Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

12 Monkeys: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Monkey see, monkey do, monkey wipe out the world.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 15, 2016

Television spinoffs of popular films often come in animated form: Back to the Future, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and so on. A bit more rare is the live-action TV adaptation. Even more rare is the successful live-action TV adaptation, and more rare still is the long-running successful TV adaptation. Tops on that list are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stargate in its various permutations. The former is worlds away more popular than its sometimes forgotten film predecessor and the latter, based off a significantly bigger, better, and more popular film, expanded into three series that have dwarfed the feature film in every way. Both Buffy and Stargate debuted not long after their films' releases, both in 1997, to be exact. Recently, there's been a "trend," if one can even call it that, to resurrect much older film properties into TV shows. Bates Motel sources the ever-popular 1960 film Psycho. There's a new show based on the hit 1989 Comedy Uncle Buck on the way (following a panned and short-lived TV spinoff that aired in 1990). And, of course, SyFy's 12 Monkeys comes based off the 1995 film of the same name. Though in many ways disparate from Terry Gilliam's acclaimed time travel film, this TV adaptation, which includes a 13-episode first season and a second on the way, follows the same basic story of a time traveler returning to the present day, or thereabouts, in search of a way to stop a plague that all but eliminates mankind from Earth.

Time travel.

In the near future, a super virus will be unleashed that will decimate life on Earth. Only a handful will survive. James Cole (Aaron Stanford), one of the surviving few, is sent back in time to the year 2013 to kill the man he and the future survivors believe to be responsible for the outbreak: Leland Frost. But to learn Frost's true identity and whereabouts, he must first earn the trust and help of Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull), a prominent virologist he believes to have the information he needs. Things go awry, but a series of events -- which include Cole disappearing into thin air before Railly's eyes -- lead her to believe his story and dig deeply into his claims and the man he seeks. Unfortunately, things aren't quite so easy as he believed, and the world's near-future path towards destruction cannot be solved with bullet in the right skull. Cole and Railly are forced to look more deeply into the truth behind what has, or what will, be the end of the world as they know it. That leads them to the "Army of the 12 Monkeys" and a psychiatric patient named Jennifer Goines (Emily Hampshire) who may play a key role in mankind's destiny.

12 Monkeys may be airing two decades following the release of Terry Gilliam's critically acclaimed Sci-Fi masterpiece, but that doesn't make it immune from justifiable comparison. Certainly the TV show has the opportunity to offer a much more thorough exploration of all the key elements, to expand on the idea and the characters, to offer a more detailed, lived-in, full-bodied experience than can a two hour film, even one as great as Gilliam's. But with that greater opportunity for change comes the chance of diluting the product. 12 Monkeys doesn't destroy the franchise or anything -- nothing could undermine the original film's genius -- but it does stretch it to its limits in a first season that's typically topsy-turvy for a TV show. It's a season that starts strong but falters, a bit, after a promising first episode, which could have easily been expanded into a simple re-imagining of the original source film and worked well enough on its own merits. But as the show expands and explores, the effect shrinks. The sense of frantic urgency lessens. The character intimacy depletes. The show works well enough as raw entertainment and certainly expands well beyond the confines -- albeit genius confines -- of Gilliam's original, but TV's version favors souped up action, suspense, and character drama that often feels a stretch to fill 13 episodes, never mind continuing seasons. Audiences coming in without the bias and baggage of holding the original in high acclaim may find it a bit more palatable -- and it is a good show on its own merits -- but it's hard to not think back on the film version and cherish its more immediately approachable and precisely executed, but still dramatically chaotic (in a good way), story elements.

The show is at its best when considered in a more reflective manner than it is in the frenetic actions and happenings of its main storyline. The series dabbles in some interesting philosophical underpinnings that are given a fair, though not fully satisfying, exploration, often integral to the story but never quite feeling like a central, core idea. The show teeters on high-concept Sci-Fi that intermixes time travel paradoxes and general end times grit with human emotion and the human condition. In 13 episodes the series never quite dives right in, at least not in a way that really tests the limits of science, mankind, and all of the what-if's that surround the concept, content to more test the waters with a toe instead. Fortunately there's enough of a ripple effect, and enough of a sensation, to whet the appetite and keep the viewer attuned to what's happening and, often more important, why. Ideas that hint at the notion that the universe unfolds in a nonlinear fashion, cause and effect, divergence, and fate all become part of the series' underlying fabric. If that sounds familiar, it's kind of like The Terminator, in a way. This series' first episode in particular is kind of like that core idea in reverse, about killing someone who will bring it all about rather than kill the person who will prevent it from happening (or it's the T2 Miles Dyson storyline reworked, essentially). But part of the core problem is that rather than focus on a singular journey through time, 12 Monkeys literally plops its characters all over the timeline. Audiences will be so busy sorting it all out that some of the more high concept goodness may get glossed over in an effort to just keep up with the who's, the what's, and the why's, and more important to getting the most out of the show's general storyline, the when's and the where's.

All that said, 12 Monkeys often soars with exceptional production values and quality performances. There's a rough-around-the-edges feel to much of the show, an appropriate blurriness of precision and softening of exactness that fits the general confusion of time travel, paradoxes, and other applications based out of a dystopian future setting that often result in a soupy jumble of concepts and ideas that are challenging enough without the fate of the world hanging in the balance. The cast is fine, if not a bit anonymous. There's a good sense of character inhabitation but with that comes an accentuation of the feeling that the characters aren't as full as they should be. Lead Aaron Stanford is charged with sorting out Cole, a character who seems to have his head on a bit too straight for much of the show, even as he's literally pulled every which way conceivable with ever shifting goalposts and an ever evolving playing field of not just time and people but concepts and the need to execute precise plans in a very narrow and specific window. Amanda Schull can be a bit stiff and Barbara Sukowa never quite seems to gel in her part, but Emily Hampshire is quite ripe in the reworked Brad Pitt role, convincingly clawing through life and mind with a twisted feeling of inevitability to something more significant than mere rantings in a mental institution.

12 Monkeys: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

12 Monkeys: Season One's 1080p transfer delivers a fully satisfying presentation. Detailing is precise, even with an often darker, bleaker backdrop. Facial textures are intimate and clothing lines are dense and deeply defined. Plenty of raw textures abound in places like the future time travel chamber or the roughhewn asylum walls. Colors aren't often all that cheery or robust, but basics like colored chairs in the asylum, small accents around backgrounds, clothes, and exteriors -- both natural and manmade -- saturate the screen with a good bit of balanced coloring within the series' basic parameters. Obviously, more densely lit areas reveal a more eye-popping palette. Black levels are nicely deep, for the most part, with only a few select occurrences of paleness and purpleness. Flesh tones fall in line with the series' general lighting and color schemes. Various compression anomalies are largely absent. This is a solid all-around presentation from Universal.

12 Monkeys: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

12 Monkeys: Season One arrives on Blu-ray with a positive listening experience. Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack features well placed and suitably clear music. It's often a lively presentation with swirling details and a full-stage encompassment. The "time travel" sound effects, from the future chamber, a wildly unkempt but deliberately so. Deep, penetrating sound swirls around the listener to excellent effect, creating a crude and heavy sensation that smartly matches the on-screen mechanics. Gunshots are healthy and crisp, zipping about with good power and density. Various crashes and slams are sharp and piercing; no action scene wants for more oomph and wide spacing. Atmospherics are good and enveloping, whether deep background hums or more traditional flavors outside. Dialogue presents with positive center balance, natural articulation, and consistent prioritization.

12 Monkeys: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

12 Monkeys: Season One contains deleted scenes on discs one and two and several features on disc three. A UV digital copy code is included with purchase.

Disc One:

• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Scenes from episode one (16:33) and episode two (3:37).

Disc Two:

• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Scenes from episode five (0:25) and episode eight (3:28).

Disc Three:

• Gag Reel (1080p, 3:10).
• Cast Auditions (1080p, 11:54): Audition footage featuring Amanda Schull, Barbara Sukowa, and Todd Stashwick.
• Emily Hampshire -- Markridge Improv Speech (1080p, 1:04): The dodo!
• Webisodes (1080i): Several shorts from the 12 Monkeys universe. Included are Self Portrait (2:05), Forty Three Minutes (1:52), Message (2:09), The Next Cycle (1:50), The Interview (2:49), and Names to Learn (2:20).

12 Monkeys: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

12 Monkeys may be nowhere near as enthralling as Terry Gilliam's Sci-Fi masterpiece on which it is based, but its thirteen-episode strong first season delivers good entertainment value mixed brainy and dense Sci-Fi overtones, ideas that are explored but never quite to total satisfaction. 12 Monkeys: Season One features very good video and audio. Supplements are skimpy but serviceable. Recommended.