Next

I find most new series are a waste of time. The last new series I followed was Longmire. I was intrigued by the premise of the show. I like the quirky,paranoid LeBlanc. The rest of the cast seems to work well, with one glaring issue, maybe my opinion might change over time. The actress playing Agent Salisar isn't convincing and is very wooden with her delivery. It may have been better casting a mature woman late 40's early 50's, inspire confidence in leading a team and could match Leblanc's intelligence.

I really liked this and looked forward to watching it every week.

It's very disappointing that there is only one series though.

This series is listed under the science fiction genre, but most of the technology depicted in the show is not very futuristic. That makes it a cautionary tale worth thinking about.

The story is about a manhunt, but the object of the hunt is not a man; it's a rogue A.I. The hunt is led, unofficially, by Paul LeBlanc (John Slattery), former owner of Zava, the company that wrote the code for the A.I., called neXt. LeBlanc sees neXt as an existential threat to mankind. As LeBlanc, with the aid of a few FBI agents, tries to outsmart neXt---which has the ability to expand and teach itself---it is like watching a chess match. And we know how grandmasters have fared against chess-playing A.I.

The action is tight and suspenseful. The viewer is caught up in every action and reaction, knowing that lives are at stake at every turn. LeBlanc is something of a misanthrope, not known for civility or respect for social conventions. So he struggles when he must reach out for assistance. His relationship with FBI Special Agent Shea Salazar (Fernanda Andrade) starts off rough, but she learns, through necessity, to tolerate him. It doesn't help LeBlanc's credibility that he suffers from a rare malady, giving him hallucinations and impaired memory.

Salazar is on the Cybercrime Task Force. She struggles daily with the demands of her career and her home life. She is a very likable character, so we care when, in the midst of an emergency, she learns that her son is being bullied at school.

There are attempts to give neXt an audio-visual representation at times, making it more concrete as a threat, like HAL in "2001", but sometimes we fear even more the unseen monster (as was the case in most of "Jaws" or "Alien"). The story is a variation on "Frankenstein", but this monster is self-generating by design, and it approaches omniscience and omnipotence like a ceaseless mathematical function that approaches godhead. This is the genesis of Skynet.

After three episodes, I am optimistic that the writing will not flag and will remain creative and engaging.

It's too bad but not surprising. Fox has always canceled good shows. Look at their track record Dark Angel, Terminator The Sarah Conner Chronicles Family Guy (yes they brought it back but they were still stupid enough to cancel it) Firefly, Dollhouse, Lucifer (than Satan himself for Netflix righting that Wrong) Gifted & Brooklyn Nine Nine. I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that I felt were canceled to soon. Fox never knows what to do with shows that...well if I'm honest any show. The people they pick to run the network are great at green lighting shows that don't fit the status quo of primetime but they never have the know how to promote it or the courage to wait and for those shows to click with fans & critics. They also foolishly play fast and loose with time slots and preempt their new shows for sports with such regularity that it's no wonder when a shows 3 episode's ratings dropped from episode 1 & 2 when the episode if you're lucky aired at midnight and you're DVR caught it but more than likely it didn't air and go figure people didn't watch the 3rd episode when episode 2 aired 6 weeks earlier. Out of sight out of mind. Or in Next's case episode 3 didn't even air on the network but on Hulu. Yet they wonder why viewership isn't what they want. Now has Fox been run by well anyone with a brain they would've aired the episodes during the time when everyone was stuck at home struggling to find something of quality to watch but then that would involve Fox actually having someone who actually knew anything about well anything.

Tech entrepreneur Paul LeBlanc (John Slattery) warns the world of the dangers from a future rogue computer AI. It is already here. FBI Special Agent Shea Salazar leads the cybercrime unit. She visits her hospitalized friend Richard Weiss who found a hidden computer code. Apparently, someone or something is attacking him with tech. He had left her a tape addressed to LeBlanc with a somewhat paranoid warning. Paul had been kicked out of his own company after shelving his AI program which his brother Ted as the new CEO has reactivated.

This show got the quick axe after two episodes. It probably deserves better but it never gained a good audience. It does have Slattery leading a good cast in a fun thriller. It runs into the foreseeable problem of an omnipotent enemy opposed by a ragtag team. It's an uneven fight unless the AI is brought down a few notches or some contrivances be introduced. This does both with varying degrees of success. My initial thought is that the show should explain why the AI doesn't simply multiple. It's an easy solution. The AI doesn't want competition and therefore it doesn't want other AIs. My other thought is that the ragtag group needs better camouflage. They should be found much more easily by all the security cameras. Either give them some fictional tech or have the AI hack the camera system later in the show. There needs to be a clearer progression of the AI's abilities. The show gets a rushed conclusion. The characters do a bit too much handwringing about their tactics especially in the last few episodes. There is one character who is forced to do unlikely tasks for the sake of drama. All in all, it's a good network TV thriller although some smarter writing would help.