I've waited 2 years to write this review. First, I was waiting till the end of season 1, then I thought no, they might still mess it up in season 2, and the beginning episodes seemed to confirm that. But then my questions were answered and it kept going great from there. Then I was thinking that season 3 might be a disappointment (things are bound to get sloppy eventually, right?) and there were a couple of hiccups - literally two, hence 'only' 9 stars - but after that it was smooth, ahem, nail-biting sailing till the very end.
I get that a lot of people are comparing this to the original movie, and I get the actor playing Cole isn't some hunk you want to watch week after week. In fact, he almost became the reason why I stopped watching after the first episode. He's too average to be a world-saving hero and he doesn't seem like a great actor. But the thing is, he has very good chemistry with the actress playing his love interest, Cassandra, and because they're always doing some interesting stuff, I managed to look past everything I didn't like about the guy, and I slowly grew to like his character.
What do I love about this series? The fact that whatever happens, you know why it happens and how. And I love how they travel through time there and back constantly and yet the whole story never stops making sense. Usually you expect that there will be inconsistency and plot holes, most movies in which they mess with the timeline are full of those. But here the writers did a terrific job and you don't have to scratch your head wondering how one thing would've changed another and hence rendered everything that came before pointless/stupid/impossible/you name it. There is no such thing in this series - which is a serious achievement if you think of all the timelines that can be affected. For the viewer to track all this is already hard, and how did the screenwriter not get this all tangled up? And in season 3 they even have the future to deal with and STILL it works with everything that happened in season 1. It's truly mind-bending sometimes. You're waiting for a hiccup and it doesn't come, except those two times in season 3, but even those can probably be explained, you just have to stretch your imagination a bit. Come to think of that, I now realize there was only really one unexplained thing.
And that's another thing that I like: that often you may wonder about whether something makes sense but the answer will be given eventually. Sometimes a person's motives may be unclear, but then you get a glimpse into the future when things change, and then you have to remember that what you saw earlier is actually the result of the future changing. You'd think someone wouldn't do this or that, and it's true, they shouldn't, but you're thinking about what led to the moment from the PAST, and they've already been in the FUTURE and they decided to take a different course of action, you just don't know it yet. This show does keep you on your toes. I love how clever it is.
I was never comparing it to the movie. I don't know why anyone would. Obviously, shows are often using concepts from movies and because you have all the time in the world to build your story, you can do whatever you want with it. And nobody says you have to stick to the original storyline. Someone liked the idea of the '12 monkeys' movie and they thought this would make a good show about time travel and that's what they wrote. Why are so many people so disappointed? If the movie could last 30 hours, this is probably where it would go, but in the movie we get a limited version of the show. The movie could never do in two hours what this series did, there's way too much going on.
Some reviewers complain about the actors or the lack of special effects, etc. This show doesn't pretend that it's a blockbuster movie, and the effects are really not needed because the story works fine without them. All you really need is to see that time travel machine do a decent job and it does. I like the pseudo-scienfitic jargon, although sometimes you have to figure out what sentences like 'We located their temporal signature' could possibly mean. But this is still within the limits of your imagination and you don't have to suspend your disbelief here. This could all potentially happen in the near future.
Cole and Cassie change so many things in the past, in so many different points in time, and yet all of that will still lead them to the starting point in episode 1. Like the snake swallowing its tail, this story can go in loops, and that's what I take away from it as the best thing about this show. In other series or movies about time travel the future changes, you start another timeline and you can't go in circles. That's what is wrong with those movies - their logic easily collapses once you manipulate things around. Not here.
I like the bits of humor that you get occasionally, and I like all the actors, they all have their personalities and life stories so it's easy to identify with them. I especially like the crazy Jennifer Goines, who throughout seasons 1 and 2 would tell her weird prophecies and I kept thinking it's BS, it's just some stupid stuff that's meant to sound like it makes sense but it doesn't. And she got me every single time because it always turned out that her prophecies were very smart and that she actually knows what she's doing, she has a purpose.
There's loads more going on here and I really hope they don't mess up season 4. I don't want to come back here and change my rating to only 3 stars. Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be another 'Lost'. The 3 seasons so far have built up to a point from which it almost seems it can only go down but I'm crossing my fingers that it won't be the case.
And in season 4 they're supposed to be traveling back to the Middle Ages. I can't wait and I couldn't ask for more. I really appreciate that the creators of this show put so much effort into all the details. They could've just said 'Who cares if this makes sense? Let's confuse the heck out of people, they won't know what's going on so they won't ask too many questions. And who says a TV series has to be logical anyway?' This could've easily happened.
'12 monkeys' is an amazing show so don't miss it. (And if they can explain that one hiccup that keeps bothering me, I will maybe be able to sleep again.)
Review of 12 Monkeys
