I just finished re-watching "Total Recall 2070" after seeing it for the first time in re-runs around 2000. As everyone knows, the show is basically a low-budget riff on Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner". So right off the bat that knocks off points for creativity but it also gave the show some great concepts to work with. So how did the series develop these Big Ideas? Not that well...
Frankly most of it is filler. If you just watch the pilot, "Machine Dreams" (which was broken up into two eps for tv) and the last ep, "Meet My Maker", you won't miss anything important. A few of the other 19 eps have interesting ideas but the writers invariably bury them under the same old television tropes you've seen a thousand times already. The two main characters, David Hume and Ian Farve, have Abrams tank-level plot armor.
The character of Ian Farve, the sentient android, is central to the show but because he's just a robot, it's hard to make him interesting. Karl Pruner is an okay actor, and he has strong presence, but he isn't given much to work with.
The character of David Hume is a bunch of dumb "cop on the edge" cliches and the actor who plays him, Michael Easton, is mediocre at best. I could not get interested in this guy.
The character of his hot blonde wife, Olivia Hume, goes from between being too sweet and good to be true in the early eps to being a mentally unstable pain-in-the ass in the later eps. Cynthia Preston, the actress who plays Olivia, is quite skilled but she couldn't save this character from being unbelievable in the beginning and then annoying as the series went on.
The character of Olan Chang is ridiculous. She's a forensic pathologist, a practicing MD, a CSI field technician, a coding expert, an android expert, plus she's never too tired to do another shift, or too busy to drop everything and spend hours babysitting her flaky bff, Olivia Hume. Is Olan Chang an android? Did anyone check? If she is human, what is the CPB paying this chick? Whatever it is, it isn't enough.
Seriously, every time the writers of the show needed an expert as a plot device, they added another skill to Olan's resume. Although the character is credibly played by Judith Krant, the overall effect is unintentionally funny.
I notice the reviews of "Total Recall 2070" are divided between people dumping on the show and fans bemoaning it's cancellation. Twenty years ago, I'd have been in the latter group. I remember thinking at the time how much it sucked that this fascinating show had been cancelled. After re-watching it now, with twenty years of experience under my belt, TR 2070 is just not as good as I remembered.
I give TR 2070 a '5' on the IMDb scale. If you're really into the Cyberpunk and/or Future Noir genres, it's okay. Otherwise you can safely skip it.
Frankly most of it is filler. If you just watch the pilot, "Machine Dreams" (which was broken up into two eps for tv) and the last ep, "Meet My Maker", you won't miss anything important. A few of the other 19 eps have interesting ideas but the writers invariably bury them under the same old television tropes you've seen a thousand times already. The two main characters, David Hume and Ian Farve, have Abrams tank-level plot armor.
The character of Ian Farve, the sentient android, is central to the show but because he's just a robot, it's hard to make him interesting. Karl Pruner is an okay actor, and he has strong presence, but he isn't given much to work with.
The character of David Hume is a bunch of dumb "cop on the edge" cliches and the actor who plays him, Michael Easton, is mediocre at best. I could not get interested in this guy.
The character of his hot blonde wife, Olivia Hume, goes from between being too sweet and good to be true in the early eps to being a mentally unstable pain-in-the ass in the later eps. Cynthia Preston, the actress who plays Olivia, is quite skilled but she couldn't save this character from being unbelievable in the beginning and then annoying as the series went on.
The character of Olan Chang is ridiculous. She's a forensic pathologist, a practicing MD, a CSI field technician, a coding expert, an android expert, plus she's never too tired to do another shift, or too busy to drop everything and spend hours babysitting her flaky bff, Olivia Hume. Is Olan Chang an android? Did anyone check? If she is human, what is the CPB paying this chick? Whatever it is, it isn't enough.
Seriously, every time the writers of the show needed an expert as a plot device, they added another skill to Olan's resume. Although the character is credibly played by Judith Krant, the overall effect is unintentionally funny.
I notice the reviews of "Total Recall 2070" are divided between people dumping on the show and fans bemoaning it's cancellation. Twenty years ago, I'd have been in the latter group. I remember thinking at the time how much it sucked that this fascinating show had been cancelled. After re-watching it now, with twenty years of experience under my belt, TR 2070 is just not as good as I remembered.
I give TR 2070 a '5' on the IMDb scale. If you're really into the Cyberpunk and/or Future Noir genres, it's okay. Otherwise you can safely skip it.