After a Christmas hiatus, it's time for me to get back to my weekly reviews. This time, I'm finishing out the TV Show 12 Monkeys that I caught on the SyFy channel, which ran for four seasons and completed as planned in 2018. This overview will have minor spoilers, but nothing that bad.
Near the beginning of the show, I previously reported on the first four episodes. I complained that the show was different than the movie (still one of my faves). In the pilot episode when Cole scratches a watch from the past, that same watch in the present develops the very same scratch in front of a couple of witnesses. This cannot really happen in any kind of "real" time-travel situation -- there's no reason for "present" people to just now see a scratch form on a watch that had been there since the scratch was delivered in the past. This type of thing only makes sense in "Audience Time," or -- as the audience watches.
At first this was a disappointment and a gigantic departure from the movie, but as I reported before -- if you divorce the show from the movie, it actually becomes a good show on its own. The first few episodes were a little shaky, but then it gets really good.
The plot? Cole is sent back in time to try to save the world from dying from a dangerous plague. There he tries to meet up with Cassie, the scientist who originally sent the call for help -- though she hasn't done it yet. And along the way, they meet up with Jennifer Goines -- an insane girl who has a knack of accurately predicting the future. (She's basically the same character Brad Pitt played in the movie, if that helps.) Add in a lot of plot twists and interesting supporting characters and you get a fun show.
The first season closed out very strong and made me excited to watch for more. One new plot point introduced in this show is the concept of the Red Forest, which is some kind of time paradox meant to destroy the world.
Somewhere around the second season, the plot seemed to get weak to me. At least I think it was the second season -- when the time storms started threatening the 2040s time compound -- getting closer with each episode. Perhaps it was just me being a purist -- the idea of a "time" storm carrying itself out in "real time" just sounds stupid. The whole concept of "hurry up in the 1900s so we can save the 2040s" just doesn't work -- I'll let you think about this on your own as to why it doesn't work -- but then again, maybe not -- sure it's "Audience Time" and the writers are just trying to build tension -- maybe don't think about it that much. It was enough to make me temporarily stop watching, but something pulled me back -- something made me want to see how it all ended. Season 2 did have a very strong season closer.
I believe in the third season, things started coming back together and the heroes were making actual progress, and I was able to overlook the "Audience Time." The fourth and final season was very satisfying. I might go ahead and watch this show again. The plot is very convoluted, and that's probably what attracted me. In some cases, it really got the feels going.
I see that the whole show is available on Hulu -- so if you have that service, try it out. You just might like it.
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