Virtuality

The following dialog contains Virtuality Spoilers. If you do not want spoilers please skip to the last paragraph for news on Virtuality and what you can do about it. I will not give away too many details but for the spoilerphobic out there, this show is worth checking out so please consider yourself warned and skip ahead.

Virtuality appears to be a very intriguing series with a lot to offer its viewers. It seems to have everything a couch potato could ever hope for in a show, something for the reality TV (a reality show TV within the scripted show) fans, murder, a possibly evil corporation, awesome special effects, virtual reality machines that can simulate any environment, a cheating wife, and space. The pilot episode had a grand scope that set up a terrific continuing plot line and contained a super twist at the very end. A twist (SPOILER ALERT) that the creators of Lost toyed with what Virtuality did to its main character but did not have the gumption to go through with.

Virtuality follows the lives of 12 people on a mission to find a planet that could support human life. The mission of this crew has become extremely important to the people back on Earth because the planet is falling apart in environment catastrophe. According to what the crew believes Earth has approximately 100 years before it can no longer support human life at all. They are on a 10 year mission to figure out if life can blossom somewhere else in the universe.

To make matters more interesting the 12 person crew has a TV Host/Computer Expert and a Psychologist/Producer on board. It is their job to turn the daily routine of this space vessel into the highest stakes reality show in the history of the world (bigger than American Idol). It seems like the corporation that paid for this trip is making money in any way they can.

Unfortunately Virtuality is called Virtuality. Ron Moore (the co-creator of this series) foolishly named his last project “Battlestar Galactica” and gave his potential audiences a huge hurtle to jump before they were even willing to give the show a shot, I feel he has made a similar mistake with the name, “Virtuality”. Aside from being a Denzel Washington movie I, as most people, have no idea what that means and it certainly does not encompass the general sense of cool this show radiates.

Even worse than the silly name, however, is the super bad news. Virtuality is not a series. It was shot as a series pilot but FOX in their infinite wisdom did not pick it up. Oddly FOX instead decided to show this as a TV movie rather than the pilot episode it truly is intended to be. Usually networks simply bury pilots they do not plan on picking up so I am hoping this is a sign that maybe, depending on viewers (you’ve missed it already) and streams (it’s on Hulu.com right now please go there and watch it) they will reconsider and possibly bring it in as a midseason replacement. In any event it is worth your time to check it out!