Charlie Jade.

[swestrup]

Finally watched the rest of the first (and apparently to be the only) season of Charlie Jade. On the whole, I think I liked it. The basic premise of the show is the invention of a way to travel between alternate realities and how this affects the universes that come into contact this way, and the people who travel between them. Charlie Jade is from Alphaverse, a cyberpunk corporate-run world where the universe linking technology seems to have been invented. Betaverse is our world. Gamaverse is a lush paradise of relatively low-tech but ecologically responsible inhabitants.

There was much to like about the series but there were some drawbacks too. I loved the character development, the lush scenery, the complex interwoven plot, and the innovative use of camera work.

What was not to like was that some of the episodes were really slow going and seemed little more than filler, although I suspect they were there to try to aid in the character development. Some of the innovative camera work was a bit TOO innovative and crossed the line from being an interesting new storytelling convention to being distracting and annoying.

Still, on the whole I would have wanted to watch a second season, had it been renewed.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think it was meant to be a single story, rather than an ongoing series. It certainly felt like it.

[swestrup]

Well, they did say it was conceived of as a "20-hour movie", but they clearly intended it to be an ongoing series. All of the hints about the secret involvement of agents from a fourth universe that show up towards the end would seem to support that.

[(Anonymous)]

Fourth universe? I missed those. But that's maybe because I had trouble collecting all the eps in order, and ended up watching them rather sporrily.

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

Fourth universe? I missed those. But that's maybe because I had trouble collecting all the eps in order, and ended up watching them rather sporrily.

[swestrup]

Towards the end of the series we discover that Reena (the Gammaverse terrorist) was brainwashed by a machine of unknown origin, and has access to technologies that the Alphaverse folks say "isn't from Alpha, Beta or Gamma". I've been calling these guys the Deltans.

They may (or may not) be the same as the mysterious dudes in suits who start appearing and disappearing in the last few episodes and who seem to be caring for Charlie Jade in an infirmary of some sort in the last few seconds of the series.

[swestrup]

Oh, and you really HAVE to watch all the episodes in order because you could so easily get lost. The 'previously' bits at the start of each episode are intended to alleviate that, but they can only do so much.

[pythonian.livejournal.com]

4th universe? "20 hour movie"? I should have paid more attention to the few episodes I did manage to watch. Clearly the last 3 episodes hinted at more to come as much was not resolved in my book.

Perhaps the series fell victim to what the first pilot of the original Star Trek series did: that pilot was deemed "too cerebral". Certainly the film techniques used became jarring at times and the need for 3 separate environments each with their own subplots was a lot to digest. We as audiences are capable but the desire to stick with tried and true on the part of the masses (both audience and producers) might have been what did it in more than any sense of a planned 1 season mini-series.

In any case, I never did latch on to the series fully at the time it was first broadcast and by the time they started showing the first season as mid-season filler, I had lost most if not all interest. I only watched the last few episodes simply because I like to see how these things end.

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

When it was first broadcast on Space, the schedule was all over the place. It made it hard to follow.