So, after missing it on Friday, Virtuality showed up on Hulu this weekend and I decided to watch it. The show certainly wasn't promoted very well, but it was pretty heavily hyped on some of the web sites that I frequent. So I decided to watch it and see what I thought.
Well, now that I've seen it, I can say that it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't all that good either. And it started off damned slow. And while the movie continued to get better as I watched it, the show itself has literally no resolution at all. It makes no attempt to be anything more than the pitch for a new series, and because of that I'd have to label it as nothing more than a watchable failure.
Spoilers below...
The show is really a mishmash of different concepts crammed together into one show. It's part 2001, part Big Brother, and part Matrix. The show is based on the premise that a ship is launched from Earth (sometime in the future) to Epsilon Eredani on a 10 year mission to find intelligent life. The ship was funded by a mysterious corporation which spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the project...in order to make a reality TV show out it.
The ship has a crew of 12, each chosen not because of their particular skills, but to make 'interesting' TV by ensuring there will be lots of conflict. There is the Gay Couple, The Bi-Racial Couple, the Wacky Captain, the grumpy disabled engineer, the hot doctor (who is married to the TV Show producer...and is banging to Wacky Captain), and the media girl. There are a few other characters, Starbu--er, the ship's pilot, and a few others that really don't have anything to do in the pilot.
Let's get one thing straight right from the beginning. Most of these characters a fucktards...the exact sorts of characters you'd find on Big Brother or Survivor. They bitch and whine about petty things, have little respect for authority, and generally spend much of their time bitching about each other. They live their lives being filmed 24/7, they have to spend time in the Confessional to talk about their feeling to the camera. The producers encourage them to spice things up by fighting more. Even the ship itself is purposefully designed to be less comfortable in order to encourage conflict.
Because, on a 10 year voyage to another star system with no one in a position to rescue you, the first thing you want to do is make sure the ship is uncomfortable; and the crew unstable.
To make matters worse, mysteriously after their departure, they begin receiving word from earth that some massive ecological disaster is taking place and that Earth itself will be uninhabitable in less than 100 years. And this means that this crew is now the sole hope for humanity...though why their trip to Epsilon Eredani and back is going to save them is never explained. And even the Captain is suspicious of this.
To round out the show, the characters have each been giving VR systems that are designed to allow them to escape into their own private virtual reality for a time as a form of stress relief. The VR realities they create for themselves vary quite a bit, and are generally reflective of the characters. Though I have to admit the one chick's reality where she's a Rock Superstar / Super Spy who performs concerts singing a punk-rock version of the Munster's theme song...in Japanese...while tracking international criminals...is pretty out there.
Even early on, there are a few signs that not everything is as it seems. The VR system seems to be glitching...but intelligently so. And as I already said, the Captain doesn't really believe everything they are getting from Earth is real. Much of the show deals with the Go/No Go decision at Neptune at whether to go ahead with the trip to Epsilon Eredani or turn back for Earth...a decision made more complicated by the fact that the ship's doctor diagnoses himself with Parkinson's Disease the day before the final point where they can abort the mission. Everyone want's a vote, of course, but the Captain has final say...though not everyone aboard agrees with this.
At this point, the Captain seems to be convinced that they must turn back. However, while investigating his own personal VR glitch (via the mysterious VR persona which seems self aware and keeps taking control of his VR and shooting him dead)...the Captain has some form of off-screen epiphany and begins to start acting very strangely. He's no longer cautious. He starts talking about a transcendant experience and the next step of evolution; and he no longer seems to care about anything. He's now fully wanting to continue to journey, no matter what, and he seems barely in control...which does nothing for the stability of the rest of the crew, who seems to be getting more and more paranoid as others experience their own personal VR glitches.
The VR glitches continue to being an escalating problem; with the VR cyberstalker attacking the crew inside their VR systems, usually resulting in their virtual death, and cumulating in the virtual rape of one of crew in a rather disturbing scene. Some of the crew favors turning the VR systems off; others find the prospect unthinkable...and the Captain himself, acting just as wacky, seems convinced that the VRs are absolutely necessary for them for them to experience transcendance, which will either save or doom them.
And right after that, the Captain gets sucked out an airlock, killed apparently due to a computer malfunction that could not have been anything but deliberate sabotage. The show ends with his lover entering his VR simulation, only to see a VR version of the Captain, fully self-aware; warning her that nothing is real; and asking her to follow him through the mirror and down the rabbit hole, because that is the only way any of them are going to survive.
And that's it. There is no real resolution. Though you do find out a few other intriguing bits. One of the character's speculates about the captain's death...obviously a murder and someone on the ship has to be responsible. There are even some obvious motivations for character's wanting the character dead (for example, the captain was having a 'virtual' affair with the wife of the show producer). And another of the characters seems to be having some form of dialog with the VR glitch persona hidden within the VR system.
But, Virtuality is all setup and no payoff. There is not even the attempt at an explanation here. And much of the important setup happens in the last 30 minutes; giving the show a rather slow beginning, a weak character-building middle, and a strong finish w/o any resolution. As a pilot for a TV show this would be fine, but since that isn't going to be happening, the show is a bit of a failure. Not an unwatchable one, but a failure nonetheless. Not to mention the fact that I don't really see Virtuality being able to sustain a long-running TV series in the first place. Virtuality would be better served as a miniseries IMO, but that isn't going to happen either.
One thing that worries me...a LOT of people have said that this show is better than the Caprica DVD movie that came out a few months ago now (and I still haven't seen)...that statement really worries me about what to expect from Caprica when I eventually decide to go ahead and buy it.
