So, who watched Virtuality Friday night? No? Didn't think so. Say bye-bye to this intriguing project, which was conceived as a pilot for a new series but aired as a movie when FOX didn't want to pick it up. Any chance of convincing them otherwise is a bust, as the broadcast resulted in truly abysmal ratings, no doubt ensuring its demise.
A lot of people who didn't know it was supposed to be a pilot episode of a series are apparently annoyed that it abruptly ended without a conclusion. It didn't work as a standalone movie, of course, because it was never meant to be. Most of the two-hour pilot are setting up conflicts for future episodes to explore. It's all the more aggravating for it, because the pilot really shows enormous potential for a fantastic drama should it be allowed to continue.
Taking cues from Danny Boyle's Sunshine—in fact, the pilot feels like the first act of Sunshine expanded, with its inter-crew bickering and routine feel—Virtuality is the story of the starship Phaeton, on its 10-year trip to the Epsilon Eridani star system and back. The Phaeton doesn't look like the Enterprise's sleek futuristic vessel or Battlestar Galactica's military submarine. Half of it resembles an actual NASA space station while the other half looks like a reality show residence (for a good reason).
The Phaeton has a crew of twelve, searching for a solution to the doomsday timebomb of Earth becoming inhabitable within the next century. This alone immediately gives the idea of a weekly series a unique spin. By grounding it to a realistic space mission, the setting doesn't really allow for any additions or changes to the main cast, which perhaps limits its longevity. Thankfully, this isn't the kind of show that relies on the dependable sci-fi suspense model of who-dies-next. Rather, it's more like a claustrophobic psychological drama, very much in the vein of a reality show; hence the introduction of the show-within-a-show.
Exploits on the ship are filmed and beamed to Earth as a reality show called The Edge of Never. This is a neat way to excuse something that grated me at first: the beautiful crew. Twelve people chosen to save the planet, and those twelve happen to be good-looking? Hmm. Though it's never explicitly brought up, there's a strong implication that the astronauts were chosen more for their appeal than their abilities. This extends to why they have a handicapped person, an Asian man, a black woman and a gay couple. The crew comes across as a group photo for a "diversity" college pamphlet; a scary thing when you consider what that suggests. Even in the face of extinction, our priority lies in making good television. If the idea sounds far-fetched to you, think of how television would evolve in just a few decades. We already have trite reality shows surrounding serious issues like substance abuse and terminal cancer. Armageddon is only the next pitch.
But a mock reality show isn't exactly groundbreaking satire, at least not anymore. Reality TV has saturated television for almost two decades now, which left many opportunities for movies, TV episodes, cartoons and even comic books to make fun of its format (For a great recent use, see the British miniseries Dead Set, which cuts a sardonic take on the selfishness prevalent in Big Brother contestants by introducing a zombie apocalypse into the mix). It is, after all, a ripe target into the psyche of our drama-addicted populace. There's something else about Virtuality, though, that takes it further, by introducing a virtual reality program that the crew uses for recreational purposes. Kind of like the holodeck, it can simulate any scenario for the crew, allowing them to become a Civil War soldier or a rock star secret agent, eliminate a disability, or even resurrect deceased loved ones.
When I first heard about Virtuality's VR concept, though, I wondered how writers Ron D. Moore and Michael Taylor would draw the distinction between this show and their other project, the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica, which also concerns the applications of Virtual Reality. While Caprica (and BSG) explored political and social issues, Virtuality goes for a more focused target, which is how technology has affected our moral and ethical centers, be it television or video game simulation. What is reality TV, after all, if not a primitive version of virtual reality?
Virtuality doesn't have big plot points or twists. Not much happens, to be honest. What the pilot does, instead, is hint at the kind of questions the show hopes to raise. If two people conduct an affair in virtual reality, is it adultery, or does it simply fall under sexual fantasy? A big dramatic turn in the pilot involves a VR rape attack and the subsequent discussion of whether or not it's as serious as physical rape. The mental scarring exists, but is it that different from a nightmare? I will gladly watch a whole season of just discussions like this, even without the added suspense of a VR program going rogue, but this sort of focus on the cerebral rather than the gratification is exactly why it scares off execs, and perhaps viewers.
The pilot was directed by Hancock and Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg, who brought his usual tight shots, intense moments and post-rock instrumental soundtrack. For a show about twelve people trapped in a metal tube with each other for a very long time, Berg's style really highlights the emphasis on the characters, letting the viewer know that it's much more intimate than the plot-driven sci-fi that people are used to.
Berg also drew strong performances from the stellar cast. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays the sort-of main character as crewleader Commander Pike (Star Trek reference! Woo hoo!), is a bit on the bland side, but can be quite good when called upon. Think Matthew Fox on LOST. Others, like the effortlessly charismatic Ritchie Coster as the handicapped Dr. Jimmy Jones, or Clea DuVall as the temperamental but compassionate astronaut Sue, simply shine. The naturalistic acting works even better during group scenes where the crew would argue and speak on top of each other, with two or three conversations going on at once. It really adds to the atmosphere inside the ship, and lends credence to the faux-reality show format.
Is the show going to have a second chance? It doesn't look promising. FOX used up all their nerdy goodwill on renewing Dollhouse for another season. When the Virtuality pilot wasn't immediately picked up as a series, Ron D. Moore said that if the ratings and reviews are good enough, the network would hopefully reconsider. Friday was, more or less, a test run. But FOX were such assholes about it. The "TV Movie" was originally going to air on the 4th of July—a death sentence from the get-go. It was then mercifully moved up a week, but on a Friday night during the summer season with little to no promotion? It's really no surprise to anyone that it scored a meager 1.8 million viewers and only a 0.5 rating on the 18-49 adult demo.
Virtuality is now available on Hulu, but I'm torn as to whether or not I should even recommend people to watch it, seeing how it's the first episode of something that has no continuation. I'm leaning towards "yes" because of the cast, but do prepare yourself to be frustrated in case you end up liking it as much as I did.
