Done Dirty: Virtuality [television]

Virtuality (2009)
Sci-Fi/Drama; USA
87 minutes

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Motherfucking FOX...you never did know a good thing when you saw it. You fucked "Firefly", killed "M.A.N.T.I.S.", tried your hardest (and eventually succeeded) to sabotage "The X-Files" and now, you've worked your magic once again on Ron Moore's "Virtuality".

Like "Sucker Free City", this 2-hour pilot turned standalone movie suffers greatly from the fact that it was never given the chance to actually tell it's story, but had it been picked up as a series, it could have been one of the standouts of network television. The story follows a 12 person crew on a 10 year voyage to a nearby star system. In order to cope with the isolation and prevent people from flipping out and shooting the joint up, each crew member is given their own personal virtual reality device that allows them to create whatever world they want and escape there when not on duty. Sounds pretty straight forward except for one fact - this whole mission is being recorded, edited and broadcast as a reality TV show back on Earth, which in turn helps to fund the mission. When people's VR sets start going crazy and killing them in their dreams, we're never quite sure if it's a glitch in the system, one of the crew members fucking about or the network execs back on Earth trying to spice things up for ratings.

"Virtuality"'s blend of psychological space drama, virtual-reality fantasy and "Big Brother"-esque reality TV was a truly unique concept with endless possibilities, not only for weekly episodic content, but also for cross-media promotion to drive viewers to Fox's website. But who needs increased viewer loyalty and extra ad-revenue anyway? Especially when you can just churn out another few seasons of "American Idol" or "So You Think You Can Dance" and not have to pay anybody for their talent contributions.

But how many damn years was "Melrose Place" on again? They couldn't give this shit 1 season?

FAIL, FOX...FAIL!

Give this some time if you're into: Battlestar Galactica, 2001, Star Trek, heady sci-fi where a bunch of shit doesn't blow up with lasers, lamenting the possibilities.