Century City

Totally underrated - A great thinking persons sci-fi classic that should still be revived by an online streaming service such as Netflix.

Imagine combining the best in law type dramas with very relevant science fiction

• science fiction that might have been speculative in 2004 when show was first produced - But is now almost real and happening.

Don't miss it - As of today the whole series is available free on YouTube

• I binged watched the whole nine episodes in one day.

Throw in great acting, directing, and production values and you have a series that should have been good for at least four seasons.

Give us more!

It is almost pointless to post about Century City now that its cancelled but what the hey. Set 26 years from now in a Los Angeles that has been through a 7.1 quake, and rebuilt itself into a slick, gleaming megacity (still hazed with smog) fraught with all kinds of futuristic legal problems we arrive. Taking a tack from the Minority Report school of design the set pieces look like they came directly from the warehouses of Bang Olafsen, Ikea, and Sony with the typical "computer displays etched onto glass windows and desk display panels made of plexi" type of style. Derivative of Earth tech of the near future in scifi. Great... Anywho this Law Office presented here gets some really cool and creepy cases to litigate, and for the most part they always win.

The pilot episode concerned a man attempting to save his son with the aid of an embryonic clone of said child. The only problem is cloning is illegal in the U.S. and having had the clone manufactured overseas (Crafty Singaporeans), and transported to the states he has committed not just an extrordinary crime but created a ethical situation which will not only hold the life of his son in the balance, but show the darker side of cloning....harvesting of its organs to support its gene donor. Sadly the drama presented was rather complex and emotionally unstable due to the writing and pairing with a second story involving an aging Boy Band that wanted one of its memebers to use a dangerous anagathic (age defying) drug as part of his wellness regimen. What was supposed to be serious came off as silly and contrived and really stole the drama away from the Cloning portion of the story. So basically the first episode was a bit of a dog and unfortunately that taint would come back and haunt the series for a few more episodes.

While it was not a "hyped" scifi show, filled with otherworldly effects and intergalactic intrigue, it did have its moments. One story concerning a virtual rape with nanomachines showed chilly social implications of technology and the future of stalking and psychopathic crimes while another episode dedicated itself to the plight of a man who with the aid of a neural implant that was designed to raise his IQ was facing possible death if he didn't have it removed, and the contentious issue being was he mentally capable of making the decision to change himself back or fight to stay as he was. There was indeed the kernal of great drama and speculative vision housed in the shows writers.

Whatever the future holds for scifi, televsion, and law remains to be seen in another time another place. Century City our best hope for glimpsing a possible "legal" future has met the falling of the gavel and its court is dismissed. Sad? Potentially, as "thinking persons'" televsion is few and far between and this could have been contender.

This series is very thought-provoking. It may not be rigorous legal drama, but it makes you think about difficult issues. As far as science fiction goes, not all sci fi must be space-based shootemups. It is more a speculative investigation, exploring difficult moral and social issues. The science fiction element is the extrapolation of current trends or ideas, admittedly sometimes into the technically impossible, but provides the basis to wrestle with complex, controversial concepts. The characters are complex and well-portrayed by the actors. The issues are never clear cut, black-and-white, and the characters struggle with them.

It's being shown in Universal HD, if you have high-def satellite service. I thought it was a brand new program! I guess I blinked and missed it the first time around in 2004...very interesting show. I like the clever use of "future" technology, like the "Mate Finder" device that some people walk around with, like a miniature dating service in a Blackberry. It tweedles when someone who fits your criteria passes you on the street or something. The show I'm watching today also features a child finder device that lets a parent patch into any camera in the city to see what their child is up to. That's the upgraded version. The girl in question staged a kidnapping so she could have a finder chip removed. She is railing against the lack of privacy that her parents concern takes away from her. Some ethical things to think about. Anyway, it's an interesting show...wonder why Sci-Fi didn't pick it up...

I will admit here and now that I found this show on line and the reason I was watching was because of Ioan Gruffudd, that said however I really, really love the concept of this show. The "what if" questions it threw out our scientific advancement is something that needs to be debated as to how it will one day effect society.

However I will admit that this series didn't get off to the best of starts. The Pilot episode was not fantastically well written and the cloning plot line became to complicated. But I think this show, if it had been given time could have worked out a few of its teething problems and really established itself. Perhaps not as the best show on television ever, but I something with an interesting twist, with stories that made you think.

But as many have said, I think a small number of people can accept a futuristic show like this. Some will say that it's not sci-fi because it doesn't have big space ships, or lazer guns and there are no aliens. Me however, well I love this kind of stuff, don't get me wrong I like sci-fi with spaceships and aliens to, but this was taking a look at scientific advancement, that at this time is in it's infancy, and asking where it might be heading.

The characters as well were are really likable and your sort of general assemble of characters. One thing I really liked was the the two women in the show, where strong without being cold hearted or bitchy, they were not ashamed to have emotions. The cast itself as the show went on seemed to be bonding as characters also, and if the show had continued there would most likely have been very enjoyable chemistry between all of them.

I know this show may just seem like another lawyer show, but to be honest I'd rather have a "what if" futuristic lawyer show like this, then just another lawyer show.