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Critic Reviews
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As actors, Stanford and Schull have to convince TV audiences that they are not dishing out reheated versions of the performances Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe did in the original. Thankfully, that's not the case and these two actors are quite compelling as a couple of lost souls trying desperately to make things right.
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Syfy's best new show in ages. [16 Feb-1 Mar 2015, p.15]
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The past is suddenly malleable. This removes all the stakes, but also downgrades 12 Monkeys from fatalistic sci-fi dystopia to a predictable genre piece. Not horrible by SyFy, or even cable thriller standards, but still disappointing.
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12 Monkeys hums along at a reasonable pace; its pilot is pleasingly energetic and efficient.... The problem is, 12 Monkeys tends to prioritize a series of MacGuffins over attempts to deepen its characters and their relationships.
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It's different enough from the original that you may be better off looking at it fresh, as a promising and more straightforward (okay, relatively straightforward) sci-fi adventure series with the requisite shadow conspiracy and, for those in the past, a looming Armageddon.
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The TV version of 12 Monkeys pulls apart the movie, and finds the ingredients for just another dark, violent genre show.
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12 Monkeys won't hook those who aren't already fans of the genre. The characters are mostly two-dimensional. The philosophical conundrums are secondary to the action. The dialogue is terribly earnest.
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For as long as it has, 12 Monkeys works beautifully as a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that is actually far more complex.
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None of the performers can do much to enliven a show that, judging from the two episodes sent to critics, is comprised mainly of padding.
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It’s Stanford who will hold this thing together, and he seems up to the challenge. I’m ready to look at this whole story again with fresh eyes. It may not be quite on the level of a “Battlestar Galactica” overhaul, but, then, its source material isn’t nearly as campy.
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Intelligent adaptation absent the dark humor, satire--or horror--of the original.
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Through the first two episodes it’s just not enough to differentiate this series from so many conspiracy thrillers that have come before.
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Although the theme of toxic corporate greed is still there, the elongating of the story into many hours and the flattening of some mysteries for clarity on television may annoy devotees of the feature film.
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There’s a lot of body-wrenching time-travel, lots of running across blasted urban landscapes, many predictable betrayals, and entirely too many melodramatic lines such as “You are going to help me change the world, Mr. Cole.”
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It’s a show that disguises its inadequacies through sheer will of pacing, sending characters running, often through time, in an effort to keep viewers from getting bored. It doesn’t quite succeed.
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The series is a powerfully stupidity-ridden vision of poorly done science fiction, an inexcusably generic take on the movie.
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The series is less cryptic than the movie, more of a straightforward action drama, and that’s probably a good thing.
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The first two episode of 12 Monkeys move along crisply and effectively.
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It’s an entertaining genre series with some fun performances, but it doesn’t make the same lasting impression as the works that inspired it.
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The script sometimes ties itself in knots trying to explain all the theoretical physics and horology that drive the plot, but in the early going, it hangs together pretty well.
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Most of the performances are pretty laughable.... It’s too bad SyFy didn’t invest more in a better script and direction.
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The problem, as always, is that the time-travel element can be disorienting from a narrative standpoint.
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With the recent Ebola scare, the show’s premise is timely. Plus, it’s a trippy, roller coaster ride as we learn, along with Cole and Cassandra, who is responsible for killing 7 billion people.
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The polished, muscular pilot is more concept than substance. As far as movie-to-TV adaptions go, 12 Monkeys is far from Fargo, but at least it's watchable. [16 Jan 2015, p.71]
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[A] lack of imagination pervades 12 Monkeys, both in plotting and in aesthetic.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 197 out of 237
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Mixed: 29 out of 237
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Negative: 11 out of 237
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Aug 17, 2015
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Jan 17, 2015
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Oct 27, 2015