And like the film (and the Philip K. Dick book it’s based on), the TV show offered some interesting predictions about the future.
Advertisement
For a while, it appears that the show may subscribe to Vega’s unconflicted affection for predictive policing-which would have represented an unconscionable betrayal of its source material’s ideals. “It always is”, says a character in the film. Of course, this wouldn’t be a FOX drama series without some sort of law enforcement involved, which is where Lara Vega (Meagan Good) comes in. So, that’s an undeniable positive, and a really welcome development in the subgenre.
Minority Report star Wilmer Valderrama plays Will Blake. “What Steven Spielberg did with the film was to convene a panel of expert scientists”. It’s not just that they’re spouting future-y sounding cop jargon like, “I have no face recs, no retinal scans” and “I did manage to pull this off a selfie drone” (sure, we’ll still be saying “selfie” in 50 years, absolutely); it’s that they’re mouthing inane cop-show standbys like, “Earth to Dash!” and “To what do we owe the honor” and, and this is true, “Peekaboo, bitch!”
But “Report” drags when it spends too much time on all its “pre-cog”, mumbo-jumbo mythology. However, at the present setting of “Minority Report“, the experiment has ended 10 years ago, leaving Dash the only one of the Precogs who still seek to help the victims of crimes before they take place, despite older sister Laura Regan’s Agatha’s warnings to stay out of the messy and twisted world of crime. Which is preposterous: all we’re told is that Vega worshiped the Pre-Cog program as a kid, and therefore will blindly follow any vision that Dash has (or Arthur, for that matter – who is one of two characters who lightly sexually harass Vega in this episode), even though the program was defunded because it was imperfect, and therefore was completely illogical. Vega is just as excited as Dash to work together like this again, as they both share a common desire; stopping crime before it happens. Which is to say, he still sees future murders but is no longer equipped to stop them. Or a lot nuts, given what he was planning, which seemed to be death by carrier pigeon!
In the show we also see an extinct species being brought back to life.
“He’s seen murders every day all of his life”, Borenstein continues. Just don’t expect it to break much new ground. It’s nifty, but it’s all window dressing, and there’s no way it can be kept up on a weekly basis, lest the series join nearly Human on Fox’s costly dystopian-drama scrap heap. Marijuana is legal, the Simpsons is in its 75th season, and the Redskins have been renamed the inoffensive “Redclouds”. “They’d use self-driving abilities to react dynamically to traffic conditions so that when passenger-sized cars interlock or disconnect going through these thoroughfares, you’d have the best of individual vehicle system and best of mass transit”.
Beyond that, the pacing is pretty solid, and the production values are mighty impressive. It’s a crime show, but it’s one invested in these really deeply personal stakes. In fact, I loved Sands as Toby in “Six Feet Under“, and Good really was a great bright spot of “Californication“. It would be unjust to charge it with precrimes, but our precog intuition isn’t hopeful.
Advertisement
Speaking of: if the technology is so good, then how is she going to cover up this “investigation” and all the potential evidence he would’ve left behind? Hopefully, this pilot was not just a Minority Report… sorry, too easy. All of the defining aspects of Minority Report’s future should scan to us as signs of dystopia. “It happened because [insert explanation of other character’s feelings, stereotypical reason for committing violence], and now you’re [more feelings of other person]”. Do you have a favorite yet? “So if you’re a fan of the film, that enriches your experience of watching the series but it’s a world unto itself, the world of our series”. This could mean more tension between the two when Dash gets into the picture, Collider has learned.
