MovieChat Forums > Twelve Monkeys (1996) Discussion > The TV Version (SyFy)

The TV Version (SyFy)

posted 10 years ago by cassbtt
4 replies | jump to latest

Hey, perhaps I have some bona fides when it comes to this, given I'd spent a couple of years writing and marketing a trilogy of sequels to the movie to the rights holder (see website below for history).

Anyway, I didn't think I'd get to see anything of the SyFy show, but Show Case is on free trial this month, and lo' and behold there it was, the first episode!

So, I won't deliver any spoilers (though I did enjoy what I think is the best line of dialogue in the show, "She bought me a cheeseburger"), but I hope everybody will enjoy the TV show for what it's worth.

I don't really even watch TV "shows", per se. More for the movies, documentaries and news. Personally, I just can't commit to plopping myself in front of my set every week, even with a PVR at my disposal. And the Show Case trial goes off soon, so I think I'll only get in the next two episodes.

But I'm going to tune in. No problem. I enjoy the cast that I've seen so far, and though I had trouble hearing some of the dialogue, possibly because everybody's in such a darned hurry (42 minutes plus 18 commercials), I'm looking forward to seeing more.

In fact, my only criticism is that it seems in such a hurry, but I guess that's the medium of modern TV. The movie took its time. Most movies take their time.

I saw a 60's Sergio Leone spaghetti western on the weekend. Very high on the cool factor. But there were scenes in that one that were several minutes long that were just meant to be cool, in a slow sort of way. This TV show hit the ground running and it left me breathless, not necessarily always in the good way, but not horrible either.

It isn't a spoiler to suggest this, but I'll mask it anyway: A lot of the criticism up front appears to be centered on the notion that these guys are trying to change the past. But, it could be that while they're trying to do that, and risk erasing themselves in their present, maybe they can't. It's exactly the way time travel would go, in its development: Try this, try that, realize what it really can and can't do. So I'm willing to give it a bit of leeway there.

Forget the movie, and tune in. It's a different beast. Give Atlas Entertainment and all the writers a few dollars of royalties, and enjoy.

Links to "Twelve Monkeys" Pages
www.tempesta-tormenta.ca

[–] mary-jervis 10 years ago

The reason I won't watch the TV show is they caught the Doctor who let the virus out. We do not see Bruce Willis as a child anymore because nothing remarkable happened that day. I am thinking that the woman who came from the future and sat across the aisle from Dr. Peters sent someone back further and killed him do nothing happened. Therefore, making a TV show on a great movie is a waste of money.

[–] Xaeden 10 years ago

The TV show is not a continuation of the movie, it's an adaption that borrows some of the basic concepts and then goes off and tells its own independent story. Yes, they caught the doctor in the movie, but they have no idea who did it in the TV show. It's a completely different continuity wherein the whole plot of the movie does not exist within the world of the TV show. They borrow some similarities, but it's basically a remake done on a different medium.

They've even edited several of the mechanics for their purposes. For example, in the movie the scientists built the time machine and knew that altering the timeline was impossible before sending Cole back in time. Conversely, in the TV show the scientists found a partially completed time machine from before the fall and completed it. They're really just tinkering with things that they do not fully understand, so they have no idea that they're dealing with a predestined timeline even though they obviously are (although it's a strange concept for a TV show and I wonder if they intend to ridiculously have the characters find a way to break the loop at some point). Also, the TV show characters can travel above ground without special protections and, in fact, TV Cole spent most of his life scavenging in an above ground wasteland.

[–] eddie_willers 10 years ago

I don't really even watch TV "shows", per se. More for the movies, documentaries and news.

You are really missing out as the peopel who used to write good movies have had to leave the new "tent-pole, blockbuster" Hollywood and are now writing for TV.

It's better now than even when Rod Serling etc. ruled early TV.

[–] tutankhaten 10 years ago

I never made it to the end of episode 1.
Guess TV's not my thing.

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