# Continuum: Season 2 - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=15134[/img] 
*Title: Continuum Season 2* 

*Movie:* :4stars:
*Video:* :4stars:
*Audio:* :4stars: 
*Extras:* :4.5stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*81




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=15135[/img]*Summary*
Well, well, well. The series that nobody thought would make it has already started into its 3rd season. I actually watched the 1st episode on Netlix and wrote it off as a boring show. “Continuum”, like most sci-fi, plays off of present day social issues and puts it into a wide universe with endless possibilities. “Star Trek” bore its roots from Gene Roddenberry’s sad look at today’s materialistic existence and he created a world were humanity had reached beyond the need for self and matured into a semi utopia where we looked to better not only ourselves, but everyone around us. “Continuum” takes one of the more pressing fears of today’s society and turns it up on its end. This fear being the fear of corporate power and greed absorbing life and turning it into their own form of a dictatorship.

The year is 2077 and the world is a very different place. Ordinary people are born into a life debt to the corporations, who act as the government, never being able to fully pay off that debt. As a result there is a huge disparity between the haves, and the have nots. Every day folk are nothing but worker drones struggling to survive, while the wealthy, the ones with the technology sit idle and let the status quo go on because “the corporations know best”. One group of fighters has risen up, an ideal that started small, but grew to epic proportions. A terrorist group, named Liber8, has taken a stand against the corporate leadership and taken extreme measures to bring them to their knees. Through the help of the same man who created the technology and corporate disparity that allowed this regime to power, that group of terrorists is transported 65 years into the past, our present, along with a female police officer named Kiera (Rachel Nichols) in order to stop this future from ever happening. 


[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=15136[/img]
Last season, Kiera’s cover as a time traveler to the future has been blown, as the terrorist leader Kagame (Tony Amendola) started the chain of events that was known as the greatest atrocity of modern times. Julian is now on the way to becoming the leader of the Thesies movement and Kiera’s partner, Carlos (Victor Webster) from the year 2013 finally finds out the truth about where she comes from. With the terrorists fractured after Kagame’s death it seems that it’s just mop up work, find Julian, bring him to justice and the whole thing crumbles. Unfortunately it seems that there are more players on the board that previously anticipated. It seems that Liber8 and Kiera were not the only time travelers. As you can guess, time travel is not an exclusive technology. If someone in your time has it, you can be sure that someone in your future has it as well, and your paths very well may cross in time. These “freelancers” are infiltrating the timeline past as well and seem to have their own agenda, separate from Liber8 or Kiera’s mission to stop them. With this 3 pronged attack on our present it’s a battle for survival. Will we come out victorious, or will we become the horrific future that has been foretold. 

Not since “Fringe” have I enjoyed a serialized sci-fi show as thoroughly as I have “Continuum”. It falls into the same patters, giving us a multi layered show that thrives on secrecy. Shedding a little light, bit by bit, as the show progresses, never allowing us to see the full picture, just hinting at it. With this many players in the game, it’s bound to get a bit complicated, but the writers never give us too much information to work with, thus keeping our field of vision focused only on what we have at our finger tips. I have great hopes for the future, as well as great fears. Like “Fringe”, we have a show that has a lot of depth to the storyline, motives that unfold piece by piece, characters that evolve and grow during the last 2 seasons. While this is a fantastic method of storytelling, it only works as long as the show is viable. “Fringe” started the same way, but ended up rushed and muddled in the last 2 seasons as funding was pulled. If the series has enough life to last through all of the unveilings it has a chance at standing among the greats. If it gets lost then a serialized show like this tends to garner much frustration as fans are left hanging. None of this is actually a knock against the show. What has been shown so far is ripe with solid storytelling and great characters it’s only a detriment that highly serialized series have when it’s future becomes rough and rocky before the curtain is allowed to close.


*
Episode Rundown

Second Chances
Split Second
Second Thought
Second Skin
Second Opinion
Second Truths
Second Degree
Second Listen
Seconds 
Second Wave
Second Guess
Second Last
Second Time
*








*Rating:* 

TV-14



*Video* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=15137[/img]The 1.78:1 image is very very good, especially for a modern TV show. Detail is consistently good and blends well with the copious use of CGI and practical effects. The show is a bit soft at certain spots, most likely due to the use of digital cameras that aren’t as expensive as top of the line Ari Alexa’s etc. Black levels are usually very good, but sometimes can have a slightly washed out look, especially during outdoor shots. Colors are good, and contrasts are normal. Saturation is well done and the show tends to lend itself a slightly yellow color grading. Overall the image is very very good, and the only real bad things are the above mentioned flaws. The bitrate is very good with only 3-4 episodes per disc allowing the picture plenty of room to breathe and be devoid of most annoying encoding issues. A little bit of banding happens once in a while, but never for more than a few moments.












*Audio* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=15138[/img]The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a step up form lasts seasons showing, allowing for a more robust listening experience. The show is still front heavy for the most part, but the surrounds are given more play this season, with the shootouts and nonstop Vancouver traffic. Vocals are nice and clean, which is quite understandable for a typical front heavy show, and the LFE blends in smoothly, giving a nice low end to the series and gives those gunshots a nice wallop to the chest when needed. If I had a choice I would have balanced the surrounds a bit more, since the show uses a good amount of the front soundstage, but it is consistently stable throughout, giving a very pleasant listening experience for a TV show. 




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=15139[/img]*Extras* :4.5stars:
• Audio Commentaries 
- "Second Chances" with Rachel Nichols, creator Simon Barry and executive producer Pat Williams
- "Split Second" with Victor Webster, stunt coordinator Kimani Ray Smith and VFX supervisor Adam Stern
- "Second Skin" with co-EP Shelley Eriksen and executive story editor Jonathan Lloyd Walker
- "Second Opinion" with actors Brian Markinson and Jennifer Spence
- "Second Truths" with Eriksen and Walker
- "Second Degree" with actors Erik Knudsen and Richard Harmon
- "Second Listen" with actors Omari Newton and Luvia Petersen
- "Seconds..." with Knudsen, Harmon and director Mike Rohl
- "Second Guessed" with Newton and Petersen
- "Second Last" with director Amanda Tapping and actor Magda Apanowicz
- "Second Time" with Nichols, Williams and Barry

• Behind the Scenes Featuretes 
- Reloading: Season 2 Kickoff
- Evolution of an Action Scene 
- What Do We Do About Travis...
- Casting Continuum
- Do You Think I'm Pretty?
- Know Your Crew
- Alec: Past & Present
- Creating the Future
- An Actor's Journey
- The Bad Guys
- Young Love
- Gone Fishing
- "Continuum" at Fan Expo







*Overall:* :4stars:

“Continuum” morphed from a throwaway show from the first few episodes to season one to becoming one of SyFy’s front runners for the time being. With a quickly snowballing plotline it shows great potential and has been garnering quite a bit of fan support. I certainly hope that momentum holds steady for the duration of the intended story. As for the discs themselves, the audio and video are very very solid and for once we actually have a GREAT array of special features to dig our teeth into. I highly recommend a pickup of this one.


*Additional Information:*

Starring: Rachel Nichols, Victor Webster, Lexa Doig
Created by: Simon Barry
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 574 Minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: March 25th, 2014



*Buy Continuum Season 2 Blu-ray on Amazon*



*Recommendation: Watch It!​*







More about Mike


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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Thanks for the review. I must have some how missed this series.. Just too many things to see in netflix. 

I will have to see this series with season 1. Thanks.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

Luckily both seasons are on netflix already and season 3 just began


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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Thanks for the update. Just too many things lined up to check out not only on netflix but also on amazon prime..  I wish we had more time but work gets in the way! lol.


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