Continuum: Review: Season 2 Ep 1

Showcase (Canada), 21 April 2013

When the mayor is murdered, Keira has to discover if Liber8 are behind the attack…

The first series of Continuum was a confusing beast, but that might have been down to the showrunners figuring out exactly what their show was about. Despite muddled politics and the odd episode of padding, there was enough intrigue in the series to hook a willing audience. This first episode of the second series is an effective kick-off for the new run, and clears up some of the confusion from the first batch.

The episode starts off with heroine Kiera Cameron (the effective and fetching Rachel Nichols; shame she spent the entire episode wrapped up in a hideous mac) operating as some kind of vigilante superhero, using her future high-tech bodysuit to her advantage. She’s compared to Batman by her ex-police partner Carlos (the wooden Victor Webster, who has not improved since Mutant X), and the show has fixed one of last season’s mistakes by having Cameron now operate outside, but allied with, the police. Her sidekick, techno genius Alec, has also been moved out of his barn and into some kind of student flat set-up, a much better environment for his character.

The other mistake apparently fixed in this episode is to make it clear that whatever side people are on, they’re all fighting to avert the future dominated by corporations. Last season seemed to be setting Cameron up as a defender of the corporate status quo, while Liber8 were simply ‘terrorists’ even if their fight to change the future might be valid. This episode clears some of that up, suggesting that while Cameron simply wants to get home for family reasons, just about everyone—present and future—is opposed to corporation rule.

The Batman vibe continued in this episode’s municipal politics plot, with the mayor assassinated and the return of the shifty Jim Martin (from last season’s ‘The Politics of Time’) suggesting a continuing storyline. There’s also Cameron’s ongoing relationship with fellow future fugitive and Liber8 traitor Kellog, as well as Agent Gardner (The X-Files‘ Nicholas Lea) continuing to snoop around looking for answers.

All this lays some promising groundwork for the series to explore, while the flash-forwards to the future of 2077 at the beginning and end of the episode add some further intrigue, and allow future Alec (The X-Files‘ Cigarette Smoking Man William B. Davis) to steal the whole show in one scene.

Verdict: They’ve abandoned the use of the word ‘Time’ in all the episode titles, going instead with ‘Second’—seems this show is worth a second look after all…

Episode 1 ‘Second Chances’: 7/10

Brian J. Robb