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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fox's New Sci-Fi show Virtuality: A Big Letdown



In the new FOX show Virtuality a crew of astronauts, travel to a distant star in search for a new world. To make matter more exciting in this not to distant future Earth is on its last legs and the human race as a whole is depending on the crew to find them a new home world. But is everything so clear cut? That is the general foundation for the show. The pilot episode proved to be less than exciting, with dull conversation and 2001: Space Odyssey eske exterior shots of the crews’ space ship the Phaeton. Didn’t most people fall asleep during the twenty minutes of slow moving space shots in that 2001: Space Odyssey? So, why would they incorporate that style of camera shots in this new series? It seems like a poor start just in terms of style. The thing about the pilot episode was that it was boring, long and worst of all you don’t care about the cast. You don’t get that sense of interest that some may have had with Battlestar Galactica in its introductory mini-series.

The idea that the crew is a part of some kind of interstellar version of Survivor is something, it seems appropriate that Fox make a scripted show about a reality show, there is something poetic about that. Fox the great reality show monster making a sci-fi show about a crew on an extended space journey, while a part of the show is about how the mission is funded by a large corporation and broadcast by Fox. It’s a little bit of Fox on Fox action, and it’s funny though it does not redeem the show itself.

Spoiler Alert: At the end of the episode the Capitan of the ship is killed, yet reappears in the virtual reality visors that are the true focus of the show, spouting lines from Alice in Wonder Land (Matrix?). These virtual reality visors, act as a kind of escape for the crew, that is until they start being attacked by a mysterious figure who shoots, rapes, and throws crew members off of mount ranges.

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