Just when I thought that I couldn't possibly add another television show to my already full arsenal, here comes Helix. For those of you that don't know, Ronald D. Moore (who produced Battlestar Galactica) has a new television series on the SyFy channel. Helix is a show about a group of scientists from the CDC who travel to the arctic to get the outbreak of some crazy disease under control. Episode 1 and 2 had me on pins and needles because the show seemed like a cross between the movie Contagion and the television show The X-Files with a little zombie feel thrown in for good measure. So far the show is eight episodes in and there is soooooo much going on. If you plan to watch it I would highly recommend doing so before you continue to read cause I'm gonna talk about it.
The show kicks off with Dr. Alan Farragut being called to help with an outbreak in some remote part of the arctic where research is being done. Alan is given this information by his ex-wife, Dr. Julia Walker, and some military guy by the name of Sergio Balleseros. Alan isn't quite sure why HE is being called in for this task specifically until Julia tells him that one of the infected patients is his brother Dr. Peter Farragut. Oooooohhhhh the plot thickens
Alan gets his team together (including some young scientist who seems to have a thing for him) and they head to the land of ice and snow. Once they get there they are met by Dr. Hatake who heads the entire base and his "son" Daniel who is the head of security. Alan and Julia see Peter for the first time and it's a bit awkward since Julia was once married to Alan but slept with Peter during their marriage. OUCH! Peter looks CRAZY with his eyes all bloodshot, skin pale and black veins running up and down his body. Basically Peter looks like he could be a cast member on The Walking Dead, and not the alive kind.
Things pretty much go from bad to worse when Peter escapes isolation and becomes a vigilante on the rampage. He begins infecting other people by essentially vomiting some black liquid from his mouth into his victim's mouth. GROSS! Before you know it people are getting sick left and right (including Julia...oh yeah!) and the infected have to be quarantined to a separate level of the base. As more people become infected and more time passes Alan's patience is becoming short and he sees that there is something deeper going on. OH! I forgot to mention that one of Alan's team members (who is SO close to cracking the code for the virus) gets killed by military man Balleseros. WHAT! So from that point on we know that there is some shady stuff going on.
I don't want to get into too much detail because you really have to watch it to get all of the interpersonal relationships going on. Plus I just don't want to type eight episodes worth of information all in one blog entry. All in all this show is excellent! It's got the great science fiction plot line with an ethical dilemma and creepy half dead, man eating killers thrown in just for fun. If you haven't watched the show yet it comes on at 10pm Friday nights on the SyFy channel. Check it out and let me know what you think so we can recap and discuss. In the mean time check out this trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment