Digital Communism

Seen the 80's mini-series Wild Palms ? Think William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson are a pretty cool authors ? Like the idea of Apocalypse Now crossed with The Matrix ? If so, Harsh Realm is probably right up your street. Don't be mistaken in thinking that this is a Matrix rip-off though. This Chris Carter series was written and produced before The Matrix, but not released until three months after in 1999.

This is not the best thing that Chris Carter has ever written though, far from it. The X-Files and Millennium are both infinitely superior (although I can't say the same for the limp X-Files spin-off, The Lone Gunmen). HR is far from original. Fans of the cyberpunk genre will get a kick out of it despite weak characters and a thin plot as the eponymous 'Harsh Realm' is a textbook dystopian virtual reality society with the privaleged living inside a clean, prosperous mega-city at the expense of the less fortunate on the outside of the fence in the almost post-apocalyptic wasteland. In this respect it has a lot of similarities to James Cameron's Dark Angel in many ways. A great opening sequence and interesting symbolism typical of Chris Carter should, however, keep you watching.

Lost's Terry O'Quinn plays the series bad guy and Colonel Kurz-a-like, General Omar Santiago, and Max Martini (yes fols, that's his real name, sometimes known as Maximillian) from The Unit is his right-hand man and one-time best friend to the protagonist/hero, Lt Thomas Hobbes (Scott Bairstow). Also worthy of note is the cool, misunderstood sidekick with the shady past (I did say it was far from original), Mike Pinnochio (DB Sweeney, who has the coolest leg holster for his H&K MP5K).

If you give it the benefit of the doubt and sit back to watch the decent effects and think of it as a comic (it was heavily influenced, and (proven in court to have been) plagiarised from the graphic novel of the same name), then it an enjoyable nine episodes of well shot cyberpunk drama.

B-, could try harder.

Here is a link to an interesting Harsh Realm fansite and below is a clip from the first episode...