Season One Episode Reviews

1X9    Camera Obscura  ?
Plot: Hobbes and Pinocchio visit irradiated NYC where a family feud is manipulated by a prophetic priest.

An annoying and trite episode with some great minor ideas.  I loved seeing the creation of Harsh Realm in 1995 and the nuclear bombing of NYC, and seeing NYC today as an irradiated wasteland.  I am also intrigued by Hobbes suddenly wanting to build an army to fight Santiago (where did this come from?!), it holds a lot of promise.  Unfortunately most of this episode is an extremely lame retelling of Romeo and Juliet that is wholely unoriginal except for the meddling priest.  The only interesting things here were the over-cranking filming of the street battle and the distrust between Hobbes and Pinocchio.  The end of the episode was pretty lame too.  Plus this whole priest thing brings up a conflict; in the first three episodes Pinocchio kept telling Hobbes that the Virtual Characters have never heard of god or the afterlife, yet here we see a church when the Realm was first created and a priest.  An extremely lack luster final episode to say the least.

1X8    Cincinnati ?
Plot:  Santiago plots to assassinate an American Indian leader; the trio interferes.

Finally an episode which advances the storyline somewhat, and features appearances by Santiago and Inga Fossa!  I really appreciated the genius of Santiago for the first time in this episode, because finally they show him doing something rather than just talking about his greatness.  He was brilliant here in his strategies and intrigues.  It's also great the way Santiago respects his enemies and their heritage.  Also interesting to see a new figure in the Realm, an American Indian nation which is the first group to be able to resist Santiago's conquest.  I also like how the leader was corrupted into dealing with Santiago and killing his elder.  Nice to see Hobbes and Pinocchio finally taking the offensive against Santiago after wasting some five episodes doing nothing.  Also nice to actually see a city again!  I wonder where the Fossa-Waters intrigue is going, particularly after Fossa again reaffirms her trust in Santiago at the end.  It was also a surprizingly good bit of continuity to see Escalante, the soldier that Hobbes befriended last episode.  Too bad he was killed.  For first time since the opening trilogy, I was really interested in the episode.  Too bad this is the last real episode to be made (the final one is another standalone as I understand).

1X7    Manus Domini ?
Plot: Pinnochio looses a leg and is cared for by healing sisters; Hobbes is trapped with a Santiago soldier; Florence is captured.

The most interesting stand-alone episode yet!  We've got several plots going on and some big revelations about the show!  And for once there is a meaning to the episode, the theme of faith in a faith-less world.  It's nice to see an episode is finally ABOUT something.  Hobbes is also back to his idealistic/messianic self.  I particularly liked him with the soldier, teaching him ideals while stuck together on a mine.  I also appreciate the soldier didn't miraculously change his ways.  Pinnochio's injury was interesting but limited by the fact that we all know he'll fine by the end of the episode.  But I am very interested in these Sisters and their faith that God gave them the healing hand, and that Florence is an outcast of them because she believes violence is neccessary.  Also cool to learn is how exactly Pinocchio got his injury; Yugoslavia land mine.  Of course I already knew from the end of "Inga Fossa" that he joined the Realm because of his injury, but it's nice to hear it.  Also of interest is the telepath who briefly appears to read Florence's mind, and who tells Hobbes he isn't the messianic figure that Florence thinks he is.  Interesting potential plot twist; if this is true I think that Pinocchio is the messiah, that he will become this because of Hobbes' influence.

1X6    The Three Percenters ?
Plot: The trio and Waters encounter program clones.

There is very little of interest in this episode; it just goes through the motions with no interesting ideas.  The potentially interesting concept of clones goes nowhere, particularly since there is no real interaction between the regulars and their clones.  The non-violent cult goes nowhere.  Waters and his troops are just pointless.  I haven't seen the last two episodes yet, but I wonder why Hobbes suddenly isn't the big messianic figure that he was in the opening trilogy.  And we don't get ANY storyline movements; just a wasted episode, though watchable.

1X5    Reunion ?
Plot:  Hobbes and Pinocchio are held in a forced labor camp where Hobbes' mother is dying; Sophie is with Hobbes' mother.

A generic uninteresting episode with a few nice twists.  I liked Sophie visiting Hobbes' dying mother who exists in both times to tell her Hobbes is alive.  I love the skull-bugs, derivative as they are.  I like that final twist, where the Medic is also in the real world and shows Sophie (indirectly) that her wishes come true in the Realm.  Very interesting.  Unfortunately most of the episode is a generic prison plot with Hobbes and Pinocchio- these two get captured so often it's becoming a joke.  I didn't much of a rat's ass about Hobbes' mother either.  But again, Pinocchio manages to add some spice to the prison plot while Hobbes continues to be annoying.

1X4    Kein Ausgang ?
Plot:  Hobbes and Pinocchio are trapped in a WWII combat sim stuck on a loop.

The first of the standalones isn't too intresting, though I love World War Two and time loops.  Sure they could have done more with the time loop, but I loved that cynical soldier who had been stuck here for months (cool teaser where he calmly fends off an attack knowing where every shot went).  Pinocchio gets some good cracks off, Hobbes is his usual idealistic annoying self.  Could have used some more of the regular characters though.  Nice action sequences especially on the bridge.  The assassin they were after in charge of the Nazis was a surprizing twist.

A Brief Retrospective
    Looking back on it, it's ironically nice that the three episodes we saw were a three part pilot, and the final episode gave us a lot of answers so there's some closure there.  I really did like the series concept, and I think it would have been an interesting series.  However there was a big weak link namely the characters:  while I love Pinnochio, Inga Fossa, and maybe Sophie the other characters were horribly trite, most of all Hobbes (and he's the main character!).  Florence, Waters, and Santiago were all one dimensional characters, though I'm sure Florence would have improved with time.  Santiago as a series villian left MUCH to be desired; when people talk about his plans its great but when he actually appears it just doesn't translate effectively.  This series is probably the weakest of the three Carter series actually (not counting Seasons One and Three of Millenium).  It doesn't even begin to approach the X-Files, and it doesn't get near Millenium Season Two either.  Still, I would have been entertained.  It showed promise.  I hope Carter doesn't do anymore series, because I think we've learned that he's a one-shot wonder, and will never get something as successful as the X-Files again.

1X3    Inga Fossa ?
Plot:  Hobbes and Pinnochio infiltrate Santiago City where Hobbes hopes to find a Portal home.  More is revealed about Inga Fossa who can travel to the Realm and appears to be secretly working against Santiago, and more about Santiago's purpose.

Well this was definitly the best episode yet!  I've realized now that these first 3 eps form an introductory trilogy, and now we'll being going into lots of stand-alone episodes rather than 'arc' episodes.  Anywho we learned a load of plot points in this episode, which make the series and much more interesting and multi-faceted concept, though some answers came way too early and easy.  Inga Fossa pretty much was the driving force of this episode, and she was extremely interesting.  As I see it, she is this series' Krychek playing all sides against the other, but I personally think that she is out to stop Santiago and she is manipulating him in order to stop him; perhaps she is really is loyal to the Army Cabal which she is a member of.  Anywho, Sophie is starting to grow on me, she must have balls to sneak onto a top secret army base.  Like the other 2 episodes, this story has some very annoying elements; horrible explanative narration (I HATE it when they do this on X-Files but I guess they are trying to make it easy for new viewers which is good thing), our trio of heroes coming across yet another post-apocalyptic gathering of malcontents, Waters leading yet another ineffectual capture of them, etc.  And what's up with all the T&A all of sudden, this is beginning to feel like those last few episodes of Millenium!  We got the 'zip club' with tons of women showing off their panties, then we got Fossa stripping for Waters and screwing him, yeesh!  As for the 'zip club' it was... wierd.  I'm still sure I understand what exactly it was but it was nice and wierd.  Even wierder was our tech dealer the gimp.  Ugh!  Another problem; our heroes get captured AGAIN and easily escape.  I thought it was a big thing when Florence and Pinny got captured but NO Hobbes easily frees them (thank god they were in the same cell huh!).  We also get another cute little concept, a digital void.  I like it, especially Hobbes breaking through it to take Waters.  As I said before Waters is becoming a comically ineffectual villian, I'm shocked Santiago still keeps him around.  Speaking of Santiago, we finally get some real info about him.  He only controls 5 states in the NE United States but it quickly invading more land every day.  According to Fossa, he intends to destroy the real world so only the Realm is real and he has absolute control, that he has allies in the real world working for him.  Unfortunately we still haven't seen any character devealopment in the actual person, just people talking about him.  This needs to change pronto.  We also get Hobbes beginning to accept his role as Savoir (the prison break scene where he acts all holy and crap).  Like I said before, Fossa is really interesting; I still don't get her.  She used to be with Pinny, now she's with Santiago and briefly with Waters.  Obviously she is manipulating them all, my earlier theory holds true to all except one thing; she tells Sophie she didn't get the letter to Hobbes.  This I just don't understand, unless she is just like a cruel person... or maybe she hopes it will drive Sophie to Mulderism and expose the Army Cabal, but... oh who knows.  The answers that I wish we didn't get to so soon or easy were about Pinny; he used to be Santiago's second in command but he didn't follow orders, he knew all along how to get to a Portal but will never leave because in real life he is mutiltated/paralyzed.  As interesting as this was, I wish it was kept a secret a little bit longer.  But if all this is true, why don't the other malcontents harass him?  Surely they would recognize Santiago's head guy!  Thankfully this will end the getting home tease now that Hobbes is determined to kill Santiago, but now we get instead the tease of killing Santiago.  Considering how easily Pinny got into Santiago's HQ in the pilot to rescue Hobbes, this should be really easy to kill him!  By the way, Pinny's past explains that big "Pilot" plothole of how he knew the glitches to get in Santiago's HQ, bravo!  Well Hobbes still disgusts me as a character, and unfortunately Pinny didn't have much in the way of humor this ep, but the secrets of Fossa more than made up for it.  Great ep!  By the way, these 3 eps don't differ enough to leave the 3stars rating, but they are different in subtle ways.

1X2    Leviathan ?
Plot:  Hobbes, Pinnochio, and Florence run into an expert bounty hunter working for Santiago.  In the real world, Sophie is told by the military that Hobbes is dead but the mysterious Inga Fossa tells her a different story.

    For the first time, we see the title sequence.  It sucked, even worse than XF's and Millenium's and I hate theirs.  And the music was horrible.  But I did like the way it ended saying "it's all a game".  On another note, this episode almost felt like a pilot, with the big recap at the start and the extensive Hobbes voiceovers explaining the situation.  On a minor note, due to my complete inability to spell the word 'Pinnochio' correctly I will from now on refer to that character as "Pinny".
    What a cool episode!  I loved that Bounty Hunter with his Solider-Freezing-Gun!  He felt right out of Steven King's Dark Tower series!  Even more, I loved that wierd song they played whenever he was around.  I just love it when they put in wierd music to a scene, it really makes the scene feel creepy.  Pinny remained cool and hilarious, especially the sarcastic looks he would give Hobbes everytime he did something noble.  I love this guy!  He also handles himself admirably in a fight when the Bounty Hunter and his cronies ambush him.  Hobbes giving hope to that crony girl was a little cheesey, but I think it was supposed to be.  And Santiago and Waters appear only as mindless thugs pursuing Hobbes & Co.  No thanks, give them something to do next time.  I missed the pilot, I would have no idea about how Waters is a real soldier working with the devil or anything like that.  Thankfully they have not forgotten about Dexter the Dog!  I just loved this Bounty Hunter guy, and we had BETTER see a lot more of him.  They never explained his ability to freeze real soliders but the earplugs he wears indicates that it is a sonic weapon and wearing earplugs will prevent yourself from being frozen.  We also get a nice little lead-in to the next episode; the Bounty Hunter is a real solider who knows Santiago has a portal home and wants to take it.  Unfortunately, we never Our Heroes actually FIGHT the Bounty Hunter, he just takes pot shots at them as they drive away.  Very disappointing, which is why we need to see him again.  And like last episode, the climax of the episode seemed off somehow, I can't really describe it.  As for the real world subplot, Sophie got to show a little strength but the most interesting thing was the mystery of Inga Fossa; she appeared in the military cabal that sent Hobbes in yet now she's working against it.  Well we learn more about it next episode.  When we saw the coffin exhumed, I felt a sudden fear that they would pull out the old 'rope breaks and wierd body comes out of coffin' trick they did in the XF pilot then repeated in Millenium's "Nostalgia".

1X1    The Pilot ?
Plot:  Hobbes, a soldier, is about to retire and marry his fiance Sophie when he is recruited by a shadowy military cabal to play a 'game' in Harsh Realm, a life-like military VR program.  His mission:  assassinate Santiago, the top player.  However when he enters the Realm, he finds that Santiago now controls the Realm and leads a utopian city, and thousands of soliders sent to kill him now live in exile in a wasteland.  He befriends Mike Pinocchio, another failed solider, and a mute healing girl Florence.

Wow!  This was an awsome pilot!  The opening 'Saving Private Ryan' bit looked VERY expensive and impressive.  The introduction to the Realm was handled perfectly, I love the mysterious military conspiracy including Millenium's Frank Black and Lucy Butler!  While the origan of the Realm is a bit questionable (we better see a better answer to this later on, this kind of VR is currently impossible!), the Gillian Anderson narration was very interesting.  $6.5 million was spent on this pilot, and it shows.  We also get to see a helicoptor blow up a large building!  Wow!  The Pinocchio character is definetly my favorite, I love his saracasim and his curious perchance for eating dog.  I also liked the wasteland full of failed assassin/soldiers, and Santiago City was very intersting.  Unfortunately the later half of the episode gets a bit tedious with all the miraculous sneeking around Santiago's stronghold.  On a minor note, I love Dexter the Dog!  Dogs are cool!  I have a few concerns though.  First of all, Hobbes doesn't have much of a personality, he seems to be a stereotypical hero.  Maybe this will chance.  Also, Sophie didn't really blow me away as a character, but it sounds like she improves next episode.  Thirdly, I'm concerned about the direction of the series.  If they're always going to be going after Santiago, it will get old quick (especially considering how easily they infiltrated his HQ in this episode!).  Plus, here Hobbes meets Santiago face to face but if they never meet then their conflict will become distant, then again if they meet in every episode it will be forced.  Hmm....  This pilot was full of questions, which I am very much looking forward to be answered.  And yes this was a big Matrix rip-off but they made seperately (and this came first!) so it's just an uncanny coincidense.  Hell, Hobbes is even 'THE ONE' apparantly!