Parallels

I was hoping this would become a series because there is so many possibilities.. infinite in fact, when you go with a storyline of parallel worlds.

The acting was very good. the characters were very likable and cmon you get to see constance wu from "fresh off the boat" with no accent whatsoever. :)

Ill be brief as I don't want to spoil anything but its well worth a watch.. and FOX .. please shop this to the syfy channel or something. though we may be waiting a bit now while fresh off the boat has its run...

I liked the general premise of this pilot/movie very much. That said the characters' construction was incredibly bad, most of them seemed mentally challenged. If this has aspirations as a TV series (and it has the needed basal stuff) nowadays demanding audiences want more realistic characters, they have to find writers able to deliver closer to life personas. The "we have to find mommy" is far fetched giving the reality the characters are set into and also seems directed to children, but that is barely the tip of the iceberg of the many small but hurting failures it has that could've been credible for a show in the '70, nowadays IMHO is unbearably naïve.

If you have managed to find your way to this review then you already know that this film is not really a film, it is more of a indie production tied to Netflix, intended for a series, possibly orphaned, maybe not, no one knows as this review is penned.

It is hard to review "orphaned" pilots which dead-end. That is a given.

That said, I liked it.

I liked it because it belongs to what I consider the "dirty" sci-fi genre, that is, sci fi produced on such a barebones budget that all the money goes into the human elements while the sets (even in the Earth that never experienced the nuke!) look like they need Molly Maid.

In "dirty" sci fi, the actors are unknowns (which by no means suggests that they are bad) and the FX are minimal, and every now and then you get a scene where you swear that someone ad-libbed a line and they left it in anyway because that was cheaper than re-shooting.

Again, I liked it. It is a refreshing change from the "perfection" you tend to see these days in mainstream TV sci-fi, especially the stuff from Canada, where (they say) getting the lighting wrong when setting a scene is a hanging crime.

In many ways it reminds me of the British series Utopia (not the US knockoff) where interesting characters and good performances drove the show.

Watching, I made a mental note to myself that, if I ever end up in a hub to parallel universes, I would welcome a cute Asian chick popping out of a closet, with a lot of 'tude, and who generally acts like she read the script to the end and already knows how things are supposed to turn out.

Just sayin.

I really liked this concept, and the cast is solid. I think the writing is a bit forced from time to time, but that's to be expected with the material, cast, etc...overall, I enjoyed the show.

I do believe, however, that this script was clearly written to be episodic. This 'movie' feels more like an extended pilot. Obviously this entire concept is open-ended to be episodic. It's set up perfectly for it. I was very let down to find it wasn't a pilot--I actually thought I was watching a pilot all the way up until my Google searching after the 'show.' Sad. I hope they continue this idea...if they don't I think the movie should have been written differently.

I think if done correctly this could continue to be a fun show with endless possibilities...or it could be totally ruined by bad writing. I hope they pick this up and run with it, and keep it somewhat hard sci-fi.

I will fail this film for on reason only: it was conceived as a TV show pilot and it failed, so they released it as a movie. That means ending with a huge cliffhanger and explaining nothing.

Not everything else was cool, either. There were some clear TV like story fixes and the classic "I am here, I have all answers, but I am going to go because I have important stuff to do" trope, as well as some poor scripting.

However, the rest was OK. Acting was reasonable, direction and special effects, too. The scripting left a little to be desired, but not much.

Bottom line: a clear rip-off of Sliders. At the end of the film you are left with the same premise: "you can't ever go home, but you can always try". The characters, though, are some kids with no training or experience (except punching people for one of them). If this would have been taken on as a series, I would have watched it, but then again, I watch all kind of crap.