ContinuumS01E06E10Showcase (Canada), 8 July—5 August 2012

Trapped in 2012, future cop Kiera Cameron battles the forces of Liber8 to control the way history might unfold…

The confused politics of Continuum run through the series right to the end. Apparently series creator and lead writer Simon Barry is attempting to appeal to all political constituencies, but the result is an occasionally confusing mess.

Is central figure Kiera Cameron (the always watchable Rachel Nichols) fighting terrorists or freedom fighters? Is future domination by ‘the corporations’ to be welcomed or fought? Various episodes make the case either way, but the result is that sometimes the gang of rebels from the future are bad guys or goods guys, depending on your point of view. It is not a gambit that really comes off: the show has to pick a side and stick to it…

Another problem is the woeful under-development of some of the main characters, especially those who make up  Liber8. Roger Cross is little more than an angry shouty bloke, before being bumped off in the finale, while Lexa Doig provides great eye-candy but is simply set-dressing until the last episode gives her something meaningful to do.

Although playing with some stand alone episodes in the middle of the run—including crimes based around science and local politics—the show always came back to the clandestine activities of Liber8 in the end. The final three episodes run together as a season finale, with Liber8 controlling Keira in an attempt to discredit her, a farmhouse siege featuring younger ‘freedom fighters’ (a very dull episode), and a decent enough climax that wraps up much of the season, and lays out some interesting new threads to be picked up in the 13-episode second season due next year.

What’s Kellog’s role to be (Stephen Lobo’s sympathetic foil from the future for Keira), who called pretending to be from ‘Section 6’ and backing up Keira’s claims, and will Nicholas Lea become a recurring antagonist in season two (as he should!)? The biggest remaining question of all, of course, is just what was Alec Sadler’s message to himself from the future (and did the writers have something in mind, or are they desperately trying to come up with an answer)?

Time travel is a difficult concept to deal with on screen, but Continuum has made a reasonable stab at it on what was obviously a tight budget. There’s some solid groundwork here for a second season to improve upon…

Verdict: Not altogether successful, Continuum nonetheless deserves a second shot at sorting out some of the kinks…

Episode 6 ‘Time’s Up’: 6/10

Episode 7 ‘The Politics of Time’: 5/10

Episode 8 ‘Playtime’: 6/10

Episode 9 ‘Family Time’: 5/10

Episode 10 ‘Endtime’: 7/10

Brian J. Robb

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