Review: 'Reverie' - 08/08/2018

For all of the talk about a 12-month primetime schedule, broadcast networks still struggle to take advantage of the "summer is also the time for new shows" paradigm. They do a pretty job of promoting reality TV and other variations of semi-unscripted shows. But when it comes to the more traditional drama - especially ones with more challenging storylines - too often these shows just get lost.

NBC's "Reverie" is unfortunately likely to be the 2018 poster child for this phenomenon, one of these shows that you'll run across on Hulu or Netflix in 2020 and say "Man, I can't believe this thing wasn't a hit."

The season finale airs tonight and I hope it gets picked up for a second season. But I haven't seen any indications NBC has any great love for the show and the ratings haven't been strong enough to keep it in play. It opened with a 0.60 18-49 rating and about 2.8 million viewers. The ratings dropped about 17 percent for episode two and another 20 percent for episode four. Since then, it's settled into a 0.40 14-49 demo and about 2.1 million viewers overall.

Which is too bad, because "Reverie" is one of those shows that is much better than you might suspect from simply reading the description of it provided by NBC:

From Mickey Fisher, the creator of "Extant," this grounded new thriller follows Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi), a former hostage negotiator and expert on human behavior who became a college professor after facing an unimaginable personal tragedy. But when her former boss, Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert), brings her in to save ordinary people who have lost themselves in a highly advanced immersive virtual-reality program in which you can live out your wildest dreams, she finds that in saving others, she may actually have discovered a way to save herself.

From the hackneyed "she may actually have discovered a way to save herself" to the stock description of the deeply troubled hostage negotiator, there's nothing in the show description that says "this is worth watching." And even the pilot doesn't seem to rise much above those low expectations. Like a lot of premiere episodes, it's too busy setting the stage to give viewers a reason to keep watching.

But I was lucky and NBC provided TV critics with the entire season to watch and that made the difference for me. I binged the season over two nights and it gave me a chance to get caught up in the series. Maybe it was the back-to-back episodes or perhaps it's just that I'll watch Sarah Shahi in just about anything. But I really grew to enjoy "Reverie" and it might be my favorite new genre TV show of 2018.

Yes, I'm biased. But Sarah Shahi's nuanced and emotional acting style is a great fit for a character who would be two-dimensional in the hands of a lesser actor. The show spends a lot of time focusing on Mara Kint's own tragedies and that effort does pay off. Although it takes a few episodes to get to that point.

What works best are the scenes that show Kint's (and Shahi's) humanity and ability to see people's hidden heart. The scenes of hers I remember most this season are the small ones where she accomplishes some moment of reconciliation or helps someone see a path their life can take that might have remained hidden without her help. If "Reverie" let me down in any way, it's that sometimes the scramblings of the plot got in the way of the show's heart.

Dennis Haysbert is his typical great self and while it wasn't until late in the season when he had a chance to do more than just be the dependable and somewhat frightening Head of Security, he always manages to elevate every scene he's in.

The producers of "Reverie" did a wonderful job with casting, and that's especially evident in the characters of Paul Hammond and Alexis Barrett, who created Onira-tech, the company that built and runs Reverie. Sendhil Ramamurthy plays Paul and is probably best known to American audiences for his long-running role on "Heroes" and "Heroes: Reborn." Although he also had a memorable role in Stan Lee's "Lucky Man," which I don't believe has aired in the U.S. Ramamurthy has that mix of credibility and charisma that make him a solid choice to play a successful tech executive. He also seems like he's the possible eventual romantic interest for Kint, although it never gets past the stolen glance scene in season one.

Jessica Lu is probably a little less known to the general public, although she's done enough guest spots that you'll likely have that deja-vu moment when you see her. But she is absolutely spectacular as the awkward and driven genius who understands more about Onira-tech than she'll ever know about the people who care for her. I don't know what Jessica Lu will do next, but she's now someone I'll watch no matter what the project.

I know I haven't talked much about what happened this season or what to expect in the finale. To be honest, I figure that if you've read this far, you probably already know what you need to know about "Reverie" from watching it each week.

The one thing I will say about tonight's finale is that it ends on a cliffhanger that sets up a potential season two quite nicely. But I'm also pessimistic enough to note that they could have dropped that final scene and had a pretty much-closed story loop for the season.

I hope I'm wrong and "Reverie" returns for a second season. But if it doesn't, I've enjoyed the ride and look forward to seeing what Mickey Fisher and this talented cast do next.