Charlie Jade Discussion/Appreciation

[ShadowMaat]

I don't have a DVR so I can't exactly rewatch the eps and since Skiffy has now dumped the show into an ungodly time slot, I can't even watch the first run eps. And the DVDs (which should probably contain the commentaries) are hellaciously expensive. So I guess I'm SOL on all counts.

[ShadowMaat]

Is Veoh legal? Because Gateworld has some strict policies about discussing/linking to illegal methods of obtaining episodes.

[Bey0nd]

Is Veoh legal?

Yes its a legal website but unfortunately just like youtube some people use it to upload illegal clips of other shows/movies

[Bey0nd]

Re-Cap for anyone who missed the third

“You Are Here”
http://www.popcritics.com/2008/06/ch...-you-are-here/

.....
The Hunt for Reena

Reena\'s Sick

Karl is convinced that Charlie’s an alien. He can think of no other explanation for the very alien way in which Charlie sees the world and the ignorance he shows of it. Not recognizing a picture of Nelson Mandela is merely the most current manifestation of his ignorance. Charlie of course knows he’s not an alien, even if he doesn’t know where he is.

Karl and Charlie decide they need to track down Reena. I tell you, it’s times like this I really appreciate Charlie’s detection abilities. He must have been a heckuva PI in Alpha.

Reena’s not having the best time in Beta. Seemingly getting sicker by the minute, she finds a seedy hotel and rents a room for a week. I don’t know the conversion rate between dollars and rand, but I know d-bags when I see them: he overcharged her. This world is not just foreign to her, it almost seems to be killing her. The way Patricia McKenzie looks at everything, as though the light hurts her eyes, really sells the pain she feels here.

In Gamma, 01 is at the site of a car wreck. A little red car, this is the one Reena and her beau were in during the pilot. The Vex-Cor investigator has a picture of the young lovers and 01 takes a good long look. His body was found; not hers.

Sometime later, Vex-Cor agents show up at the hotel and the manager lets them in her empty room. As they search, he leaves. He rounds the corner and bumps into Reena, who has gone out for coffee or tea. He looks extremely guilty, looks back toward her room, looks at Reena, and she figures it out. She throws the hot beverage in his face and takes off. Another foot chase and another chance for Reena to escape with her superior foot speed and agility. That’s where McKenzie’s dance background really comes in handy. By the end of the episode, her photo has been broadcast everywhere and she finds herself hiding out in the sewers, sick and alone....

[Bey0nd]

http://www.televisionzombies.com/200...dirty-laundry/

Review: Charlie Jade 1.6 - “Dirty Laundry”

[X-3-0-2]

finally getting a daytime airing next week

[Bey0nd]

the soundtrack for Charlie Jade is excellent


You should check it out

[Bey0nd]

The return of Charlie Jade, Eight hour marathon on March 10

http://forums.scifi.com/index.php?showtopic=2322512

[ShadowMaat]

Will try to remember to tune in. Loved what little I saw, but the time slot they moved it to was frakkin' ridiculous. HOPEFULLY I can catch up, although knowing Skiffy they'll probably do something wonky with the ordering and still leave me with a few gaps.

[marielabbott]

I appreciate Sci-Fi for airing marathons like this...but I almost never get to view them, as I usually have to work during those hours, so no catching up for me. I wish they'd release some US DVD player compatible discs.

[Bey0nd]

Still no region 1 DVD release



Reviewed:

Charlie Jade
http://frakkingoff.blogspot.com/2007...rlie-jade.html
Tonight, I watched the last episode of "Charlie Jade," a sci-fi TV series I've been making my way through. You've probably not heard of it, but you certainly deserve to.

It's a South African TV show made in 2004, that lasted one season before failing to be renewed, and has yet to play in America. It can be seen in Canada, South Africa, and a handful of other countries, and can be acquired on DVD only in Japan (Region 2), with no cable broadcast in the US or Region 1 release anywhere in sight.

Which is really too bad, because it ended up being a really amazing TV show.

It's really quite hard to describe. The plot revolves around the existence and the events of three different alternate universes - Alphaverse, Betaverse, and Gammaverse, all of which are being drawn together and linked by the actions of large corporations and several important characters (one of who is named, not surprisingly, Charlie Jade).

Alphaverse is more futuristic than our world - it's very Blade Runner-esque, with a bleak metropolis ("Cape City" instead of "Cape Town." Remember, this is South African TV), heavy pollution, and all-controlling corporations playing the role of Big Brother. Charlie Jade is from Alphaverse, as are most of the villains.

Betaverse is our universe, where Charlie Jade accidently ends up lost within, in the beginning of the series. Throughout the series, the future existence of our world, Betaverse, is in jeapordy, thanks to a potential collapse in the Multiverse to be brought on by VexCor, the largest corporation in Alphaverse (source of many of the villains). This is the crisis that drives the plot of the show (once the show actually starts to have a driving plot. More on that below).

Gammaverse is a utopian universe, where man lives in harmony with nature. With the potential for nearly unlimited resources to rape and pillage, they are an attractive target for VexCor.

The series is like a mixture of "Blade Runner" and "Sliders," only instead of the lame, ****ty writing and the stupidity of "Sliders," it's very intelligent and grounded in some sort of reality. Unlike the alternate universes of "Sliders," we instead focus on the same three universes, leading to an intertwining, extended story arc, instead of episodic, Universe-of-the-Week stories.

Or maybe it's like a mixture of "The X-Files" and "Total Recall," with the X-Files aspect focusing more heavily on science fiction, and less on the supernatural, and all the episodes (save one or two) focusing on the same storyline, instead of standalones interspersed everywhere.

Perhaps the best description is "Perfect Dark: The Series," although other universes have been substituted for aliens, and only one of the protagonists is a kick-ass woman. Thematically, the show really feels like the story behind "Perfect Dark:" Large corporations and corporate intrigue, some fantastical breakthroughs in our perception of the world, advanced technolgy, high-tech espionage, an unraveling mystery, and some intense action sequences. (Seriously, this fight is one of the most intense fights I've ever seen in a movie or TV show. It's one of the few extreme fights I've ever seen staged that felt really real, based on how the characters reacted to one another and how much they really seem to hurt. Action sequences have become far too stylized, and are no longer credible, save for the rare exceptions, like this one). And the music is appropriate for the setting, too.

There is a major drawback to the series, though, and it's the beginning. There are 20 episodes in all, but things don't really get going until about a third of the way through. Like many TV shows, especially sci-fi TV shows (see "The X-Files" and every Star Trek spinoff ever made, for other examples), it takes the creators a while to find the right footing.

The acting isn't so great initially, although it really blossoms later, probably because they dump the one or two really bad actors and keep the really great ones. The directing and camera work really sucks in the first few shows, especially the pilot - there are obvious, juvenile attempts at stylized camera work and flashy attempts at cinematic shots, which come off as a cross between an amateur's work and a porno shoot (you know what I mean - the kind of camera work used in high-class porn has a certain glossy, cheap quality to it. You can't quite put your thumb on it, but you know it when you see it). And the writing is just slow - it takes several episodes for any action to happen, for characters to start doing things and attempting to unlock mysteries, and for any motivations to make any of the characters interesting.

But once it gets going, it really gets going.

The main villain, 01 Boxer (pronounced "Oh One." Weird name, I know - but the rest of the show isn't quite that weird, thankfully), starts off being really lame. Just some boring-ass rocker punk - and what's with that hair? They give him different spiky mohawks, weird random cow licks, mullets, and rat tails in each episode. It makes you want to cringe. They really tone him down later on (especially the ****ty hair), and turn him into a three-dimensional character, who becomes much more fun and fascinating. I think the progression of 01 Boxer, from a stereotypical punk bad guy to a real character, with motivations, moods, and flavors, is a perfect example of how the show matures in a short span of time.

One of the main characters, Reena, starts off looking like a man. I'm sorry, but she looks really ugly initially. She's also pretty pathetic and boring - you just want her to die, so we don't have to put up with her sequences any more. But then, she suddenly becomes this incredibly beautiful woman (I'm convinced it's mostly the hair, which goes from being man-like in braids to long, thick, and curly, changing her face from a man's face to a lovely woman's face, and thus not ruining her body either). And she also becomes an interesting character - instead of some lame fugitive, always on the run, she becomes a brainwashed suicide bomber, attempting to understand and deal with her programing as a special operative, who can sometimes do kung-fu, but at the same time is overwhelmed by just how ****ed up she's become, and can seem quite frail. Her progression is just like everything else on the show - ****ty at first, amazing by the end.

It's rare to see writing like this in sci-fi. The plot really commands interest, especially with the way in which it is grounded in modern reality, unlike a lot of other sci-fi. Also, the story is very continuous - each episode leads right into the next, forming one long, yet concise, story, with little episodic variation and few random interludes. I really like story arc television, as it let's us really learn about a world and a mystery, without feeling fake or "convenient." Consequences are real - when a character dies or makes an important decision, it sticks, and everyone has to deal with it. No reset buttons, no convenient wrap-ups at the end of the episode. This lets us take the show seriously - every action has serious dramatic weight.

My only other complaint about the series is Jasmine/Paula (played by the same actress, Jasmine is Charlie's girlfriend in Alphaverse, and has a doppleganger in Betaverse - she's one of only two characters to have dopplegangers). On the one hand, the actress is really bad. She might be beautiful, but she just can't play a convincing scene at all.

And on the other hand, her character is just plain annoying. First of all, she starts off not having any job - she lives off of Charlie's dime, and contributes nothing. She's a useless, weak little *****.

It takes a long time, after getting blasted to Betaverse, for Charlie to get back to her. And what does she do?

1) She tries to get a real job. But working in a factory is just too hard for the spoiled *****.

2) She decides to try prostitution. Because that's a respectable line of work. But even that's too hard for her.

3) She chooses to sleep with Charlie's friend (who's actually a decent guy and also deserves better than her) and let him support her. So she goes from working-class prostitution to upper-class, harem-like prostitution.

4) Then she gets mad at Charlie when he eventually returns, because he was gone a long time and made her think he was dead.

Seriously, what the **** is up with that? If your boyfriend gets blasted to another universe, and is lost in a different reality, you can't get mad at him for not coming home in time for dinner - especially when he's been trying his best to get back (and is willing to forsake an entire universe for that purpose).

And then she gets mad when he decides to go save the universe. WTF?!

Seriously. If a girl objects to you saving the universe, when you're the only one who can do it, then she's not worth your time. She doesn't deserve you.

Crazy, stupid, useless, needy woman.

I'm glad Charlie eventually says "**** it," and I'm glad the writers decide to write out her ultimately useless doppleganger (I don't mind spoiling these two plot points, because viewers are going to wish for it to happen anyway).

The special effects of the show are real good, too. Given that no major US network was supporting it, the CGI and other effects come off as real strong - neck and neck with the best-funded effects found in other modern sci-fi. Production values are top notch here.

It's also interesting to see televised sci-fi from a country other than the US. For the most part, the American networks are the constant pioneers of dramatized sci-fi (with a little help from Canadians) - barriers are broken here, in the US, with shows like "Star Trek," "The X-Files," "Firefly," and "Battlestar Galactica" (greatest show ever!). Britain gives us "Doctor Who" and a bit of comedic sci-fi, but other than that, shows from other countries, like "Charlie Jade," are rare - and fascinating.

It's cool seeing actors you've never seen before, whereas, if this were an American production, you'd likely see the same guest stars as you've seen in all the other genre shows - which can also be cool, linking different shows together by their guest stars, but this is a breath of fresh air. It's also fascinating, seeing some of the subtle, stylistic differences that come from the work of a different culture, as well as some of the influences we have upon them from our sci-fi.

And speaking of actors you've never seen before, like I said, some of them are top notch. Pierce's "Charlie Jade" is pretty cool, but Danny Keogh's "Julius Galt" is incredible (I love that voice and craggly face - if I ever made a TV series, I'd find a way to include him), and Michelle Burgers does an excellent "Essa Rompkin" - her acting is so excellent, she managed to pull off making a 50 year old woman seem damn sexy in the one scene that she had to.

If you have the chance to see this show, I highly recommend it. Put up with the first 7 or 8 episodes, even if they kind of make you want to turn it off and go do something else, because the payoff is certainly worth it.

The question is, how do you watch this show? Lucky viewers in some countries have access to it, but for some reason, an American DVD release just isn't happening, and none of the networks are willing to broadcast it. I'm surprised Sci-Fi Channel won't, because they love picking up shows other networks have made and cancelled, and this one is actually worth airing (unlike other **** they've picked up and rebroadcasted, like "Code Name: Eternity." God, that was a mistake. I wish I could have those few hours of my life back).

...

[ShadowMaat]

Forgot to watch the marathon. Damn.

I've seen the DVDs on Amazon for $38 recently, which is significantly better than the last time I checked ($174).

[argenoon]

i had the chance to wach an episode and i have 6 more on my dvr, but isnt the begining, im traing to get the first episod. it dem iteresting, and i curst the states for dileing the air of this shows, if the show was air in the states earlyer it could hade founding and more fans to keep it going.
and this is the country of freedom of speech?

[ShadowMaat]

I caught a portion of the latest marathon. The nice thing is that the funky storytelling style is forgiving of those who miss a few eps. They backtrack to bring you up to speed, but they also add in new details (I assume) so that it isn't all repetitive for those who've been watching all along.

Anyway, DVD prices on ebay seem to be under $30 now. Maybe I'll wait a while longer and see if prices drop further.

[argenoon]

friking good i realy recomend this show.

only one question remains after seeing it all
you have:
Alfaverse
Betaverse
Gamaverse
so which one is the 4 one at the end??? it open 3 portal""???""" dont get it