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.
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.