I haven't done a 'River Reviews' in ages, it seems, though it's not as if I haven't been watching series. Currently we're on Season 4 of Das Boot - nothing like Nazis, spys, and submarines, right? And despite thinking I'd be bored, I really did enjoy the last Mission Impossible. That car chase was fantastic.

Both these are great sci fi, but both demand you suspend belief. One's a time travelling action series, the other's a more thoughtful warning about the potential of biotech in the wrong hands.

The Lazurus Project

I loved Season 1 so was super keen for the second season, and wasn't disappointed. It's the kind of show that I hate watching in front of Jamie, as he'll usually mock the science of it, whilst I'm busy suspending disbelief because the story is fun.

If you're into time travel and action films, you'll love this series. Like many time travel films, it explores what exactly ordinary people are prepared to do to a) save the world or b) save the ones they love or c) change the past and fix up their mistakes or d) all of the above.

It's British, too, which is always going to be a drawcard for me.

Basically, the Lazurus Project is an organisation kinda like MI5 that can go back in time to a set point three weeks in the past in a constant loop to undo cataclysmic events. Ordinary people don't know their lives are being repeated over and over and over unless they're given a serum or just have an innate ability to do so, like George, the main protagonist. Trouble is, he gets caught in a bit of a dilemma - does he save the world or save his girlfriend, who dies in an accident? What exactly is he prepared to do?

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In the second season, there's no assurance that by saving Sarah, he's saved his love life - in fact, the stakes are raised as they try to stop a time machine or aid the building of a time machine, depending on where they're at and what they know. It's a roller coaster of a ride much like Mission Impossible - whilst it still demands you think and keep up, it's massively entertaining with car chases, explosions and all that kind of fun.

Even though it can be hard at times to keep up, it does make sense - and it does feel believable, even if Jamie doesn't think so. There's also a smattering of humour, such as when the characters can't believe that the chief time machine scientist hasn't watched 'Back to the Future'.

I can't wait for season 3.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars - good fun and a great example of the time travel genre.

Severance

Okay if you thought time travel was weird, you definitely won't like Severance, which starts off so bonkers you don't think you could possibly invest any time in it. Eventually, you're on the edge of your seat - until you check your head and realise this whole premise is utterly impossible. Or is it?

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Okay, so here's the premise: a big mysterious company called Lumen has technology which severs the working life and personal life of it's workers. So you'd go to work, and your work self would know nothing of your personal home self - not your hobbies, not your interests, not even if you're married or have a kid or anything. And same goes for the work life.

Obviously, this doesn't sit well with some people who believe it's an infringement on free will and exploitative - wait - a big company being exploitative of it's workers? Noooo.... that could never happen, right? So it's clearly a criticism of corporate culture and the extent large companies will go to to manipulate and exploit it's workforce.

It's also an indictment of how technology can be used - in this case, biotech. The psychological landscape the workers inhabit is a strange space of endless hallways and a jobs that appear meaningless and indecipherable. It's a visually incredible landscape that is equally terrifying as it is beautiful. Dutch artist Escher and his 'Relativity' artwork comes to mind.

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Christopher Walkin is also impeccable in it - I love him as an actor and he's mesmerising in this. Each of the characters is beautifully formed. The main protagonist is terribly sad - his wife died in a car accident, so working for Lumon gives him an opportunity to forget. Patricia Arquette is terribly creepy.

Before long, of course, the two worlds start to bleed into each other, and there's the added dilemma of a missing colleague and a new one who can't believe her outer self would have signed up for this horror and constantly tries to get out - an impossible task, even if one uses rope in the lift.

It makes me love Ben Stiller all the more for creating such a masterpiece, however wierd it might be.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 - thought provoking, experimental, odd and interesting.

What have you been watching lately?

With Love,

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