Continuum, Season One, Blu-ray (2013)

by | Mar 20, 2013 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Continuum, Season One, Blu-ray (2013)

Ten episodes of first season of Syfy Channel series
Cast: Rachel Nichols, Victor Webster, Erik Knudsen
Studio: Reunion Pictures/ Universal 61125963 [3/26/13]
Video: 1.78 for 16:9 1080i color HD
Audio: English DTS-HD HD 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Extras: “Meet the Makers, Protectors and Terrorists”
Length: 7 hrs. 20 mins.
Rating: ****

This smart sci-fi series plays around with time travel, which always gets my interest. It minimizes the CGI work, sets and costumes by having only a small portion set in 2077, while the majority is set in 2012 in a present-day police precinct in Vancouver, B.C.  Kiera is a tough trained cop from the future with a husband and child, who was close to some sort of electronic machine in which the leaders of the terrorist group Liber8 were to be executed after being arrested. They seem to have a legitimate beef to rid society of its complete control by powerful corporations (who have replaced the government). However, their revolution has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent thousands.

Instead of being executed, all the terrorists plus Kiera are sent back in time to the present day, where the terrorists plan to start a war against the incipient and growing corporations to stop them before they become all powerful. Therefore Kiera is supposedly the only possible savior of the world—a stranger in a strange land. She poses as a government agent from Portland and is partnered with a by-the-book detective, Carlos. Of course she knows details about the terrorists which the police think come from her higher agents, but actually they come both from her previous close pursuit of the terrorists as well as from a teenage computer nerd/tech wizard Alec, who keeps her informed wirelessly thru a Bluetooth headpiece.

The terrorists also want to return to 2077 and hope their own tech wizard might be able to help them do that. Kiera is of course also interested in returning to her family. There is also a member of the terrorists who has split from them philosophically and wants to stay in 2012 where he has made a lot of money and purchased a luxury yacht. But Kiera has not yet been convinced he is on the level. The CGI effects, when needed, are very convincing. Kiera also has an electronic sort of garment which protects her from gunfire and has all sorts of communication gadgets built in. The documentary in the extras is useful information about the series and its actors. The second season of 13 episodes begins to air in Canada next month; the U.S. carriage has not been announced as yet.

—John Sunier

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