Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Jaume Collet-Serra, Michael Katleman, PJ Pesce, Matt Earl Beesley, Dawn Wilkinson, John F. Showalter, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Melanie Mayron, Kenneth Fink, Wendey Stanzler, Via Vision Entertainment.
Reverie is an attention-grabbing concept through a virtual reality program where the impossible becomes possible. Anything you desire you can find here, but sometimes people get lost between anarchy and reality. It appears that some people are far happier in Reverie than they are in the real world, leading their physical bodies to lapse into comas.
That’s when Mara comes in to find the lost ones and bring them home to reality. Former hostage negotiator Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi, Person of Interest), an expert on human behaviour, is hired by tech company Oniratech to ‘save’ people who have lost themselves in the sophisticated VR program called Reverie. In the process, of saving others, she may actually have discovered a way to save herself after suffering a personal tragedy.
Her former boss, Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert), brings her in to save the ordinary people who are lost in an immersive, highly advanced program in which users can live out their wildest dreams.
It’s refreshing to see Shahi anchor a series. Haysbert is appropriately authoritative with a touch of mystery; Sendhil Ramamurthy brings the brainy charisma as Paul Hammond, the scientist and developer behind the 2.0 version; Kathryn Morris is charming and intriguing as Monica Shaw, a Defense Department official with an interest in the use of Reverie for government purposes; and Jessica Lu is a promising scene-stealer as the sullen programmer masking personal pain.
From Mickey Fisher, the creator of Extant, all 10 episodes are in this three-disc collection. Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown, The Commuter) directs the brisk and arresting pilot, complete with an imaginative take on various mental and psychological playgrounds, ranging from breathtaking woodland settings to a frenetic Chinatown celebration.
The other episodes are also interesting, well acted and the premise remains intriguing.
