I Watch TV: Reverie
Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi), a former police hostage negotiator who quit after she was unable to talk her brother in law out of killing her sister and niece, is recruited by her former boss Charlie. He now works for Onira-tech, a tech start-up who make virtual reality dreams. Unfortunately people keep getting stuck in them and in true tech-company style they hire Mira to get them out rather than fix the problem or admit liability.
Perhaps inevitably they have also taken money from the Department of Defence who are using the program for morally dubious purposes. More dubious than getting people addicted to virtual reality dreamscapes. There’s a brilliant programmer who is very touchy, there are unexpected side-effects and there is a disaffected former founder who wants them to take the dangers seriously, damn it.
A standard episode has someone stuck in an exciting and spectacular looking scenario, Mara goes in, fails to get them out and has to work out what’s broken about them (usually with a bit of real world detective work). Then she talks them out, usually in a manner that makes them feel better, perhaps even heading back on a road to recovery.
Perhaps unfortunately it always felt as though it was stuck in its box. People have gun fights and excitement, or go to spectacular or glorious places in their dreams, but they’re just backdrops, so it’s weightless. The real problems of the real world wrap up relatively easily once two ex-cops, the millions of dollars of tech-money and some cool programming skills get to work on them. I might note that I caught the first five episodes when SyFy showed them, but didn’t get around to the other five until several months later, so I wasn’t that desperate. It got cancelled after the first season.
Watch This: For a virtual reality procedural with a little to say about tech start ups
Don’t Watch This: If you want it to say or do anything unexpected