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Don’t Wait For the Future, Syfy’s 12 Monkeys is the New Show to Get Hooked on Right Now

12 Monkeys - PilotSyfy’s 12 Monkeys is absolutely, positively, 100% the next show you need to be obsessed over.

12 Monkeys premieres tonight on Syfy but we’ve seen the first two episodes and absolutely loved them. General plot points will be discussed but ppoilers will be kept to a minimum.

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I’m here and there on reboots/remakes. I’m normally against them on principle but I’d say at least half wind up being pretty awesome despite our nostalgic groans. Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica certainly took the original and ran with it. While 12 Monkeys may not be as huge a departure, I predict it will be the show you’re dying to see the next episode of as soon as you’re done watching one.

Sci-fi, if we omit comic book adaptations, has been rather dry on television lately. At least for me, anyway. So I was happily surprised to really enjoy 12 Monkeys. Based on the Terry Gilliam film of the same name (where Bruce Willis played Cole, Madeleine Stow played Kathryn Railly, and Brad Pitt played Jeffrey Goines), the series covers the same basic territory. In the future, a plague has wiped out almost all humans and a man is sent back in time to help them survive. He’s helped by a doctor and hindered by a trust fund kid with mental health issues. But don’t expect that Gilliam feel on Syfy. And to be honest, I’m glad for that. No one should try and be Gilliam.

Aaron Stanford (Nikita, The X-Men’s Pyro) stars as Cole in Syfy’s version, Amanda Schull (Suits, Pretty Little Liars) as Cassandra Railly, and Emily Hampshire as Jennifer Goines. Yup, they’ve genderswapped Goines.

12 Monkeys - Season 1Zeljko Ivanek (Revolution, True Blood) plays the man Cole is sent back to eliminate but of course things don’t go quite so easily. Some may find Railly’s belief of Cole’s time traveling tale too far fetched but I’m glad precious time isn’t wasted trying to convince her. They way he does is perfect and exciting to watch.

12 Monkeys’ take on time travel so far is mostly things we’ve seen before (really, you can only do time travel stories so many ways) but executed in unique and fascinating ways. Barbara Sukowa (who bears a resemblance to Kate Mulgrew) is Jones, creator of the time machine, who we meet in 2043. Cole is altered in order to be able to go back in time and is sent to 2013, the story proceeds from there. And yes, parodoxes are addressed, also in an incredibly riveting manner.

12 Monkeys - Season 1A super creepy villain you might recognize also joins the fray and adds another wrinkle… in time, but that comes in episode two, which you’re probably going to want to see immediately after the premiere. I know because after watching the first episode several months ago I immediately started the second and then languished on the couch thinking about how long it would be before I saw the next installment. Where you think the story would end is just when it’s getting started. I have a feeling that might be indicative of the whole series.

As for our usual problematic alarms, the show could certainly use some more diversity in the lead roles. The scenes which take place at the mental institution are fairly respectful but I’m keeping a concerned eye where Jennifer Goines’ character in concerned. But so far the women in the show are proving to be equally capable to the men, if not more so. This could be in part due to showrunner Natalie Chaidez, who previously worked on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. My only real criticism so far is the two lead characters feel someone drab compared to the story playing out around them, but perhaps this is on purpose? I would say they seem “normal” compared to more flashy characters we’re used to seeing in action adventures but again, they might change significantly the longer they’re involved with this escapade. Regardless, I’m very excited for more and I hope you all give it a try.

12 Monkeys premieres tonight at 9/8c with limited commercial interruption on Syfy. Will you be watching?

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Author
Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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