Netflixing & Continuum ...a bit of the old timey-wimey + corpy-worpy!

We're on our first month of Netflixing, and discovering all manner of delights! We've binge-watched the first season of True Detective - a cop series with a difference. Leading actors will change season by season. First season of 8 episodes starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson - a wonderful pairing of two superb actors.

We occasionally dip into first season of the long-running medical series, Grey's Anatomy. One episode at a time is quite enough for me of any hospital centred series, this one included. It's just so-so for me, but audiences must have absolutely loved it - it survived for 11 seasons!

My favourite discovery, so far, is Canadian sci-fi series, Continuum. I'd never heard of it, didn't expect much, but it didn't take long to realise that this is an intelligent piece of quality writing. Time travel is the series' main theme, with aspects of politics, friendship, family relationships closely intertwined.

Continuum is good in every respect, but the political slant, in tandem with time travel, is what is fascinating me most. Series creator is Simon Barry, a British born Canadian. A quick look at his noon natal chart (25 September 1966) shows a Libra Sun and Mercury; Venus conjunct Uranus/Pluto in Virgo; and Moon in Aquarius (whatever his time of birth). What a great combination for a science fiction writer!

The story's setting is Vancouver, initially in the year 2077, on November 5 in fact. The city, and presumably the country (maybe also the world, or at least North America), are governed by the corporations. A towering skyscraper housing the corporate congress has been blown-up resulting in many thousands of deaths. Perpetrators were Liber-8, a group of eight freedom fighters - or terrorists - depending on one's point of view. They are caught and ready to be executed in a high-tech communal execution chamber.

One female police officer is detailed to stand close, as guard. Seconds before the execution is carried out a blinding flash... when the screen clears those about to be executed, and the police officer, have disappeared.

We then find ourselves with the police officer, Kiera, as she finds she, and Liber-8 have been hurtled back 65 years to 2012. She looks distinctly out of place in her high-tech police uniform in Vancouver's streets, 2012.

That's how the story begins. After the first couple of episodes we began to wonder if this was going to be our cup of tea after all, or was it a series created for more conservative-leaning viewers who consider a city, country or world world totally run by corporations could be a good thing? After all, it seemed we were being led to see Kiera, avid supporter and defender of a corporate police state, as our heroine, with those painted as bad guys being the ones fighting an oppressive corporate oligarchy. Liber-8 might now have an opportunity to crush 2077's corporate governance in its infancy, if they can steer clear of Kiera.
Kiera manages to infiltrate a local police department to aid her search for the "terrorists", and her equally important aim of returning to 2077, her husband and family.

Simon Barry has said, in interview:

...."Our goal was to create a group of points of view. From our point of view Kiera is the lead because she is driving a lot of the storytelling perspective. That’s not to say Kiera is the emotional or political nexus of the show. Her journey is one of discovery; it is one of change. Therefore this grey area is not designed for Kiera but for the audience. Kiera has entered a world that we’re more familiar with than she is. That’s an advantage because now your main character is coming from a point of view that she’s open to new ideas, to a journey and exploration, and education. The audience is set in their ways in how they see the world that their living in at that moment. If the show can at all change the way people perceive things or force them to experience something through a different perspective then we’ve accomplished something small but important in terms of the themes of the show. We’ve always looked at those grey areas as being something that you define not that we define. We wanted to put everything out there in a way that felt more honest. There’s no all good and all evil. But there are always shades of grey and if you look around the world you’ll know that there is.”

It's this "grey area" that makes the series special, for those interested in politics and history. The corporate society of 2077 is controlled in every aspect of life and strictly policed. A liberated future, in 2035, of which we are given a glimpse later in the series, is a dark and dirty shamble of freedom with widespread horrendous abuse. Neither of those futures would be desirable.

 Rachel Nichols & Eric Knudsen (Kiera & Alec Sadler - the two key characters )

There's lots of other good stuff too, besides the political angle. My single criticsim of the series is that the fight scenes, roughly one per episode, are too long.

Rachel Nichols who plays Kiera said about her part in the series:

"Portraying someone who is unfamiliar with the present day requires playing a mental mind trick on oneself............ We try to find those little areas and nuances where her futureness can come out - whether she doesn’t know what the Bat signal means, , or she can’t drive a car, or she’s amazed by running water, or she has never seen a horse before. We find those moments and keep that thread going throughout the show.”

I don't want to give away more of the themes, twists and surprises, which do increase in complexity as the show develops. One mustn't become distracted from concentrating on the screen for even a few seconds. We have had to re-wind several times to make sure what was going on and why!

This must surely be one show that is far better watched several episodes at a sitting as we are doing. With a week's wait between episodes I'd have probably given up on it quite quickly. Simon Barry has mentioned, in that regard, that writers these days do have to bear in mind that they may be writing for two distinct audiences: those who watch episodes on TV weekly, as aired, and those who watch the series in larger chunks (binge-watching) via Netflix and similar outlets.

We're into season 3 now... and, so far, are feeling thoroughly confused! A layer of complexity is added to the already complex mix. Now, as well as a different timeline unfolding we have Freelancers, an ages old/ages new group or sect whose sole purpose is to act as guardians for the correct (as they see it) unfolding of time. They aim to prevent "glitches" and stop those whose purpose in time travel is likely to cause change and disruption.

In the episode we watched last night a company called Sonmanto was manufacturing, and selling chemical weapons...Sonmanto...re-arrange these letters to make a familiar word or name!

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff.

There's something that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick.
          ~ Steven Moffat (Quotes from Doctor Who)

NOTE: For anyone who'd like more detail on Continuum's themes, there's a good piece with lots of photos and spoilers HERE.
There's also a good review of the opening episode of Season 3 at The Disgruntled Individual blog HERE