9-10 p.m. Fox - premieres oct 8
(pic scanned by me--use with permission)
STARS: (clockwise from left) Rachel Hayward, Terry O'Quinn, Sarah-Jane Redmond, Samantha Mathis, Maximillian Martini, Scott Bairstow, D.B. Sweeny
PREMISE: Virtual mayhem as a gung-ho soldier (Bairstow) is recruited by the government to test a war-simulation game in virtual reality. Leaving his beautiful fiancee (Mathis) behind, he enters a dangerously unreal world from which there appears to be on exit-unless he can find and beat the "high-scoring" commando (O'Quinn) who has seemingly hijacked the computer program, effectively keeping all the plugged-in players in limbo.
THEY SAY: "This is a different way to tell stories, using a parallel world that provides allegorical opportunities," says creator Chris Carter of the mystifying action series. "I'm trying to make this a big TV show," he says, citing influences from Greek mythology to such movies as "Blade Runner," "Paths of Glory" and "Saving Private Ryan." He promises there will be "stand-alone sci-fi episodes that involve ghosts and such. In Harsh Realm, they're all virtual, digital. Anything is possible."
WE SAY: More inviting than Carter's last exercise in the dark fantasy, Millennium-but what wouldn't be? Harsh Realm plays out on an intriguing canvas where the rules acn change each weeek. It may be confusing, but at least it's not ordinary. Sweeny is terrific as the gurff revolutionary who reluctantly leads Bairstow's square hero through this forbidding maze. Mathis is an appealing love interest and O'Quinn (Millennium) a formidable adversary, but just how the other players fit into this rough-and-tumble Realm is still a mystery to us. We're willing to learn.