Century City

It is almost pointless to post about Century City now that its cancelled but what the hey. Set 26 years from now in a Los Angeles that has been through a 7.1 quake, and rebuilt itself into a slick, gleaming megacity (still hazed with smog) fraught with all kinds of futuristic legal problems we arrive. Taking a tack from the Minority Report school of design the set pieces look like they came directly from the warehouses of Bang Olafsen, Ikea, and Sony with the typical "computer displays etched onto glass windows and desk display panels made of plexi" type of style. Derivative of Earth tech of the near future in scifi. Great... Anywho this Law Office presented here gets some really cool and creepy cases to litigate, and for the most part they always win.

The pilot episode concerned a man attempting to save his son with the aid of an embryonic clone of said child. The only problem is cloning is illegal in the U.S. and having had the clone manufactured overseas (Crafty Singaporeans), and transported to the states he has committed not just an extrordinary crime but created a ethical situation which will not only hold the life of his son in the balance, but show the darker side of cloning....harvesting of its organs to support its gene donor. Sadly the drama presented was rather complex and emotionally unstable due to the writing and pairing with a second story involving an aging Boy Band that wanted one of its memebers to use a dangerous anagathic (age defying) drug as part of his wellness regimen. What was supposed to be serious came off as silly and contrived and really stole the drama away from the Cloning portion of the story. So basically the first episode was a bit of a dog and unfortunately that taint would come back and haunt the series for a few more episodes.

While it was not a "hyped" scifi show, filled with otherworldly effects and intergalactic intrigue, it did have its moments. One story concerning a virtual rape with nanomachines showed chilly social implications of technology and the future of stalking and psychopathic crimes while another episode dedicated itself to the plight of a man who with the aid of a neural implant that was designed to raise his IQ was facing possible death if he didn't have it removed, and the contentious issue being was he mentally capable of making the decision to change himself back or fight to stay as he was. There was indeed the kernal of great drama and speculative vision housed in the shows writers.

Whatever the future holds for scifi, televsion, and law remains to be seen in another time another place. Century City our best hope for glimpsing a possible "legal" future has met the falling of the gavel and its court is dismissed. Sad? Potentially, as "thinking persons'" televsion is few and far between and this could have been contender.

It's being shown in Universal HD, if you have high-def satellite service. I thought it was a brand new program! I guess I blinked and missed it the first time around in 2004...very interesting show. I like the clever use of "future" technology, like the "Mate Finder" device that some people walk around with, like a miniature dating service in a Blackberry. It tweedles when someone who fits your criteria passes you on the street or something. The show I'm watching today also features a child finder device that lets a parent patch into any camera in the city to see what their child is up to. That's the upgraded version. The girl in question staged a kidnapping so she could have a finder chip removed. She is railing against the lack of privacy that her parents concern takes away from her. Some ethical things to think about. Anyway, it's an interesting show...wonder why Sci-Fi didn't pick it up...

Frankly, I'm really tired of lawyer shows, especially ones dealing with civil law. It's a little hard to get enthusiastic about folks who bill you a hundred bucks just to make a photocopy.

BUT-- I enjoy shows dealing with social issues. And shows dealing with impending social issues are all to few. Usually they're limited to shoot-em-ups like the various STAR TREKs or TWILIGHT ZONE / OUTER LIMITS. This is too bad, as the viewer detaches the issue from its real world aspects and might not give it any further thought.

So having a show dealing with the legal issues of things to come is, I think, a good idea. My college Architecture profs used to talk about the idea of a soap opera that could be used to introduce new ideas to the viewing public. Wrap the technology in a nice plot and the viewer can get at least some of the ideas he's missing by not watching PBS or Discovery Channel.

Okay, the lawyers' characters might be as engaging as the cartoon characters on LA LAW or THE PRACTICE but that is a good thing. Make these folks lawyer caricatures and you lose the real purpose of the show, which is to make you think about the impending issues presented.

Not all issues are strictly futuristic. One March 23rd episode plot dealt with child stars. Don Most (HAPPY DAYS) gave a nice performance as a broken down former child star and Daryl Sabara (SPY KIDS) as a current child star afraid of puberty.

CENTURY CITY is a highly intelligent show. Whether it will attract unintelligent viewers is a matter for time to reveal.

Postscript-- Nope. Cancelled with its second episode.

This series is very thought-provoking. It may not be rigorous legal drama, but it makes you think about difficult issues. As far as science fiction goes, not all sci fi must be space-based shootemups. It is more a speculative investigation, exploring difficult moral and social issues. The science fiction element is the extrapolation of current trends or ideas, admittedly sometimes into the technically impossible, but provides the basis to wrestle with complex, controversial concepts. The characters are complex and well-portrayed by the actors. The issues are never clear cut, black-and-white, and the characters struggle with them.

I watched the pilot knowing this show wouldn't last more than a handful of episodes. Like 'Mercy Point' from a few seasons ago (E.R. done sci-fi) this attempt at The Practice done sci-fi was doomed by people's perceptions of what sci-fi is and isn't. The people who watch procedural shows like CSI or Law & Order do so for the reality, the 'follow-the-clues' approach, the methodicalness (is that a word? it is now). Sci-fi (at least the soft-sci-fi seen on TV) generally isn't known for these things. So who is going to watch a sci-fi lawyer show? Not lawyer show fans who have a hard time accepting the 'fiction' part of science fiction and not sci-fi fans who want spaceships and laser guns in their sci-fi.

The pilot was also hampered by not being that good. Or at least, not that easy to follow. The clone case was too complicated and warranted the entire hour but instead had to share time with a b-story about a boy band reuniting. Neither case resonates much with the general public.

The second ep aired (actually ep #3) did a better job of presenting futuristic legal cases that audiences now could relate to. The rape trial was quite well done and delved into the philosophy of the issue making it much more interesting. But by this time, with the pre-empting this show faced, it was obvious it was doomed.

I think they would have done better with just setting the show a year or 3 in the future and dealing with the same issues, perhaps done as a bit of an 'alternate reality' where things are just a little more scientifically advanced. This way the courtrooms and more importantly the laws being debating are more recognizable to viewers. How today's laws apply to cloning is more interesting than how a fictional law from 2025 applies.

Oh well. One more mid-season show bites the dust. bet this one won't even get the almost mandatory 'save the show' webpage everything gets now.