{jatabs type="content" position="top" height="auto" skipAnim="true" mouseType="click" animType="animFade"}

[tab title="Movie Review"]

{googleAds}

Helix, when you get to the midway point of Season One, will otherwise be known as a squandered possibility.  Don't believe me?  Well, watch for yourself.

Co-produced by Ronald D. Moore (of the re-outfitted Battlestar Galactica fame), Helix: Season One, a Syfy Channel original series, attempts to bring mystery and suspense to the science fiction genre as a new virus and its cure compete with reason and base animal instincts deep in the frozen wasteland. I say attempts because the series – all thirteen episodes – are not quite ready for primetime. While it averaged a pretty hefty audience and has been readied for a second season, the eerie isolation of its setting ultimately gets jettisoned for a family drama as the series expands into the predictable territory with some fairly weak writing that plagues so many modern day science fiction.

Fortunately, not every episode descends into this maddening exercise of lazy plotting and weak dialogue. Helix does offer some interesting ideas as it explores the CDC’s role in emergency outbreaks and corporate entanglements. What a wicked web we weave indeed. And the visuals – from silver eyes to a field of frozen monkeys – are indeed quite chilling. Pardon the arctic pun. But the next classic Ronald D. Moore production this is not … at least not yet. But please, please, please do not change the odd music choices and theme song; genius selections are at hand from Dionne Warwick singing “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” to the atmospheric stop/starts of the absurdly catchy electronic theme, Helix and its music director are a match made in Heaven.

Dr. Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell) and his team are called upon to deal with a viral outbreak in a secluded base somewhere in the Arctic. What they uncover is a plot involving immortality and slavery as his both his brother and his ex-wife, Dr. Walker (Kyra Zagorsky), have their world shifted by what the research base and Dr. Hatake (Hiroyuki Sanada) show them. All is not what it seems and – due to the unevenness of the story as it unfolds – all is also not what the writers intentionally planned when the idea of Helix was originally conceived. It is fine for shows to develop as they progress but the narrative – heavily over-tipping with family issues and unexpected family reunions - is all a bit too contrived as characters lie their way through the madness happening inside and outside the facility.

It begins with a white screen announcing Day One of the outbreak and concludes with a jump – after going through 13 days a lot of death – with Day 265. This is just a massive tease for Season Two (debuting next year) but the jump and what it depicts is a tad ludicrous. Can the writers improve? Oh, yes. All is not lost. There are plenty of cool things about this production. First off, this is slick, slick, super slick FX for Syfy and, as I mentioned earlier, some of the visuals like a rat coming out of a victim’s mouth are not to be missed. The acting is solid and the actors do pull off some of the hokier aspects of the narrative.

You won’t know what the hell is going on by the end of the first season – due to that unfortunate jump in time – but I guess that opens up the world of Helix to include new characters and reexamine the mythology they are hell-bent on developing. It’s not my favorite Syfy show but I’ve seen much worse and I am open to seeing where the show is headed, I just wish that the show had remained a bit more grounded as it headed for the season finale.   

[/tab]

[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - July 1, 2014
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Discs: 0GB Blu-ray Disc; Three-disc set (3 BDs); UV digital copy; Digital copy
Region Encoding: A

The Blu-ray of Helix: Season 1 is presented in 1080p High Definition, with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This is a gorgeous transfer from Sony offered up in an AVC 1080p encodement on Blu-ray. With the series’ limited budget, the production looks as good as shows with twice the cash to splurge. We get lots of detail and a strong dynamic range. The shadings and shadows are finely nuanced with no hints of anomalies like color banding. The audio track is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• Commentary tracks are included for the pilot episode with star Billy Campbell and producer Cameron Posandeh, and for the season finale, with producer Steven Maeda and Campbell. For die-hard fans only.

Special Features:

Spread out over three discs, the supplements leave a little to be desired. You get some deleted scenes and an interview with Moore. There are looks at the making of the show and its setting on an arctic base. The characters get their own featurette and so does the writing. Access to a digital Ultraviolet copy is included.

• Deleted Scenes (6 min)
• Ronald D. Moore: The Outlier of Science Fiction (7 min)
• The Future of Disease (5 min)
• Writing the Tension (6 min)
• The Art of Isolation (6 min)
• Outtakes (3 min)
• Dissecting Characters (11 min)
• Fabricating the Plague (6 min)

[/tab]

[tab title="Trailer"]

[/tab]

{/jatabs}