Minority Report: Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

I’m not quite sure what I expected when I put Minority Report on, but because I enjoyed the world the movie was set in 13 years ago (I’m getting old), I went ahead and gave it a shot. It was not unpleasant. I’ve seen a ton of show with a science fiction edge, but this one seems to be willing to take it a few steps forward. I’m actually curious to see what the budget is like for this series.

This isn’t a role I would’ve ever imagined for the beautiful Ms. Meagan Good, but she does a pretty decent job here. Her movements are a little awkward, but I’m sure she just needs to get a little deeper into the role. Most of her roles involve her being a pretty face with a sassy attitude, but she convinces me that she could be a cop that’s desperate to save lives while under the thumb of a d*ck of a boss (played a little less convincingly by Wilmer Valderrama). She still has a lot of the sass, but it’s offset by an intelligence screenwriters usually deny her characters. Though she has done a decent job with her scripts, she hasn’t really had to try so much since the Cousin Skeeter days when she was just a kid. I think this role is good for her and I hope the show does well for that reason alone.

Well not just for that reason alone. I’m also very impressed by the tech and explanations they displayed. I’m not a huge fan of opening scene, expositionary voice-overs, but it worked in this episode. They do a pretty good job of connecting the series to the Tom Cruise movie, but they do so without trying to hard to let us know that’s what they’re doing. In fact, I think that particular narration could’ve been well received by anyone who hasn’t seen that movie. It’s like a reading the book before the movie situation: You get inside jokes and references as a reward or you just get exposition.

The show also seems to have a bit to say in terms of the ramifications of something like pre-crime or even just the power of precognition. I’m actually kind of surprised they havne’t had a sequel to the movie before to explain how both pre-crime and its abolishment could affect people. This show has a lot of potential that I hope it doesn’t let go to waste. I think we can get a lot of milage here. Meagan and Stark Sands make a pretty good team, I just hope they don’t force a romance between the leads. I don’t want to end up watching “Space Castle.”

The only issue I had with this episode, is that they worked so hard to develop the characters and make introductions (which they did well), they didn’t have a very compelling story behind it. The ending was not only predictable (no pun intended), but the solution seemed a little anticlimactic. It’s largely forgivable though, pilots usually have way to much to do to get a really good story going. Fortunately, they’re done with introducing characters and the world so now they can get down to the nitty gritty. They even made sure to introduce a larger plotline with the siblings. I’m looking forward to next week.

Jonathan Jones

Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.