Harsh Realm – The Complete Series
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: B- Episodes: B
Was a potential TV Science Fiction classic killed off
before it got started? Two types of
Science Fiction TV have been sorely missing for decades and to do them right to
boot would always be a plus. The one
type is the anthology where you get a different story each week with different
characters, which also functions in semi-anthology form in the second type. Since the original Fugitive, shows
where the returning characters are either on the run or on a journey could
still do the semi-anthology thing. Harsh
Realm was the first such show since the 1970s to do it with any heart,
brain and soul.
The Irwin Allen series like Lost In Space, Voyage
To The Bottom Of The Sea and Time Tunnel functioned in such a
way. The TV series versions of Logan’s
Run and underrated Planet Of The Apes (still out in a fine DVD boxed
set), as well as forgotten 1970s series like Space Academy, Ark II,
and even Shazam! The most
successful of all, of course, was the original Star Trek, something the
sequel series remarkably forgot.
Creator Chris Carter decided to try something different after the
phenomenal success of The X Files and around the time of the
decent-sized success of Millennium (reviewed elsewhere on this
site). Those who were trying to write
him off either would miss Harsh Realm or purposely ignore it.
Of the nine shows that did air on FX, only the first three
managed to be seen in their original run, which is unbelievable. Part of the problem is that the first three
shows overdo the military angle to the point of negating the Science Fiction
angle. Most virtual reality stories
were and still are a disaster. Some say
The Matrix cut it off, coming out the same year theatrically, but Harsh
Realm was ultimately bolder for several reasons.
To understand this, we quickly go back to the original
1982 Disney release Tron, in which the creator of the cyberworld (Jeff
Bridges) is zapped into that very world as part of the very program he created
becomes self-aware and wants to take him on.
The Matrix Trilogy has its one savior Neo (Keanu Reeves), who is
not the creator if that world, become a quasi-spiritual and eventually powerful
force to try to save as many human from cyber-domination as possible at the
highest price to himself. Harsh
Realm, whether you figure in the military conspiracy or not as it does not
appear in the original graphic novel comic book series by James D. Hudnall and
Andrew Paquette, is darker than its cousins in that religion is never
considered either uplifting or feasible in the cyberworld. There is nothing uplifting about it and all
three films offer the idea of a savior, which is totally a Christian concept. What makes Harsh Realm the most
realistic is that it treats the said “savior” as just part of the program,
where the others feign a Christ-like figure.
In Tron, it is in good faith, but The Matrix Trilogy can
only offer a compressed, faded, soulless carbon copy version. Faith can save people and/or cyber people in
these worlds, but only reasoning the situation out can save anyone in Harsh
Realm.
Here, we have soldier Tom Hobbes (Scott Bairstow, in a
role that should have made him a star) who is about to get married when he is
called in for a routine military discussion.
He suddenly disappears, but is taking place in a program for which he
does not know the true consequences of.
After a “video treatment” ala A Clockwork Orange (Stanley
Kubrick, 1971) and The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula, 1974), he is
suddenly in the cyberworld that it turns out is really a crazy U.S. Military
experiment to create a cyber war world.
It unfortunately comes with its own dangerous dictator in Major Omar
Santiago (Terry O’Quinn) who everyone who suddenly lands up there is told they
need to assassinate. Unfortunately,
this is a distraction and lie, as he is another victim in this mad experiment
quaintly dubbed a game. He eventually
becomes allied with a mysterious soldier (the underrated D. B. Sweeney), as
well as a mysterious silent female healer dubbed Florence (Rachael Hayward) who
keeps showing up when people get shot or mutilated.
The episodes are:
1) Pilot
2) Leviathan
3) Inga
Fossa
4) Kein
Ausgang
5) Reunion
6) Three
Percenters
7) Manus
Domini
8) Cincinatti
9) Camera
Obscura
After you get through the first three shows, you see that
the show begins to open up, and Three Percenters may be the boldest show
of all, admitting that there can be total complacency and apathetic in the
“exciting” world of cyber space. The
idea that computer technology and technology are a future of fun, happiness,
and prosperity both blindly and unconditionally is a dangerous and this show
nails it on why in a way even Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, The Wachowski
Brothers and even cyber writers have not gone far enough in stating. Life is not a videogame, something Barry
Levinson’s misguided Toys (1992) tried to do, but missed the mark big
time. The only other precedent in
dealing with this would be John Boorman’s clever 1973 Science Fiction classic Zardoz,
which does have a separate world that could be seen as a forerunner of
cyberspace to some extent. The other
shows also offer truly interesting twists and surprises that keep the show
interesting. This series had much more
to say and do, and unless this DVD set is a huge surprise hit, some of the
greatest television we could have seen in the last quarter century has been
silenced.
The image is good for a TV series that slightly
desaturates its color and has some digital visual effects. The box credits the episodes as being at
1.33 X 1 and they were likely broadcast that way, but they were shot to be High
Definition 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 safe. What
the box sadly does not reveal is that all nine episodes are here in
anamorphically enhanced transfers that do the visuals justice and allow each
show to play as something more impressive than just your usual TV show. The digital is only used for narrative
purposes, which is why the show and its look hold up so well five years later
and counting. Except for the opening
credits, made at 1.33 X 1 and bookended on the 16 X 9 frame, everything is
widescreen. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo has very healthy Pro Logic surrounds and another decent score by
Carter’s music man, Mark Snow. The
French version is almost as good.
Extras are on DVDs 1 & 3 only, with DVD 1 featuring two strong audio
commentaries on the pilot episode by Chris Carter and director Daniel
Sackheim. DVD 3 includes a nearly
half-hour featurette Inside Harsh Realm, and many promo spots for the
show form the original Fox Network promotions and FX reintroduction. There are also promo trailers for The
Alien Quadrilogy, Planet Of The Apes – 35th Anniversary set
and Predator – Special Edition set.
Needless to say, the big build-up, then totally unresolved
conspiracy in The X-Files was a huge failure that left fans cold. Well before the events of 9/11/01, the conspiracy
idea was played out by the previous Chris Carter series. That series, as many well know, was inspired
by Kolchak – The Night Stalker, but was a much larger hit. With Harsh Realm, Carter and his crew
did the one thing in common with Kolchak that X-Files success
could not allow it to achieve. Harsh
Realm is an original, daring, even innovate show that did not survive
beyond one season that is stronger than most hit TV we have seen in the last
few decades. Like Kolchak, as
the show is discovered by more and more people for the great show it is, there
are bound to be endless imitators. See
this original as soon as you can!
- Nicholas Sheffo
