Review - Virtuality Pilot

I'll call it a pilot and not a movie, because simply put, it is not a movie. It is a 2-hour first episode that leads the show into a certain direction, so for Fox to call this a "movie" is shameful.

TBH I was quite surprised by how good the show was. My expectations weren't very high having read the premise and thinking that it was pretty ridiculous, which it still it (I'll go into that later). I, like many others watched because Ronald D. Moore, the man behind Battlestar Galactica reimagined, wrote part of it.

Before any positive comments, I really have to get something off my chest: the premise. Basically a ship with 13 people are traveling into deep space to find life. Apparently the journey is a $200 billion project funded by a corporation (or conglomeration) called the Consortium (I'm sure they are all upstanding citizens). So these geniuses with the money decide, "Hey, let's make a reality show out of this," and a la Real World/Surreal Life, we have a reality show in space. But wait, these aren't your normal sex-crazed coeds, these are your average are sex-crazed scientists.

Apparently there is something called the go/ no go point (it sounds so lame is squirmed every time it was mentioned) at Neptune where they will either slingshot around Neptune or continue going.No this isn't even the most ridiculous part yet. Their propulsion system past Neptune is...nuclear warheads!!!! They actually have 182 on board and detonate them behind them to move forward. Yes, so silly and unrealistic. Wait a second...there's more? In fact, a few months into their journey, scientists on Earth discover that within 50 years, the world will be uninhabitable (convenient), so the fate of humanity rests in their hands and the ability to find a suitable planet. Since this is the case, the reality show must go on, and 5 billion people keep watching. Take that American Idol!

Now that that's out of the way, the show has a nice tone to it when it isn't delving into the ludicrous reality show interviews that have become all too famous. Each member has a virtual reality module that allows them to enter anything at will. From the beginning, we know there is a serious glitch where this one creepy virtual guy does crazy stuff. Later on, he even rapes one the members (slightly shocking), and the question is brought up whether the rape was real or not, etc...

The characters and their relationships are really weird, but diverse. There's a happily married couple, an unhappily married couple, a gay couple, and an affair. Good luck sifting though all that. Oh yeah, there's also a guy in a wheelchair, and a guy with Parkinson's. Sure seems like a great 13 people to put together in a ship.

I will now discuss the twist in the end, so if you haven't watched the pilot yet, please don't read any further. The captain of the ship dies when he gets trapped in the airlock and freezes (I always though the person boiled due to pressure vs volume). Anyways, he's dead right? We see him in the virtual world (a Civil War battle) and he talks to the person wearing the module like he knows her. So he's dead in real-life, but alive in the virtual world. WTF? Well the show ends like that and we will probably never know.

Score: 8.5/10

The ratings are in, an Virtuality tanked. I'm 99% sure we won't see this in the fall or at midseason. I'm disappointed, but not as much as the Firefly cancellation. Props to Ron Moore for another good job.