VR.5

This show had the dark side and very cool visual possibilities wide open to it and made a great start at exploring both in its one and only season. I was very curious to see if it, unlike Alias and the X-Files (both of which I like nevertheless), could credibly sustain the intrigue surrounding the conspiracy-like back-plot of her father, the "organization" and just who she was working for, but then, of course, it got cancelled. In many ways this show staked out territory that Buffy was eventually able to mine more deeply (three cheers for Anthony Stewart Head, another link between the two shows) and, handled right and backed hard by a caring network, it could have developed into something like.

When I first saw this show I was in sixth grade, and it scared me more than anything else I had ever scene. It was the pilot episode and the main character, Sydney, had just taken her mother into her dream world, where the mother freaked out. I had nothing better to do on a friday night, but I avoided the show until one night I had a sleep over and my two friends were channel surfing and they found the show, and we all loved the episode (Escape) soooo much we had sleep overs every friday until it was canceled just to see more.

The idea of a dream world, and how everything you ever read/imagined/saw all of your subconscious could become true was to me "the coolest thing ever". When I finally got to see the whole series I began to wonder why it was pulled off the air, yes sometimes the plot was not the greatest, the episodes were sometimes VERY strange, but there was this amazing quality about it, it was original, it was real (character wise), and it explored something we all wonder about, our dreams.

As time goes by I go back and watch the episodes over and over and they have become better. I now know and understand more of the references, ideas, relationships, it has a deepness A sixth grader could never fully understand no matter how much they loved the show. If you get a chance I believe you should give the show a try.

There comes a time when every video collector has to go back through their archives, sometimes taped on the fly and never properly watched, and give them another look. And so it was that, after five years, I checked out VR.5. I freely admit that most of my reasons had to do with Anthony Head, but it would be simplistic to say that I haven't found other reasons to mourn its loss. The plotline is labyrinthine, the loyalties are tenuous and constantly changing, yet at the heart of it is a group of characters who learn to love, respect, and trust each other in spite of repeated and persistent efforts from without and within to fragment them. Sydney goes from a withdrawn, antisocial voyeur with a half-suppressed past to a caring, sympathetic crusader; Duncan evolves from her stereotypical eccentric platonic buddy to a strong, creative, supportive hero; and then there's Oliver, who manages to grow from an infuriatingly enigmatic button-pushing Committee Man(literally as well as figuratively) to a rebellious individual whose tragic past has shaped him into someone both caring and terrified of getting involved. Even the amorphous organization known as the Committee progresses, from a standard top-secret non-government agency, dedicated to amorphous and impossible standards, to a global conspiracy frought with schisms and internicine rivalries. Not a bad progression for thirteen measly episodes, three of which didn't even make the series' first run. It would have been nice to at least see what happened next, as the final episode was both a downer and a cliffhanger.

The show was JUST getting started, and I was hooked. The next thing I knew, it was OFF THE AIR!!! I liked it so much I found the soundtrack to the series. I found the concept to be fascinating and absolutely plausible. SHAME on the networks that kill so many great shows before their time. The heroine was just about to find the answers to many of her questions when it was taken off the air. I would love to find out what happened and will do so if I can locate the DVD of the show. Hopefully, it will have additional episodes that will even out what I have already seen. This has happened to Buffy, Angel, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Witchblade, just to mention a few!

VR.5 is an excellent show which went unnoticed by general public and network executives who feel that the show was too 'unconventional' for their taste. The show stars Lori Singer ("Short Cuts"), Michael Easton, Will Patton ("Armageddon", "Entrapment"), Anthony Head ("Buffy The Vampire Slayer"), Tracey Needham ("JAG"), and occasional guest appearances by Louise Fletcher ("Deep Space Nine"), and David McCallum ("The Man from UNCLE").

The show is actually more about exploration of subconscious mind and human's brain and DNA rather than the virtual reality technology which becomes the title of the show. However, virtual reality is the tool that the main character uses to explore the different subconscious mind of other people. It also cleverly mixed in the conspiracy angle of an unknown organisation who wishes to utilise the newfound technology for their own purposes. Unfortunately, after its first season, the show was canceled (even though it is now repeated on the Science-Fiction Channel) and the actors have moved into other projects, most notably Anthony Head in Buffy Tv Series and Will Patton in Armageddon and the soon to be released, Entrapment.

Rep Detec