12 Monkeys: Season One

This new series created for the Syfy channel is built on the 1995 sci-fi thriller directed by Terry Gilliam that starred Bruce Willis as a time-traveler from a post-apocalyptic future who is trying to stop a plague that will wipe out most of humanity. Aaron Stanford plays James Cole, the time-travelling agent from the future trying to locate the origins of the plague, and Amanda Schull costars as Dr. Cassandra Railly, a virologist who overcomes her skepticism and becomes his partner. The series opens much like the film, with our jittery hero tracking clues and landing in an asylum while trying to discover the meaning of the mysterious "Army of the 12 Monkeys," but then expands with new characters and a complicated conspiracy involving black ops labs, biological weapons, an ancient plague, and a mysterious assassin known as "The Witness" (Tom Noonan) who is determined to unleash a killer virus upon the world. 12 Monkeys is part of the new wave of ambitious Syfy original shows, and it has fun playing with shifting timelines and conundrums, as well as a bleak future where marauding gangs prey upon survivors and sabotage the scientists (led by Barbara Sukowa) trying to save the past and change their present. Presenting all 13 episodes from the 2015 debut season, extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, cast auditions, and webisodes. A well-executed series that bowed to good reviews and should interest sci-fi fans, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)