Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the premiere of sci-fi contagion thriller HELIX, which made its UK debut on Channel 5 last night. (This is a reworking of my recent original review.)
I enjoy a good contagion thriller, but I'm not convinced that genre's a perfect match for long-form television. Helix is telling a story over 13 episodes, each representing a different day - potentially for many seasons to come. Or at least, that's the hope. For this reason, it's going to be much harder keeping audiences engaged unless the characters alone are endlessly fascinating, or the story goes against expectations and gives us something much deeper, richer and crazier than a two-hour movie could hope to achieve. It's too early to tell if Helix has any aces up its sleeve, but on the evidence of this premiere, I'm just happy it has some merit.
Continue reading at MSN TV...
