“Helix” is a fascinating, violent and entertaining sci-fi series. It’s also a series that one should not try to pigeonhole as a banal virus outbreak series because as the series develops, because overtime, it becomes another different beast entirely which includes a story about survival, mutated people, killer mercenaries, action (bloody) scenes galore and literally many people (including key characters) dying. But as much as this first season of “Helix” was meant to develop the main characters, it sets up for an exciting second season that I definitely look forward to watching!
Image courtesy of © 2014 Sony Pictures Television, Inc All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Helix: Season 1
RELEASE OF TV SERIES: 2014
DURATION: 13 Episodes (531 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, Thai
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASED: July 1, 2014
Directed by Brad Turner, Jeremiah S. Chechik, Duane Clark, Mike Rohl, Bradley Walsh, Steven A. Adelson, Jeffrey Reiner
Written by Cameron Porsandeh (Creator), Misha Green, Sean Crouch, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Adam Lash, Cori Uchida, Ed Decter, Tiffany Greshler, Mark Haslett, Keith Huff
Executive Producer: Steven Maeda, Ronald D. Moore, Brad Turner
Co-Executive Producer: Maril Davis, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Cameron Porsandeh
Produced by Sandrine Gros d’Aillon
Co-Producer: Misha Green
Associate Producer: Stephen Welke
Music by Reinhold Heil
Cinematography by Stephen McNutt
Edited by Randy Bricker, Elena Maganini, Blake Maniquis, Marta Evry, Todd Desrosiers
Production Design by Guy Lalande
Art Direction by Louis-Rene Landry, David Gaucher, Charlotte Rouleau
Set Decoration by Suzanne Cloutier, Ginette Robitaille
Costume Design by Mariane Carter
Starring:
Billy Campbell as Dr. Alan Farragut
Hiroyuki Sanada as Dr. Hiroshi Hatake
Kyra Zagorsky as Dr. Julia Walker
Mark Ghanime as Major Sergio Balleseros
Jordan Hayes as Dr. Sarah Jordan
Meegwun Fairbrother as Daniel Aerov
Neil Napier as Dr. Peter Farragut
Luciana Carro as Anana
Chimwemwe Miller as Dr. Haven
Catherine Lemieux as Dr. Doreen Boyle
Amber Goldfarb as Jaye
Patrick Baby as Dr. Philippe Duchampe
Robert Naylor as the Scythe
Christian Jadah as Dr. Victor Adrian
Alain Goulem as Bryce
Alexander Ordolis as Blake
Jeri Ryan as Constance Sutton
Masters of Sex stars Golden Globe® and BAFTA Award nominee Michael Sheen and acclaimed actress Lizzy Caplan, who portray the real-life pioneers of the science of human sexuality, Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson. The series chronicles the unusual lives, romance and pop culture trajectory of Masters and Johnson and the effect their research had on the family and colleagues around them. Their study ignited a sexual revolution and took them from a Midwestern teaching hospital in St. Louis to the cover of Time magazine. Also starring Caitlin FitzGerald, Teddy Sears and Nicholas D’Agosto. Guest Starring two-time Golden Globe® winner Beau Bridges.
In 2014, the American sci-fi series “Helix” premiered on SyFy. Created by Cameron Porsandeh and executive produced by Ron Moore (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Battlestar Galactica”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Roswell”), the first season of “Helix” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in July 2014 courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The series would star Billy Campbell (“The Rocketeer”, “Dracula”), Hiroyuki Sanada (“The Wolverine”, “47 Ronin”, “Sunshine”), Kyra Zagorsky (“Toxin”, “Green Season”), Neil Napier (“300”, “Immortals”) and Jordan Hayes (“House at the End of the Street”, “10 Speed”).
Far out at an arctic bioresearch station, a few employees were infected by an unknown virus.
Because of the sensitivity of what is taking place at the bioresearch station and worry of a potential outbreak, top CDC scientist Dr. Alan Farragut (portrayed by Billy Campbell), Dr. Julia Walker (portrayed by Kyra Zagorsky) and Dr. Sarah Jordan (portrayed by Jordan Hayes) are assigned to the lab do their research on the infected individuals.
One of those infected is Dr. Peter Farragut (portrayed by Neil Napier), brother of Dr. Alan Farragut but as they try to learn more about the virus and hunt down those who may have been exposed to the virus, panic starts to grow in the station and to make things worse, Julia is attacked by Peter and becomes infected.
But as Dr. Alan Farragut and his team start to learn more about the virus, he starts to uncover secrets that Dr. Hiroshi Hatake (portrayed by Hiroyuki Sanada) is hiding and why has the Ilea Corporation led by Constance Sutton (portrayed by Jeri Ryan) bringing mercenaries aboard the research station?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Helix: Season 1″ is presented in 1:78:1 anamorphic widescreen and English Dolby Digital. It’s important to note that if you want the best picture quality and lossless audio, “Helix” is available on Blu-ray.
As for the DVD, the series looks good on DVD and spread out on three DVD’s.
Subtitles are in English, English SDH, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish and Thai.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Helix: Season 1” comes with the following special features:
- Pilot Episode – Audio Commentary on the Pilot – Featuring audio commentary by actor Billy Campbell and creator Cameron Porsandeh.
- Final Episode – Audio Commentary on the Pilot – Featuring audio commentary by actor Billy Campbell and executive producer Steven Maeda.
- Ronald D. Moore: The Outlier of Science Fiction – (7:13) Creator Cameron Porsandey, Executive Producer Lynda Obst discuss working with executive producer Ronald D. Moore and making things extreme and taking on questions of “what if?”.
- The Future of Disease – (5:28) Taking on plausible viruses for science fiction and coming up with storylines based on viruses and how it behaves differently with people and how creator Cameron Porsandeh had a real life virus in him and how it inspired him to learn more about viruses.
- Dissecting the Characters – (10:32) A featurette about the casting of the series.
- The Art of Isolation – (5:52) A featurette about the series setting.
- Outtakes – (3:22) Outtakes from season 1 of “Helix”.
- Deleted Scenes – 13 deleted scenes.
What if man tried to create a new virus in order to eliminate all viruses in the planet?
What if that created virus could end up destroying humanity?
The “What If” is what the sci-fi series “Helix” explores throughout its first season.
In many ways, this series has surprised me because in some ways, each time I think I figured out what this series is about, the series tends to evolve into something different entirely.
Is this virus outbreak a way to show how zombies were created? That’s what I started to think at first but it has become a series about virus outbreaks to the hunters going after civilians. Not only is the body count high in this series, no character is safe at all.
Characters that you start to root and support, next thing you know, they are killed off and you wonder who will be the next to die and how far will the writers go with this series?
But the plot is rather intriguing as the story is about a bioresearch lab in the arctic that does its research on viruses but through its head scientist, Dr. Hiroshi Hatake, illegally experiments on a virus to end all viruses (or does it do that exactly?).
We learn of how far this bioresearch lab has gone in trying to find guinea pigs, part of the storyline revolves around children kidnapped from their families to be experimented on. We see a lot of freaky situations that happen throughout the series that revolve around the virus and how far the Ilea Corporation would go in trying to find a person who can be the antidote in fighting the virus.
Throw in mercenaries and assassins and you get one hell of a wild and bloody series!
As I enjoyed the first season, there are some things that I was hoping to not see but it does happen. The last thing I wanted to see is the “Gray’s Anatomy” romantic element (ie. male doctor sleeps with all female doctors) but fortunately, the unusual situations, the trippy and surreal happenings throughout the series and the amount of violence has kept my interest in each episode and the series definitely ends with a crazy cliffhanger to help setup season 2!
As for the DVD, the DVD does look and sound good but if you really want the best picture and audio quality, the Blu-ray version of the series is the way to go! As for special features, you get two audio commentaries and several featurettes and many deleted scenes.
Overall, “Helix” is a fascinating, violent and entertaining sci-fi series. It’s also a series that one should not try to pigeonhole as a banal virus outbreak series because as the series develops, because overtime, it becomes another different beast entirely which includes a story about survival, mutated people, killer mercenaries, action (bloody) scenes galore and literally many people (including key characters) dying.
But as much as this first season of “Helix” was meant to develop the main characters, it sets up for an exciting second season that I definitely look forward to watching!
