Continuum “Fast Times” Review!

The second episode of Showcase’s new sci-fi show Continuum is entitled “Fast Times”, it seems that from the shows wiki-page that all episodes of the first season will be plays on the word time. Though there appears to be little connection with the title and the context of the episodes. The same goes for “Fast Times”. This episode continues where the pilot left off but it also makes some slight changes to the format, this isn’t unusual as a pilot must really shine but the changes both fix problems from the pilot and creates new ones.

As for the plot…

The episode at first briefly jumps to the future and shows Kiera obtaining her police badge and weapon, it shows her eager to get on with catching bad guys but she gets a warning from her boss, ‘instinct make for a good cop but its only the tech that makes them a great one’. Next the story jumps to 2012, Kiera watches herself in a glass reflection and hopes she makes a good impression on Carlos and his boss as she hopes to continue their working relation in order to catch Liber8. Carlos Fonnegra plays his part as a police detective but it does seem a little bit too wooden. Carlos is asked to step into his boss’s office, the viewer gets the impression that Kiera’s cover has been blown and this is confirmed when she is detained for questioning. In keeping with the series’ attempt at humor Kiera must answer Carlos questions while simultaneously talking to Alec Sadler in trying to find a way out of her predicament. Alec suggest that faking a deep cover ID and Kiera agrees.

Meanwhile we see Liber8’s members discussing a plan to get back to 2077, this suggests that their time traveling was just a way to escape from the death penalty and not an attempt at altering the timeline. Kellogg, a member of Liber8 suggest they should stay and do just that but the others decide they still want to go back. To do that they need to use a power source to create the time travel effect. They gain access to a power station by killing the guards. After which they try out the device, it fails however as it needs even more power. Kiera becomes aware of Liber8’s attempts through Alec who has monitored everything. During a blackout caused by Liber8 Kiera manages to escape from Carlos, a hilarious scene ensues when she tries to gain access to a Toyota Prius and drive it away. Eventually she manages to reach the power station but has to flee as the police are already looking for her there. Later on while Alec and Kiera are speculating through her implant on what Liber8 is trying to accomplish they deduce that the terrorists might lookup Professor Frazer, an expert on fusion energy, to get the time travel device working. When Kiera reaches the professor’s home she finds she is already too late as his wife confirms he has been kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Carlos is being grilled by his boss for allowing Kiera to infiltrate the police and then escape, his boss thinks he has made a fool of himself but Carlos states that he feels that his instincts were correct. Carlos gets help from a female colleague who seems interested in Carlos in a romantic way, detective Robertson says she will aid him in finding Kiera but that at first she must find a hacker who has infiltrated the police systems database. The story doesn’t mention this explicitly but it seems she means Alec Sadler, she also mentions that the hacker is using the TOR network to mask his signals, a technical detail which I think adds to this series background information. Carlos gives her his support. Kiera has meanwhile tracked down Liber8 to the professors laboratory where he is running an experiment with a particle accelerator, she informs Detective Carlos of her whereabout to get backup. The story also from time to time jumps to the character of Kellog as we see him open a bank account with the stolen money from the pilot and visit his parents’ home before they were even born, I think his character has potential to give this show more depth.

Kiera has also decided to allow Liber8 to travel back in time to reduce damage to the present, while holding a gun to a terrorist she convinces them to allow her to come back with them as well. The experiment fails however and the Liber8 terrorist quickly turn the their guns on the police as they arrive at the scene. Kiera is taken into custody and we see flashbacks of her and her family in 2077, the fact slowly sinks into Kiera that she won’t seeing them again anytime soon. Professor Frazer seems adamant that Kiera is good a person for saving him, this along with Alec’s completed forged history of Kiera a deep-cover agent of the federal police allows her to regain her freedom. Carlos’s boss insists she joins a task force set up by him to track down Liber8, she reluctantly agrees. Later on Kiera discovers that the police obtained a fragment of the time travel device, she knows Liber8 will come back to get it.

Review…

As I said before this second episode changes a few things of the pilot. The story is little bit slower and more drama is introduced but the characters are also less wooden than in the pilot. I think this show has great potential and the second episode seems to confirm this. The show is a little deficient in a few ways however. One is the over the top craziness of the Liber8 terrorist, their casual violence seems to contradict other parts of the series. Strangely enough there also seems a lack of sexual tension, it was quite deliberate I think that female lead was partnered with a male cop who has female coworker who digs him. Frankly so far it hasn’t worked, this show can’t seem to make it mind up if it will go for a pg-12 or pg-16 rating while I think it should go for an R rating as anything less usually means ‘dumbed down’. The character of Kellog (played by Stephen Lobo) is certainly a mysterious one that seems hellbent on giving the bad guys more depth.

Score; 8 / 10.