......and then realise that the reviews are a plant, a dupichasm, a lazy attempt by SiFi channel to boost it's viewer numbers without actually delivering the promised/original article? That your friends are morons that would be happy watching a raindrop run down a window pane?
First of all, Terry Gilliam(esque) this is not, not even close. The quirky and innovative design and clever twists and turns are no more. The sense of urgency and desperation has evaporated. The menacing character of the Scientists is so watered down you may actually mistake them for Social Workers. You do not feel that the main character, James Cole, is out of his depth in a world he's experiencing for the first time since a hazy childhood memory - and not a sign that his senses are being bombarded from every direction with old and new sights, smells and tastes; although there is a small concession to a cheeseburger 'moment'. The brains and potential love interest, Dr. Railly accepts the world's new physics and the news that she's already dead with aplomb - Her whole existence being turned on its head with what seems like a mere nod from her, and an acceptant 'okay', sanity still intact and not a perfectly shiny blonde hair out of place. She loses everything - her professional reputation, fiancé (or I think he was) and a successful doctor's income with nether a teary eye. She can still afford a swanky hotel and the latest fashions and is Sooooooo Adoooorable that the hotel receptionist and hotel security allow her to take a bloody, gunshot man to her room without them even calling an ambulance or cop? Yeh, right.
But hey - turns out she has a secret ally, a friend of sorts who.......DAHDAH!!!!...... can access any government, or indeed any persons data. How? Because he was a big honcho at the NSA, 'convenient' doesn't even cover it.
Guns, guns, guns and a BIG BOOMMMMMM!!!!! - how cheap, formulaic and crass. A bad guy gets his brains blown out, whoopee for the good guy!!! But only after bad guy has been blown across a now demolished room by a deliberate 'time paradox' leaving him in a flesh torn, raggedly clothed state; yet the physical anomaly, a watch + itself (stay with me) used to create the BOOM is 'conveniently' intact, not a scratch. Which is lucky because it's instrumental in the future/past (yup, that convenient word again) - But the saga continues as 'history' stays the same, he was the wrong bad guy! So on to the next bad guy who is the same bad guy, who will presumably have his brains blown out too/again? Let's just keep killing bad guys until hopefully we get the right one, again, but for the first time - A bit like US foreign policy, but without the drones.
Luckily there is a clue, a design, a stencil in a photo, The 12 Monkeys. It's even red, just like the herring it is, or is it? Who cares? It's merely a device to keep you hanging - however the holes in the plot had sharp enough edges to cut the chord I would have been hanging by long before this point.
Now lets set them up with a 'convenient' (that word again), anonymous, hidden HQ. Oh, didn't you know? Her gramps and grandma have left her a disused book shop - obviously empty for many years - yet unmolested and un-vandalised despite being in an obviously poor and run down area. Now you're getting a sense of my ire, my disappointment, my growing respect for strong, well written scripts and ideas, oh how i was missing them here.
Now, do you think I've pretty much covered it? Could it get any more silly? Well blow me down, yes it can! Bad guy has bad daughter, evil in every way - How do we know this? Her dark hair is messy and dirty! No, I swear, a visual aid so that you can't be mistaken, classic white hat/black hat, YEEEHAAAAA!!!! Like the manic grin, mental institute secure unit and scribbling another herring on the wall with a jumbo sized crayon wasn't enough of a clue? At least the crayon wasn't red.
If you are a fan of the Terry Gilliam classic avoid this 'like the plague'. You'll only end up smashing your TV in anger and frustration, or just because of sheer boredom.
If you're not a Terry Gilliam fan as your age means you haven't met him yet crack on and enjoy this mediocre series - Then watch 'Twelve Monkeys' (notice how we 'spell' the numbers?) to see what it could and should have been. You will not be disappointed, you'll just watch it again straight away to see if you can spot all of the little clues he so cheekily scattered throughout the production and marvel at the study of 'cause and effect' that is a sublime critique on the paradox's of time travel.
Then you'll have laid the groundwork to see 'Le Jetee' - Terry Gilliam's inspiration for Twelve Monkeys. A post apocalyptic French Sci-Fi film from the early '60's. If you don't like subtitles your prejudice will deny you a world of wonderful films that were later plagiarised and butchered to please an English speaking audience, it's a list as long as film making itself. Luckily Twelve Monkeys got it right for once, and opens up a wonderfully troubled world.
First of all, Terry Gilliam(esque) this is not, not even close. The quirky and innovative design and clever twists and turns are no more. The sense of urgency and desperation has evaporated. The menacing character of the Scientists is so watered down you may actually mistake them for Social Workers. You do not feel that the main character, James Cole, is out of his depth in a world he's experiencing for the first time since a hazy childhood memory - and not a sign that his senses are being bombarded from every direction with old and new sights, smells and tastes; although there is a small concession to a cheeseburger 'moment'. The brains and potential love interest, Dr. Railly accepts the world's new physics and the news that she's already dead with aplomb - Her whole existence being turned on its head with what seems like a mere nod from her, and an acceptant 'okay', sanity still intact and not a perfectly shiny blonde hair out of place. She loses everything - her professional reputation, fiancé (or I think he was) and a successful doctor's income with nether a teary eye. She can still afford a swanky hotel and the latest fashions and is Sooooooo Adoooorable that the hotel receptionist and hotel security allow her to take a bloody, gunshot man to her room without them even calling an ambulance or cop? Yeh, right.
But hey - turns out she has a secret ally, a friend of sorts who.......DAHDAH!!!!...... can access any government, or indeed any persons data. How? Because he was a big honcho at the NSA, 'convenient' doesn't even cover it.
Guns, guns, guns and a BIG BOOMMMMMM!!!!! - how cheap, formulaic and crass. A bad guy gets his brains blown out, whoopee for the good guy!!! But only after bad guy has been blown across a now demolished room by a deliberate 'time paradox' leaving him in a flesh torn, raggedly clothed state; yet the physical anomaly, a watch + itself (stay with me) used to create the BOOM is 'conveniently' intact, not a scratch. Which is lucky because it's instrumental in the future/past (yup, that convenient word again) - But the saga continues as 'history' stays the same, he was the wrong bad guy! So on to the next bad guy who is the same bad guy, who will presumably have his brains blown out too/again? Let's just keep killing bad guys until hopefully we get the right one, again, but for the first time - A bit like US foreign policy, but without the drones.
Luckily there is a clue, a design, a stencil in a photo, The 12 Monkeys. It's even red, just like the herring it is, or is it? Who cares? It's merely a device to keep you hanging - however the holes in the plot had sharp enough edges to cut the chord I would have been hanging by long before this point.
Now lets set them up with a 'convenient' (that word again), anonymous, hidden HQ. Oh, didn't you know? Her gramps and grandma have left her a disused book shop - obviously empty for many years - yet unmolested and un-vandalised despite being in an obviously poor and run down area. Now you're getting a sense of my ire, my disappointment, my growing respect for strong, well written scripts and ideas, oh how i was missing them here.
Now, do you think I've pretty much covered it? Could it get any more silly? Well blow me down, yes it can! Bad guy has bad daughter, evil in every way - How do we know this? Her dark hair is messy and dirty! No, I swear, a visual aid so that you can't be mistaken, classic white hat/black hat, YEEEHAAAAA!!!! Like the manic grin, mental institute secure unit and scribbling another herring on the wall with a jumbo sized crayon wasn't enough of a clue? At least the crayon wasn't red.
If you are a fan of the Terry Gilliam classic avoid this 'like the plague'. You'll only end up smashing your TV in anger and frustration, or just because of sheer boredom.
If you're not a Terry Gilliam fan as your age means you haven't met him yet crack on and enjoy this mediocre series - Then watch 'Twelve Monkeys' (notice how we 'spell' the numbers?) to see what it could and should have been. You will not be disappointed, you'll just watch it again straight away to see if you can spot all of the little clues he so cheekily scattered throughout the production and marvel at the study of 'cause and effect' that is a sublime critique on the paradox's of time travel.
Then you'll have laid the groundwork to see 'Le Jetee' - Terry Gilliam's inspiration for Twelve Monkeys. A post apocalyptic French Sci-Fi film from the early '60's. If you don't like subtitles your prejudice will deny you a world of wonderful films that were later plagiarised and butchered to please an English speaking audience, it's a list as long as film making itself. Luckily Twelve Monkeys got it right for once, and opens up a wonderfully troubled world.