Great new show on NBC called "Reverie". MUST SEE!

[Romulan_spy]

Anyone watching the new NBC show, "Reverie"? The pilot episode was 2 days ago. You can watch it on Hulu or the NBC.com website: https://www.nbc.com/reverie/episodes

Here is the description:
This grounded new thriller follows Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi), a former hostage negotiator and expert on human behavior, who became a college professor after facing an unimaginable personal tragedy. But when she's brought in to save ordinary people who have lost themselves in a highly advanced virtual-reality program in which you can literally live your dreams, she finds that in saving others, she may actually have discovered a way to save herself.

The show stars Sarah Shahi and Dennis Haysbert.

I really enjoyed the pilot episode. Sarah Shahi and Dennis Haysbert are great. I also find the concept of people not wanting to leave a dream like VR to be really intriguing. The show also explores the psychology of grief and trauma and how people cope with it.

The show is also setting up some interesting future plot points. As the description above, mentions, the main character who is sent into this VR to pull people out, is herself dealing with a horrific personal tragedy. So, I am sure the show will deal with her wanting to escape into the same VR that she is supposed to save others from. There is also a subplot of the maker of the VR wanting to push the boundaries of the system through human experimentation for corporate profit without concern for the ethics.

I highly recommend the show.

Also mods: I put the show in scifi & fantasy because I feel like the show has a scifi element to it. But if it belongs in TV & Media instead, feel free to move it there. Thanks.

 

[Kytee]

I caught the first episode this week, it was engaging enough that I will be tuning in next week. Great cast so far ; though I was hoping that there would be a bit more scifi to the world itself. I was thinking about how Incorporated ( Probably because that actor is in both ) presented the world. I would say the show is more Drama with scifi elements but we will see how future episodes play out,

It was interesting idea to create the VR versions of people from their social media profiles, but there has to be some part of it that is drawn from the users mind, otherwise I don't know how the little girl with the teddy bear ended up in that VR session.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I would say the show is more Drama with scifi elements but we will see how future episodes play out.

Yeah, when the show mentioned that the laws of physics don't necessarily apply in the dream space and that you will be able to fly with your mind with a future software update, I definitely felt like the show was hinting at some more scifi elements. After all, if you are in a fake world where you can bend the laws of physics, you could do some pretty trippy scifi stuff.

It was interesting idea to create the VR versions of people from their social media profiles, but there has to be some part of it that is drawn from the users mind, otherwise I don't know how the little girl with the teddy bear ended up in that VR session.

Maybe it's a social commentary on how much of our lives we do put on social media? In other words, we put so much of our lives on social media that it is enough for a computer to create a virtual world from. But I agree that the system would still need to also access the user's mind. And I am pretty sure the girl with the teddy bear was the same girl and teddy bear from Sarah Shahi's character. Basically, her memories of her niece when she was killed was slipping into the shared dream space of the other guy. The show made a point that they were not sure what would happen when they put two people in the same dream space. Clearly, her dream space was mixing with the other guy's dream space. The episode also hinted at this when it mentioned that she had a brain spike at that very moment, suggesting an emotional reaction to seeing the little girl with the teddy bear. That's because she was seeing her dead niece and her favorite teddy bear in the other guy's dream space.

 

[Christopher]

I wouldn't say it's great, but it has potential. The premise is interesting, a nice departure from the usual cop shows and lawyer shows and spy shows -- a fresh way to tell a story about a hero helping people, driven more by empathy than conflict or action (though it looks like there is a secret-military-intrigue angle in the background). It looks like striking visuals for the virtual worlds will be a major element too, although that depends on how well the budget holds up. And the cast is interesting. However, the characters aren't that interesting yet; the lead is too much in the cliched mold of the hero who's gifted at helping everyone but herself and whose personal life is a total wreck. Although she did appear to clean up her act at the end of the pilot, so maybe that won't be so much of a thing going forward.

Also, I find "Mara Kint" an unappealing character name.

 

[Kytee]

Yeah, when the show mentioned that the laws of physics don't necessarily apply in the dream space and that you will be able to fly with your mind with a future software update, I definitely felt like the show was hinting at some more scifi elements. After all, if you are in a fake world where you can bend the laws of physics, you could do some pretty trippy scifi stuff.

Interesting point, the dream space should be similar to the training room from The Matrix with regards to the ability to jump and fly. I wasn't really clear on the changing scenes within the Dream space, either the guy stuck in there was looping the same events or the program was written to show him those events, and he was just following the script.

Maybe it's a social commentary on how much of our lives we do put on social media? In other words, we put so much of our lives on social media that it is enough for a computer to create a virtual world from. But I agree that the system would still need to also access the user's mind. And I am pretty sure the girl with the teddy bear was the same girl and teddy bear from Sarah Shahi's character. Basically, her memories of her niece when she was killed was slipping into the shared dream space of the other guy. The show made a point that they were not sure what would happen when they put two people in the same dream space. Clearly, her dream space was mixing with the other guy's dream space. The episode also hinted at this when it mentioned that she had a brain spike at that very moment, suggesting an emotional reaction to seeing the little girl with the teddy bear. That's because she was seeing her dead niece and her favorite teddy bear in the other guy's dream space.

I totally forgot this was the first time use of two person VR. It also occurred to me that the little girl and Teddy Bear represents to Mara the same thing the Green Butterfly was for the user. I wonder if getting trapped in the VR will end up being tied to some guilt based trauma from the users past.

reminds me of the first episode of DS9 when the prophets tell Sisko that he is living in the moment when he , from his guilt ridden point of view , abandon Jennifer to die.

I wouldn't say it's great, but it has potential. The premise is interesting, a nice departure from the usual cop shows and lawyer shows and spy shows -- a fresh way to tell a story about a hero helping people, driven more by empathy than conflict or action (though it looks like there is a secret-military-intrigue angle in the background). It looks like striking visuals for the virtual worlds will be a major element too, although that depends on how well the budget holds up. And the cast is interesting. However, the characters aren't that interesting yet; the lead is too much in the cliched mold of the hero who's gifted at helping everyone but herself and whose personal life is a total wreck. Although she did appear to clean up her act at the end of the pilot, so maybe that won't be so much of a thing going forward.

Also, I find "Mara Kint" an unappealing character name.

I agree that the backstory for the lead is to cliche, I hope we don't re-visit it to much but considering the niece is showing up in the dream space it might come up episode after episode.
Also, totally agree on the name, and it bugs me that it bugs me because I can't figure out what I dont like about it. It's like it is to short , or something, doesn't feel like a real person's name. It's just a hiccup away from Martha Kent which is a lovely name from fiction

 

[Romulan_spy]

Watched episode 2. It appears that the show will be doing different types of fantasies each episode to take advantage of the premise of a virtual world where anything can happen. So, the pilot had a romantic fantasy. This episode had a spy thriller fantasy. It begs the question if the show will ever do a star trek fantasy or some type of space scifi fantasy.

 

[Phoenix219]

Is anyone actually watching this still?

This week's episode had a number of surprising revelations. Things are heating up!

 

[Christopher]

Is anyone actually watching this still?

Yeah, it's pretty entertaining. It took Mara to kind of a dark place this week, more so than I'm entirely comfortable with.

It confused me, though. How did Alexis meet the other guy in Reverie? I thought Mara was the only one with an implant that let her share a Reverie. Or did the bad guy steal one of the 2.0 implants like Mara has?

 

[Phoenix219]

They knew it was an inside job, and reverie is on the market for the public, so I would assume that it was a beta of some sort that was given to him from the inside. Or something with more access or a controller function of some sort. Of course, was him banned from reverie in general maybe he just needed one from the inside to use the standard commercial version. It was a little bit unclear. I just figured Alexis is one of the designers and has access to everything that has been created so far and didn't really overthink it.

I was definitely surprised that they gave the heroine of the show such a dark backstory. What she did was understandable, but came to the character a bit, especially with her admitted use of her negotiator techniques and manipulation. Quite a guilt complex.

Really, though, who was the genius that ignored her request to come in quietly?

 

[Romulan_spy]

I am definitely still watching. The show has been good. I really enjoyed the episode with the old lady in the nursing home who was using reverie to relive the moment in her youth when she saved some little girls from a military coup. The scene at the end where she sees the woman she saved, now all grown up, was very touching.

Yeah, it's pretty entertaining. It took Mara to kind of a dark place this week, more so than I'm entirely comfortable with.

I was definitely surprised that they gave the heroine of the show such a dark backstory. What she did was understandable, but came to the character a bit, especially with her admitted use of her negotiator techniques and manipulation. Quite a guilt complex.

Yeah, the reveal about Mara was a big WTF moment for me and was definitely a lot more dark than I was expecting. It certainly adds complexity to her character but I can see how it might rub some people the wrong way. She is not the pure hero that we thought she was. I do really like the Dennis Haysbert character. He seems like the moral center of the show.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Any thoughts on the season finale that just aired?

Mara going into reverie to confront her comatose brother-in-law about his murder-suicide was kinda eerie and creepy. But I do feel like the final resolution added some nuance and did not leave Mara in quite as dark a place as in the previous episode. The photo of the wife and daughter was a nice touch.

We also got some nice backstory on Alexis and Oliver.

 

[Christopher]

It was a reasonably effective finale, wrapping up Mara's and Alexis's family arcs for the season. The plot arc didn't go the way I expected, though, with the crazy, disgruntled co-developer being the big bad. I'd expected the government's attempts to co-opt and abuse Reverie would be a bigger thread, and that Kathryn Morris's character would turn out to have a more ambiguous agenda. Instead she turned out to be entirely good and contributed little more than tech support to the finale. But maybe it's for the best that they're avoiding the obvious route of Deep Dark Goverment Conspiracy, even though we live in a time when confronting governmental abuse of power is more important than ever.

I'm still amused to think back on the pilot review I read that claimed the show was deeply technophobic and Luddite and portrayed Reverie as an unambiguously harmful and destructive thing. I wonder if that reviewer has seen the rest of the series and realized how wrong they were. What I like about this show is how optimistic it is about the good new technology can do, even while acknowledging its ambiguities and potential for abuse.

 

[Romulan_spy]

It was a reasonably effective finale, wrapping up Mara's and Alexis's family arcs for the season. The plot arc didn't go the way I expected, though, with the crazy, disgruntled co-developer being the big bad. I'd expected the government's attempts to co-opt and abuse Reverie would be a bigger thread, and that Kathryn Morris's character would turn out to have a more ambiguous agenda. Instead she turned out to be entirely good and contributed little more than tech support to the finale. But maybe it's for the best that they're avoiding the obvious route of Deep Dark Goverment Conspiracy, even though we live in a time when confronting governmental abuse of power is more important than ever.

Maybe the government's attempts to co-opt Reverie will be a major arc next season? The idea of using Reverie as an interrogation tool certainly seems like a powerful and relevant idea to explore.

I'm still amused to think back on the pilot review I read that claimed the show was deeply technophobic and Luddite and portrayed Reverie as an unambiguously harmful and destructive thing. I wonder if that reviewer has seen the rest of the series and realized how wrong they were. What I like about this show is how optimistic it is about the good new technology can do, even while acknowledging its ambiguities and potential for abuse.

Yeah, I think the show did a good job of being balanced in its portrayal of Reverie. We got to see both the positives and negatives of the tech. I do like that the finale ended on a positive note.

Although, I forgot to mention: what was that last scene about? Is there a digital clone of Mara still stuck in Reverie? That's what it seemed like to me.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe the government's attempts to co-opt Reverie will be a major arc next season?

Quite possibly. Although I'm kinda glad they've been staying away from turning this into a conspiracy-driven show and are instead keeping it focused on the human-level, helping-people stories. I wouldn't want them to lose that focus. Mainly I just feel that Morris's character (I can't remember her name) was underused and didn't seem important enough to the series to justify being a main-cast regular instead of a recurring guest. I guess they had to sign her on as a regular to ensure her availability, though, since she's a fairly prominent name. (Although the cynic in me wonders if some network exec insisted on adding her as a regular so that the show wouldn't have a 100% nonwhite main cast.)

Although, I forgot to mention: what was that last scene about? Is there a digital clone of Mara still stuck in Reverie? That's what it seemed like to me.

It's a mystery. The answer isn't obvious to me, which is a good thing. At first I wondered if it meant she was still stuck in Reverie and was imagining everything, but then, why would her imaginary Reverie tell her that she was still in Reverie? And that final shot of an apparently virtual Mara in the nightmare Scooby-Doo hallway argued against that interpretation.

 

[Romulan_spy]

It's a mystery. The answer isn't obvious to me, which is a good thing. At first I wondered if it meant she was still stuck in Reverie and was imagining everything, but then, why would her imaginary Reverie tell her that she was still in Reverie? And that final shot of an apparently virtual Mara in the nightmare Scooby-Doo hallway argued against that interpretation.

I just had another theory. What if when people enter Reverie they are not actually there but instead just controlling digital avatars of themselves? And when people leave Reverie, they have no idea that their avatars remain since they can't see what happens in Reverie after they leave? So, what we were seeing is Mara's avatar who was left in the Reverie after the real Mara disconnected and that avatar is still trapped in that hallway.

 

[Christopher]

What if when people enter Reverie they are not actually there but instead just controlling digital avatars of themselves?

Uhh, that's been the case all along. Of course they aren't physically there; it's just an immersive virtual reality game that they experience directly through their senses thanks to the brain implant, rather than watching on a screen or a VR headset. So naturally their "bodies" within the simulation are digital avatars.

I... guess that when you say "digital avatars," though, you're suggesting that there are copies of their minds remaining in Reverie, rather than just images of their bodies? The thing is, if what happened to Mara were happening to everyone -- still being active in Reverie after they exited and woke up -- then that activity would've shown up on the server, just as it did for Mara, so they would've discovered it already. After all, Paul didn't have to go to any great trouble to discover it; it showed up immediately, as soon as the program was reactivated. I do wonder how he happened to look for her information specifically when he had no reason to; maybe there was some sort of automatic flag of her activity because she's an OniraTech employee. But in that case, if it were happening to everyone who'd been in Reverie, then he would've gotten flags for his own activity and Alexis's as well. But it only showed up for Mara. So it must be unique to Mara, at least so far.

Also, it must be significant that the VR environment her double occupied was Oliver's nightmare space. Maybe this is one more trap he laid for her, or a side effect of the way he programmed the environment. (Although if it were a side effect rather than a targeted trap, it should've affected Alexis as well as Mara.) Or maybe she and Oliver have some kind of permanent mind link now because they have the same kind of implants or the same kind of derealization issues.

 

[Christopher]

It just occurred to me to wonder whether Reverie was coming back anytime soon, but unfortunately it seems that NBC cancelled it back in November. That's disappointing -- I rather liked the show.

 

[Romulan_spy]

It just occurred to me to wonder whether Reverie was coming back anytime soon, but unfortunately it seems that NBC cancelled it back in November. That's disappointing -- I rather liked the show.

That is a shame. The show had a cool concept.

 

[Christopher]

That is a shame. The show had a cool concept.

And a cool cast.

Well, at least it didn't end on a huge cliffhanger. It had a lingering mystery, but basically wrapped up the season's story arcs, so it had a reasonable degree of closure.