This series caught my eyes few years ago when I was looking for interesting tv show. The premise of a police from the future who had to go through time to catch a bunch of terrorist in current year sounded like fun. But I never got the chance to see it until just recently and I was able to finish it in short time as it consisted just 4 seasons where the series finale was in October 2015.
Brief Story Line Season 1
The pilot episode was introduction of the main characters of this series. Agent Kiera Cameron (played by Rachel Nichols - GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Star Trek etc) was a member of police team that caught Edouard Kagame (played by Tony Amendola - Zorro, Annabelle etc) a leader of terrorist group known as Liber8, but not before his team blown a building nearby killing thousand of people in the year 2077.
Kagame with the other Liber8 members caught by police such as Travis Verta (Roger Cross), Sonya Valentine (Lexa Doig) and few others were sentenced to death. During the time when all 7 of them were about to be electrocuted, Kiera saw something was passed amongst them and suspected foul play. So she wanted to capture them but there was huge explosion and she was caught together with them.
All these were seen by various people such as Kiera's husband and an old person who seemed important.
Later we would see the ruins of the explosion that caused by this incident. Kiera who survived it, wanted to capture the terrorists but unable to do so. Being a police in 2077, there was an instrument planted in her brain (called CMR) that can give her communication access to police head quarters. When she was asking help while trying to capture Lucas, her line of communication was responded by a young man who was confused why some random people can access to his experimented equipment. Lucas was finally caught by the police, while Kiera went away and finally realized she had gone back to the year 2012. The reason she was able to use CMR was the equipment already invented in that year by Alec Sadler (played by Eric Knudsen - Saw II, Saw V, Scream 4 etc).
The following day, Kiera would go to the scene of explosion from the incident and met with detective Carlos Fonnegra (played by Victor Webster - Dying of the Light) who immediately felt that Kiera was a person with the law and requested her cooperation. They would later become partners where Kiera would declare herself as a member of some secret government agent called Section 6. The police headquarters were led by Dillon and also aided by Betty for anything related with IT.
Kiera would be an added worthy asset for the Vancouver PD providing various insights of Liber8 and their ways of doing terror. In later episodes, Kiera who had become the unofficial partner of Fonnegra would solve crimes involving Liber8. Meanwhile, within Liber8 itself, there was a little bit of disharmony, e.g. Kellog who wanted to gain money using his knowledge from the future, and also Curtis Chen's ambition to be the leader of their small group. This happened also because of their leader, Kagame was thought not able to make the time jump.
On the other hand, Kiera also was having so much personal problem, especially relating to her separation from her only son and her husband.
There were also some important characters such as Julian Randol (played by Richard Harmon - The Age of Adaline) the step brother of Alec Sadler and Jason who seemed to know a lot about time travel and of course the old Alec Sadler (played by William B. Davis - the smoking man in X-Files tv series) who had huge influence and power in the year 2077.
The first season would be more towards the struggle of Kiera adapting to life in the 2012, plus avoiding being found out as person from future by her partner and police. Each episode would pit Kiera and Fonnegra against Liber8 various tactics from kidnapping, robberies even attack on police and instilling influence on the future mayor of Vancouver.
The season finale was the first major incident that actually had a major role in what the future would be.
Brief Story Line Season 2 (spoiler warning from season 1)
In the second season, after Kagame's death and Travis shot by Sonya, the Liber8 members were fighting among themselves. Travis aided by Garza, while Sonya aided by Lucas. Kellog had his own agenda of investing his future with Alec Sadler to setup a new company with major invention.
Julian was also imprisoned for his indirect involvement in bombing of a building in the season 1 finale. However, he would later be released due to some actions done by Liber8. Julian aka Theseus in future started to have some loyal followers who created some havoc in this season.
Things were also complicated in season 2 as Kiera was suspected of having some relation with Liber8 and being a mole in police dept. Agent Gardiner from Canadian secret agent investigated Kiera in depth and Kiera had to do few things to shake his suspicion, leading to various implication.
There was also the relationship between Alec and his girlfriend Emily. Jason who was revealed in season 1 as a time traveller from future had some information about people called "freelancers" who were supposed to be a team of people guarding the proper time continuum. He was also the one who informed Kiera about a very important & rich person who will have major impact in future, i.e. Mr. Escher.
All the complications in season 2 would culminate to a quite shocking finales in episode 12 and 13 which I believe was a total changer of what season 3 would be.
Brief Story Line Season 3 (spoiler warning from season 1 & 2)
Season 3 started where season 2 finale left off, with 2 Alec and 2 Kiera present in the present year. The present Kiera was found dead, and the only Kiera that existed now is the Kiera from 1 week before who was sent by the Freelancers led by Catherine to ensure the timeline continuum stay correct by ensuring only 1 Alec Sadler who would maintain the future is alive and killing the other Alec.
Fonnegra who already knew from season 2 about Kiera's coming from the future was shocked to find out about present Kiera's death and was having mind breakdown. Meanwhile the present Alec was shocked to find out that he inherited Piron organization by his father Escher. Whereas the other Alec (I refer to the 1 week older Alec as "the other Alec" to easily differentiate) was very happy to find Emily still alive and wanted to take her away from all the problems.
Kiera who was dilematic about her task of finding the "correct" Alec and kill the other finally made her mind up. Which Alec that Kiera choose, this one I will leave you all to see. Meanwhile, Sonya and Travis who have already reconciled in season 2 also did a lot of things to alter the future, especially coordinating attacks on the major corporate in 2077 such as Sonmato who had created biochemical weapon as well as its antidote. They also captured Jim, the current mayor and forced him to give announcement relating to the bad things about corporate & statement about his "agreement" with Liber8's position.
With time kept on changing because of the time travel done by Kiera and Alec in season 2 finale, the future had become so dynamic and there was no indication of which future will be the one Liber8 and Kiera wanted. This was indicated in episode 11.
There were also some new characters in this season, with 1 particular person stands out, which is a john doe who had amnesia and only remembered Kiera Cameron's name. 1 old character also re-appeared in this season.
The final episode of season 3 would provide you some surprise on how Kiera would handle the situation to maintain the proper future.
Brief Story Line Final Season 4 (spoiler warning from season 1, 2 & 3)
This is the final season and only consisted of 6 episodes. The story revolved on how Kiera, together with Brad Tomkin from season 3 had to deal with the armed forces from 2039 where Brad originally came from. They were sent by Kellog who had become some kind of warlord in 2039 and had his own agenda.
Travis, Lucas and Garza the only living existing Liber8 members by now had already cooperated with Kiera and were helping her to maintain the proper time continuum. Alec who was ousted by Kellog in season 3 finale from Piron also tried his best to retaliate against Kellog. He was also aided by Julian who was having doubts on how he should deal with his future of possible killer of thousands to achieve his agenda.
Meanwhile Kiera whose longing to meet her son made her set her mind up to return back to her own time where Alec truly tried his best to do so.
So can Kiera achieved her target to return back to the time she want and see her son? Will the future be a better one or actually a worse one? What will happen to the rest of the Liber8 members and also the 2039 assault team? Find them all out in this last season.
End of Brief Story Line Final Season 4
I totally enjoyed watching this TV series for the 1st season. Although there were some cheesy moments (supposed to be dramatic, but unfortunately I could not feel it), but the time travel thing was nice and the build up of Liber8 organization & struggle of Kiera adapting to life in 2012 was fun to see.
But in season 2, I felt the pace was slower and felt forced to make into 13 episode. However, the last 2 episodes did not disappoint and I did not see that coming.
As for season 3, the pace was also slow with 1 or 2 episodes that I felt forced to be added. But again the episode 11 and 13 were great one to me.
Finally the final season. I kind of felt a little bit sad as I know this would be the last one. I had pictured what the finale would be like but the writers have given something different. It left a bitter sweet feeling after seeing this series finale.
In conclusion, if you are interested in watching some time travel combined with police procedural genre and various twists & plots about the universe paradox due to the time travel and would make you think, this series would be good for you. The special effects are not the "blow your mind" type but just nice for TV series.
The total of 42 episodes to complete the whole story might be too long for certain people, but if you are the dedicated kind like me, maybe this one suits you as well.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
