Tag: plague

12 Monkeys: Review of Entire TV Series

~ Metacrone

12 Monkeys was a Syfy network series, loosely based on the 1995 Terry Gilliam film of the same name, which ran for 4 seasons/47 episodes, from 2015-2018. It focused on a near future post-plague world and the survivor, James Cole (Aaron Stanford), who is sent back in time from 2043 to the decades before the plague in order to stop the deaths of 7 billion people.

Though the series uses concepts and characters from the film, it’s largely left the plot of the film behind by the end of the pilot. In the original 12 Monkeys film, the Army of the 12 Monkeys is a red herring. In the series, it’s a vast, secret organization which is responsible for the plague. Cole and Katarina Jones (Barbara Sukowa), the scientist who sends him back in time, assemble a time traveling team who oppose the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and their mysterious leader, the Witness, in a war to control the fate of the timeline.

In the future, post-plague world, Katarina Jones and her people find a damaged recording made in 2017, at the height of the pandemic, by Dr Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull), a CDC virologist who specializes in epidemics. The recording asks “Cole” to hurry and names “Leland Frost” as the originator of the plague. With this starting point and a time machine that barely works, Dr Jones sends James Cole, a barely civilized scavenger, back in time to interview Dr Railly in order to learn further details about the start of the pandemic. His mission is to use the knowledge he gains from Dr Railly to stop the plague virus from being released.

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The Rain Season 2 Episode 6: Survival of the Fittest Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

The Rain S2Ep6 Sad Jean Looming Rasmus

The season finale of The Rain season 2 pays off the concepts the show has played with all season, while also providing a satisfying mirror image to the season 1 finale. As of this writing, June 1st, 2019, the Rain isn’t renewed for season 3, so I hope it gets the chance to finish its story. The path forward is both obvious and wide open, which tells you the writers are doing something right.

This episode continues with the themes of family, responsibility, revenge, romantic love and death. Sarah and Rasmus play out their Romeo and Juliet scenario, while Fie tries to build a stable family for her baby. Simone and Martin struggle to balance their relationship with their responsibilities toward the rest of the group. Patrick takes a giant step forward in his maturity level, while Jean takes a step backward. He’s reacting to losing Lea, so his actions are understandable, but still uncalled for.

Kira joins the group after saving Martin and Patrick’s lives, but it’s not clear yet whether she’s a permanent or temporary member. She suffered so much trauma and betrayal that she’s forgotten how to trust and be trustworthy. She’d be an asset to the group, if she could be open to caring about them.

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The Rain Season 2 Episode 5: Keep It Together Recap

~ Metacrone

The Rain S2Ep5 Sten Sits at Young Rasmus Bedside

After episode 4 of this season of The Rain focused on relationships and doomed love, episode 5 goes full on scifi horror. We thought the survivors were living in a post-apocalyptic world in season 1, but it turns out that the initial plague was just a little prelude to the main event. This episode, Keep It Together, finally shows just how badly everything is falling apart.

The black goo is not only spreading to wider areas of the quarantine zone, it’s now bubbling and smoking on it’s own. It’s consuming everything in its path, including people, at a rapid pace. We’ve known that it’s sentient, but now it’s battling to control Rasmus’ mind.

Recap

By the time Simone, Fie, Rasmus and Sarah return from their trip to Bakken, the Apollon soldiers who infiltrated the base are dead. Due to over exerting herself, Sarah has developed a fever along with a flare up of her illness, so Fie takes to her bed. She suggests that Rasmus rest as well, since they don’t know what the cure will do to him. Simone is confident that it will make him better.

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The Rain Season 2 Episode 4: Save Yourself Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

The Rain S2Ep4 Sarah and Rasmus Sit on Roller Coaster Crop

Episode 4 of The Rain sends the characters off on another road trip, this time to Bakken, a Danish amusement park. But, this is the minipocalypse, so it’s not all fun and games. Klaus escapes from episode 2 and wants his $2 revenge for what happened to Johanne. Rasmus manages to frost the forest with black viral goo, like the angel of death that he is. And Sarah has plans for a perfect day out, with a very specific ending.

Let it rain.

Recap

The episode picks up where it left off, with Sarah and Rasmus following a dry creek bed away from the base. Sarah tells Rasmus that they’re headed to Bakken, the theme park,  because Jakob always promised he’d take her there when she got better.

Rasmus thinks her dreams aren’t cool enough, because they’re too grounded in reality. Sarah thinks it’s silly to dream about things that can’t come true.

They’ve both been shut ins for most of their lives, so any dream that involved leaving the house/bunker/base was unlikely to come true. They developed different strategies for dealing with that. Rasmus went with dreaming big dreams that probably wouldn’t come true even if he was out in the world, which gave him something to fantasize about and allowed him to avoid extra disappointment. Sarah went with practical, low key dreams that had a chance of coming true, which gave her something to look forward to and work toward.

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The Rain Season 2 Episode 3: Stay in Control Recap

~ Metacrone

 

Screen Shot 2019-05-25 at 11.12.27 PM

Episode 3 of The Rain, titled Stay in Control, opens with Rasmus testing out his new power to release the virus at will. He successfully sends out black viral smoke and then stops it, staying calm the entire time. Every time he’s released the virus in the past, it’s been because he was emotional and out of control.

After the opening theme, Rasmus stands in the doorway of his room and stares at Fie as she works on the cure in the lab. It’s not creepy at all.

We learn about Fie’s background in this episode. Right now, she’s remembering that time in graduate school when she went to a bar with her boyfriend and did shots all night. Urban legend says she did 30 shots, but she denies it later. She was a star student and scientist, which made all of the mediocre mean girl scientists jealous. How dare she be good looking, smart, have a boyfriend and know how to party?

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The Rain Season 2 Episode 2: The Truth Hurts Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

The Rain S2Ep1 Rasmus Surrounded by Bodies

Episode 2, The Truth Hurts, begins moments after the end of episode 1. Simone has just discovered Rasmus lying unconscious in the lab at the rebel facility. He’s surrounded by the bodies of the scientists who were supposed to cure him and create a vaccine. Despite the fact that he manifested black veins all over, black viral goo instead of blood and poured out a cloud of black viral smoke only moments before, now Rasmus looks perfectly healthy, with his usual smooth white skin.

Simone pounds on the glass between the observation room and the lab, trying to get a response from Rasmus. After a minute, his finger twitches, then he sits up. Simone wastes no time in creating an alibi for him. She tells him to go to the backroom before anyone else can get there. The alarm is still blaring. Rasmus asks if he killed the others. Simone makes up a quick story. She tells him to say that they dropped a sample and got infected. Rasmus doesn’t remember what happened, but he knows it wasn’t that, and tries to argue with her.

Martin and Fie rush into the observation room. Fie turns off the alarm and tries to take in the loss of almost everyone she had left, including her boyfriend, Jakob. Before either can speak, Simone blurts out that Jakob dropped a sample and got infected, then he infected the rest. Before she could do anything, they all just died.

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The CW’s Containment: Review of Entire Series

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

 

Containment- Sabine, Jake, Lex, Katie, Jana

Containment, the story of a viral plague which erupts in Atlanta and the quarantine zone that’s set up to control its spread, was a limited series which ran for 13 episodes on The CW in the spring and summer of 2016. Like all CW shows, it now lives on Netflix. Because it aired during that odd time of the year that isn’t a traditional TV “season”, Containment didn’t get much attention at the time, and had mixed critical reviews. (Metawitches wasn’t around yet.) Metamaiden and I both thought it was a fun show, for the subject matter, and brought some things to the table that we rarely see when a plague is the main subject.

Containment, based on the Belgian series Cordon, was developed for The CW by prolific showrunner Julie Plec, of The Vampire Diaries fame. She and David Nutter both served as executive producers. It starred David Gyasi as Major Alex “Lex” Carnahan, Christina Moses as Jana Mayfield, Chris Wood as Officer Jake Riley, Kristen Gutoskie as Katie Frank, Claudia Black as Dr. Sabine Lommers, George Young as Dr. Victor Cannerts,
Hanna Mangan-Lawrence as Teresa Keaton, and Trevor St. John as Leonard “Leo” Greene.

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