop them from potentially changing the future – and getting back there herself.
What first struck me about the show is that I’m not sure the “good guy” – or in this case, girl – is actually playing for the right side. The government she works for comes off as oppressive, and the terrorists are after democracy. The terrorists are still painted as evil as well though, killing a lot of people in an attack to just assassinate a few. So there doesn’t seem to be a good side, at least not yet.
But there is a lot of intrigue in the future to be seen – Cameron’s corporate lawyer husband (John Reardon, Painkiller Jane) is seen with a corporate CEO at the execution and appear to be aware of what is going to happen, and you will learn more about the CEO guy later…
Sadler isn’t without his own intrigue – he appears to be friends with an activist group – which could conflict with his helping a “by the rules” cop.
I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. Continuum‘s first season consists of 10 episodes, and it has already been renewed for a second season of 13 episodes to be aired at a later date – sometime this Spring in Canada at least.
The executive producers of Continuum are Simon Barry (The Art of War), Jeff King (Stargate SG-1, White Collar), Tom Rowe (Tin Man), Pat Williams (Smallville), and Reunion Pictures. The pilot, “A Stitch In Time”, was written by Simon Barry and directed by Jon Cassar (24, Terra Nova).