Parallels

I saw this on Netflix. Marked as a movie. We watched this with enthusiasm. We really enjoy seeing alternate realities and how people overcome their obstetrical. But this "episode" left the viewers wanting. The end is a total cliff hanger. WITH NO QUESTIONS ANSWERED. The ending even posed more questions than not.

For a show/movie with no adverts claiming future productions, this movie left me almost feeling angry that there was no conclusion. I had to watch something else after just to get over my frustration. Some shows pull off cliff hangers perfectly, this show failed.

If they find funding and fans enough to continue, we'd love to watch it. But, without awful cliffhangers. Great plot and acting otherwise.

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.

It's pretty much Sliders. Timed jumps to other worlds, no (known) way home.

Only it's been TheCW-ed up. In Sliders you had a goofy looking gangly giant, Gimli (middle-later aged bearded professor), a middle-later aged black dude and a petite woman (some replaced later). In Parallels you have four attractive twenty-somethings. In Sliders there's techno-babble and problem solving. In Parallels you just run from stuff and have dramatic moments, usually involving your family. Sliders uses a fixed camera and dolly and whatnot. Parallels uses good ole Shaky- Cam where the camera operator has to deliberately do a bad job, even on tight shots during an exposition scene because that's just the style now.

That said, it's fine. The CW model is simple and it works well enough. And I'm a sucker for a sci-fi premise. The dialogue and situations are cheesy but not cringe inducingly so. Ronan's triangle wasn't good enough to actually put someone to sleep but hey, you could tell what they were going for. It's fine. It's totally fine.

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 just finished this on Netflix and I must say it was very entertaining and creative. Obviously the ending is a massive cliffhanger and after reading other reviews and googling it's clear this was meant to be a series.

Well it would be great if this were picked up as an ongoing series but there is another way to complete this if that isn't an option for the creators. It's simple. Two more feature length films that complete the story arc this began.

That gives them room to flesh out the concept, story, characters, and give us some more sweet universe hopping. I specifically want to know what the triplets are all about.

I'd recommend this, buy, and stream the next films/season. I assume many others will as well.

Whoever may read this that has the ability to get the ball rolling I encourage you to do so.