Brief Story Line
Set in the year 2030, Flynne Fisher (Chloë Grace Moretz - Tom & Jerry 2021 movie, Greta etc) was living in small town with his older brother Burton (Jack Reynor - Midsommar, Kin etc) and their blind mother Ella (Melinda Page Hamilton - Sleeping Dogs Lie etc). As they tried to get more money for Ella's medication, Burton acquired a job to test a VR equipment which was done by Flynne as she was better at it.
However, what seemed like a simple job turned out to be a lot more complicated. Flynne was later involved in the power struggle among groups of people led by Zubov (JJ Feild - Professor Marston and the Wonder Women etc) with his fixer Wilf (Gary Carr - Death in Paradise TV series etc) and the Research Institute's chief of security, Cherise Nuland (T'Nia Miller - The Haunting of Bly Manor TV series etc). Things became worse when Flynne's family became the target of many dangerous people, including the local crime boss Corbell (Louis Herthum - The Last Exorcism Part II etc).
So what would happen to Flynne and why was she targeted by many people? You could find out in the first season of this series.
End of Brief Story Line
This series started off with intriguing scenes that I was not really clear at first but understood better at latter stage. The characters introduction was done pretty smoothly and was kept simple where we could immediately root for the Fisher family. As soon as the VR equipment was used, the story became more exciting, especially when we were shown how it worked and what happened after it was used few times. The ending of first episode was what made me really psyched and curious of what would happen. And the second episode really did not disappoint with some surprisingly intense action sequence.
The science fiction felt stronger as the story progressed and the actions were more frequent as well. But the part that I liked was the other sci-fi element, although it was quite complicated and not so straight forward like other series/movies with similar genre. You would know what I meant if you watch this series. The world that Flynne entered was quite well created. Btw, the series was loosely based on 2014 novel of the same title written by William Gibson who was considered as one of the pioneer for cyberpunk genre. His prior work that has been adapted into movie was Johnny Mnemonic and few others were in the development.
The first season of the series consisted of only 8 episodes where it has duration of a little over or under 1 hour. Of all the episodes, I liked the first and also the 7th which gave plenty of surprises. The pace was not too fast and at certain point it was a bit slow, but not up to the level of boring. I was still intrigued of the story's conclusion but unfortunately it seemed a bit inconclusive with many things remained unclear. Although one major issue could be considered closed, but it would be disappointing if the series was not renewed for second season.
The names I saw on the opening credit was a lot. Those that I mentioned above were only the ones that I thought were really crucial to the story development. However, there were also other main characters that were important, such as Deputy Sheriff Tommy (Alex Hernandez), Zubov's trusted team Ash (Katie Leung - Cho Chang in Harry Potter movies etc) and Ossian (Julian Moore-Cook), Flynne's best friend Billy Ann (Adelind Horan) with her husband Jasper (Chris Coy - The Deuce TV series etc), Conner (Eli Goree - The 100 TV series etc), Aelita West (Charlotte Riley - World Without End mini series etc) and Inspector Lowbeer (Alexandra Billings - Transparent TV series etc). Their importance were enhanced especially towards the final episodes. The executive producers of this series are Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy who were creators of Westworld which was the selling point as shown on its poster.
Overall this series was pretty interesting to me. I like the sci-fi element and the depiction of the future, and also the action. The characters of Flynne and Burton were the ones that I really liked as their development from the first till the last episode were apparent and I also thought Chloë Grace Moretz was the perfect choice as Flynne. The special effects were good enough and it did seem like it has a high production value. Only thing that might hinder people to start watching the series would be its future fate. If there is indeed going to be a second season, then it would be interesting as there are plenty of things to explore.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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