CONTINUUM
is one of my favorite new sci-fi shows. It comes down to the writing and the
characters not being black and white (who exactly is good and evil). The
second season expands on the mythology
as you wonder if Keira is hurting her chances of getting back to the future by
the little changes she does and Alec ponders whether he should become the man
that future Alec Sadler is. Liber8 continues to splinter as Travis follows a
more violent path and Sonya explores a more peaceful approach to accomplishing
Liber8’s goals. Then you have the
mysterious Mr. Escher and the Freelancers to worry about.
I thought the second season of CONTINUUM improved upon the
first season and there isn’t a single bad episode among them (which is probably
due to the scripts being written before the season goes into production). It
explores how dark and compromised our
characters can get in order to achieve what they think is for the greater good
while Carlos (Kiera’s partner) remains the moral compass who might be able to
stop Kiera from compromising herself too much.
Alec gets tempted as he gets the opportunity to create all of the
technology he is responsible for creating in Kiera’s future. However,
Kiera runs the risk of not being
able to return to the future she came from with every minor change she makes
(like going after an infamous serial killer who is well known in the future of
2077 timeline). One of the things I
like about CONTINUUM is that it isn’t a show about things being clearly black
and white. You can debate whether Kiera
is the true good guy (despite the fact she comes from a corporately controlled
future) or should Liber8 be the ones to succeed in their goals to free people
from the corporate dictatorship of 2077 even if their methods of doing so are
questionable.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commentaries-
SECOND CHANCES with director/ executive producer Pat
Williams, creator Simon Barry, and actress Rachel Nichols
SPLIT SECOND with actor Victor
Webster, Stunt Coordinator
Kimani Ray Smith, and VFX Supervisor Adam Stern
SECOND SKIN with Co-Executive Producer Shelley Eriksen and
Executive Story Editor Jonathan Lloyd Walker
SECOND OPINION with actors Brian Markinson and Jennifer
Spence
SECOND TRUTHS with Co-Executive Producer Shelley Eriksen and
Executive Story Editor Jonathan Lloyd Walker
SECOND DEGREE with actors Erik Knudsen and Richard Harmon in
a commentary track where they are better paired off with a director or a writer
than just with each other. You can skip
listening to this track.
SECOND LISTEN with actors Omari Newton and Luvia Petersen
SECONDS… with director Mike Rohl and actors Erik Knudsen and
Richard Harmon
SECOND GUESSED with actors Omari Newton and Luvia Peterson
SECOND LAST with director Amanda Tapping and actor Magda
Apanowicz is the best audio commentary of the eleven as Amanda and Magda have
good chemistry as Amanda gives the in and outs of directing CONTINUUM and
finding the directors did lots of things differently.
SECOND TIME with director/ executive
producer Pat Williams, creator
Simon Barry, and actress Rachel Nichols
CONTINUUM: BEHIND THE SCENES (73 minutes in total) which
features interviews with the cast and creator Simon Barry in a detailed look
and discussion of CONTINUUM season 1 and 2- these featurettes were originally behind-the-scenes video that are available
on the Continuum web site at showcase.ca/continuum:
RELOADING SEASON 2 KICKOFF- looking forward to what season 2
will bring to the story of CONTINUUM
EVOLUTION OF AN ATCION SCENE- a look at how the sequence
leading to Travis’s escape evolved for SPLIT SECOND
WHAT WE DO ABOUT TRAVIS…-
a talk about the changes for the
character of Travis for season 2
CASTING CONTINUUM- a look at the casting of the characters
with some actor auditions and little known facts like the actor who plays
Julian originally auditioned to play Alec and Kiera was originally a guy named
Kyle.
DO YOU THINK I’M PRETTY?- discussion about the unscripted
creepy exchange between Garza and Alec which originally was going to be a scene
involving Travis until Roger Cross said it didn’t make sense (since Travis was
outside)
CONTINUUM AT FANEXPO- creator Simon Barry moderates a panel
at Fanexpo with the cast of CONTINUUM as he asks them questions
KNOW YOUR CREW- actor Omari
Newton goes around interviewing
various crew members about their roles in the production of CONTINUUM
ALEC: PAST & PRESENT- Eric Knudsen and Richard Harmon
discuss the character of Alec present and future (at a record store) in
addition to other actors also talking about Alec Sadler
CREATING THE FUTURE- a look at
the production design of the
future and how they almost got Syd Mead (but he was too expensive for their
budget)
AN ACTOR’S JOURNEY- Rachel Nichols discusses playing the
role of Kiera with Victor Webster (Detective Carlos Fornnegra).
THE BAD GUYS- the actors
who play members of Liber8 discuss
their characters
YOUNG LOVE- Erik Knudsen and the actress (Magda Apanowicz)
cast as Alec’s love interest Emily talk about their chemistry, bagels, their
characters, and how she called her agent to get her on the show after watching
the pilot for CONTINUUM with a friend
GONE FISHING- the cast talks about the show while
out
fishing and how they think season 3 might go
The season 2 blu-ray is a big improvement over the season
one blu-ray with the amount of extras, but Universal didn’t include the extra
video content that were shown on the Showcase web site where fans in Canada
could choose the fate of Beth. I wish
they also included the teasers and trailers for the show.
FINAL ANALYSIS: CONTINUUM season 2 improves on the great
first season with some great extras even though a few extras are missing from
being included on this set.
This review is ©3-30-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be
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