Rachel Nichols as Kiera. The essence of toughness and vulnerability.
Word of the Nerd’s Sean Perreault may scoff at his homeland’s television productions, but Proffitt and I have been very impressed with Continuum, now three episodes into the first season on American’s SYFY channel. A touch of Terminator and a splash of Life on Mars, along with something all its own, Continuum is about a “protector” (future police of sorts) named Kiera who is accidentally sent back to our present day when trying to interrupt suspicious shenanigans from convicted terrorist group Liber8.
This early into the show, we’re not exactly sure if the convicts, in spite of their cutthroat means, have come to destroy or save our society. But we are definitely on the side of female lead Kiera. Kiera is played by Rachel Nichols (Scarlet from GI JOE -Rise of Cobra) with the perfect blend of strength and vulnerability. Kiera is pained by being separated from her son, but determined to find and take down Liber8. With appearances by X Files’ ”the Smoking Man” -William B. Davis (whose characters seem to go hand in hand with shady dealings), Victor Webster (Cupid from the final season of Charmed), and a host of other familiar faces, this show is pretty gripping. I’m betting on a larger post about this show as it goes on. And as far as the time travel conundrum headache- is Kiera’s time travel part of what happened to make the future the way it is or will her presence alter the future? I am just going to take it episode by episode; I’m even avoiding spoilers for this one. If you are in the US you can watch it Monday nights on SYFY, 8pm Eastern, right before the awesome 3rd season of Being Human. Or if you have no patience, the Continuum website has the first ten episodes online here.
SyFy Saturdays/Twitter. Oh how I’ve missed the Syfy movie premiers and the little party of snark that occurs simultaneously on Twitter. It’s like our own MST3K. Granted, the drawback is you do miss some plot points and can get a little lost because of the Twitter distraction, but really, with those movies it’s not that necessary to really focus, right? Sometimes the Syfy movies are just good fun and they will be referenced months after, like Snowmageddon (evil snow globe jokes are still made) and Jersey Shore Shark Attack. Other times, they are hugely awful and Tweeting about them is the only saving grace. If you find yourself with nothing to do on a Saturday night, turn on SyFy and log into Twitter and have at it by hashtagging the movie title. Here’s a link to last Saturday’s Abominable Snowman fun.
And since I threw in some music last time, I’ll throw in some this time around too. Charleston, South Carolina based Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent are a duo known as Shovels and Rope. They will be on Letterman this Wednesday and are part of the 2013 Coachella lineup. There’s some nerd cred in there – Cary Ann had her song Hells Bells featured during the closing credits of the third season’s “I Got a Right to Sing the Blues” episode of True Blood and she has been a guest on the Unchained tour. If you like bluesy, folksy fun, you will dig Shovels and Rope. Hearst and Trent also have fabulous solo records out there. Here they are playing a song from Trent’s solo CD The Winner (which hasn’t come out of constant rotation since Christmas).
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I like Continuum so far.. thanks for the “Cupid” reference. I knew that detective looked familiar, but couldn’t place him.. I did watch Charmed, so that is why I recognized him.
Unrelated, but I also finally started watching Lost Girl. I have been DVRing since they started airing on SyFy last year, but just now got around to watching them. I’m finding it to be pretty enjoyable though I am way behind as the third season just started and I’m only a half-dozen into the first season.
IF you have watched Lost Girl… I know you and Proffitt are Doctor Who fans… I was struck this weekend while watching the William Hartnell retrospective how much the actress who plays Kenzie on Lost Girl reminds me of the actress who played Susan on Doctor Who. It was a little eerie actually.
I watched the first 2 episodes of Lost Girl. I enjoyed it but wasn’t enthralled. I’ve put it into the “I’ll catch up with it later” category.
Charmed was a guilty pleasure I checked in on time and again and part of the reason I just can’t watch Big Bang Theory is that Kaley Cuoco (or however you spell her name) ruined Charmed. Her storyline, character and her acting (not that the other acting was great, mind you) just sunk the show for me.
The last season of Charmed was a little odd.. final season focus suddenly shifts to two sisters unrelated to the “power of three” gang?
My problem with Big Bang isn’t the cast, but the notion that geniuses are idiots. Naive, sheltered, wacky, maybe… but I call it the “Data syndrome”.. On Star Trek when someone said something using slang or idioms, Data would predictably say “What is yyy?” and then 5 seconds later go through his internal database of synonyms.
Big Bang does this routinely, particularly with Sheldon… one moment he is a genius, the next moment he doesn’t know the meaning of a basic word he surely has heard before since he does interact with the real world.
I actually lived with 2 guys getting their phds in physics, and hung out with them and their physicists friends- NONE of them acted like that. That’s the other reason I won’t watch Big Bang. I gotta find out now if they like the show.
Precisely on the nose about Kiera written to be the sympathetic character. I love the little twist that the character you really like might not be the one you are rooting for to win the end game (but I certainly want her to go back to her son). I am anxiously awaiting the rest of season 1.
I try to over analyze the time travel stuff in anything unless it is ridiculous. I just go with it.
Thanks for the comment!