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Thursday, June 7, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

At risk of sounding nostalgic, I 
don’t know if there’s anything better 
in life than re-living a seemingly 
perfect memory.
Your mind might wander to 
that familiar place, or the feeling 
is unwittingly triggered, or you 
consciously recall it. Either way, 
for several fleeting seconds, our 
brain is entirely consumed with 
the 
unmatched 
sights, 
sounds 
and emotions of that memory. 
Everything is bathed in a warm, 
goldish hue and all seems well in the 
world.
And then we’re violently and 
unceremoniously thrown back into 
reality. It’s almost like a cruel joke, 
as if our minds are teasing us with 
a reminder of a world that once was.
But what if we could stay in that 
space for longer? We’d probably do 
anything to achieve that, right?
These questions lie at the heart 
of 
NBC’s 
thought-provoking 
new series, “Reverie.” Drawing 
inspiration from sci-fi concepts 
lately popularized in “Black Mirror” 
and 
“Westworld,” 
“Reverie” 
examines 
the 
delicate 
balance 
between immersive virtual reality 
and reality.
In the show, emerging virtual 
reality company Onira Tech, led by 
virtuoso programmer Alexis Barrett 
(Jessica 
Lu, 
“Awkward.”), 
has 
developed an application dubbed 
Reverie that “allows two people 
to interact in a shared, immersive 
virtual world” indistinguishable 
from reality.
Although 
the 
clear 
benefits 
of 
Reverie 
— 
namely, 
letting 
individuals 
relive 
experiences 
with family or friends who have 
passed away — are enormous, the 

drawbacks of the program are just 
as glaring and severe.
As “Reverie” somewhat clumsily 
outlines 
in 
its 
premiere, 
it’s 
becoming increasingly common for 
users to remain in the program for 
weeks at a time and fall into a coma 
in reality due to the intoxicating 
nature of their memories. At the 
expense of their sanity, “the dream 
has become their reality.”
To alleviate this issue, Onira 
brings in behavioral psychologist 
Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi, “Person of 
Interest”), who previously worked 
as a hostage negotiator alongside 
the 
firm’s 
security 
consultant, 
Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert, 

“24”). Kint is tasked with entering 
programs and persuading users to 
leave Reverie in favor of the real 
world.
While this concept is clearly 
influenced by (read: ripped from) 
Christopher Nolan’s psychological 
thriller “Inception,” it remains 
an 
intriguing 
exploration 
of 
human relationships and prompts 
existential 
questions 
about 
happiness. These questions are 
the series’ greatest contributions, 
challenging viewers to consider 
their past and confront whether they 
would trade the rest of their lives 
for a few euphoric, yet ephemeral, 
moments.
Beyond 
its 
philosophical 
ponderings, “Reverie” features a 
strong performance from Shahi, 
who manages to add layers to her 
cliché backstory as someone driven 
by witnessing personal tragedy. 
Shahi brings a level of intrigue and 

charisma to the series that produces 
a complex and somewhat enigmatic 
Kint.
While Shahi’s co-stars are not 
as adept at deepening their roles, 
Haysbert — the trademark gravelly 
voice of Allstate commercials — is 
convincing as a conflicted Reverie 
staffer grappling with the mental 
weight of the program’s implications 
for reality. Playing Onira’s chief 
scientist, 
Sendhil 
Ramamurthy 
(“Heroes”) does a nice job of 
providing some comic relief, though 
Lu disappoints as the completely 
forgettable creator of Reverie.
Although its cast is a mixed bag, 
the visuals of “Reverie” are entirely 
the 
opposite. 
Throughout 
the 
show’s pilot, Reverie’s virtual world 
is treated to a brighter, enhanced 
color palette that reflects the warm 
hue which envelops our mind when 
reliving fond memories.
“Reverie” excels at portraying 
a virtual utopia, making it easier 
for audiences to empathize with 
users who elect to stay in its 
confines rather than return to 
reality. The show contrasts the 
friendly, inviting colorways of the 
simulation with a more sleek and 
minimalist coloring for its scenes 
depicting the real world. Consisting 
primarily of varying shades of 
grey, blue and black, the series’s 
color palette for reality is intended 
to subtly encourage viewers to 
further question whether Reverie 
as an application represents a better 
alternative.
It’s 
in 
these 
methodical, 
thoughtful decisions that “Reverie” 
overcomes its struggling cast and 
occasionally heavy-handed writing 
to emerge as an engaging and 
introspective look at the power of 
the past. Let’s hope there’s more of 
it on the way.

‘Reverie’ is a provocative 
dive into virtual reality

TV REVIEW

NBC

TV REVIEW

IAN HARRIS
Daily Arts Writer

CONNOR GRADY
Daily Arts Writer

“Reverie”
Series Premiere
NBC
Weds @ 10 p.m.

“Arrested 
Development”

Netflix

Season 5

When it was brought back to 
small screens everywhere in 2013, 
“Arrested Development” was the 
first major series to be revived by a 
streaming service. It was a big deal. 
It was in the early days of Netflix 
originals and before shows like 
“Brooklyn 99” could be saved within 
hours of their cancellation. It was 
also very different from the first 
three seasons of the show, which 
originally aired on Fox from 2003 
to 2006, breaking up the bungling 
Bluth family into character centric 
episodes that came together by the 
season’s end. It was darker than the 
original series and it pushed the 
characters to places they had never 
gone before. It was also savaged by 
critics and most general audiences, 
with only the hardest of the hardcore 
fans seeming to enjoy it. Now, five 
years later, comes season five.
At first glance, season five seems 
to function as a direct response to the 
reception of season four, with more 
scenes that feature the entire family 
and most characters appearing in 
every episode. Dig a little deeper 
though and the cracks begin to show. 
Almost right off the bat the new 
batch of episodes fails to capitalize on 
the two most promising cliffhangers 
left hanging five years ago, the 
disappearance of Liza Menilli’s 
Lucille II and the congressional race 
between longtime enemies Lindsey 
Bluth (Portia De Rossi, “Scandal”) 
and Sally Sitwell (Christine Taylor, 
“Zoolander 2”).
Back in 2013, it seemed obvious 
that series creator Mitch Hurwitz 
was setting up some 
kind 
of 
murder 
mystery 
involving 
Lucille 
II, 
with 
practically 
every 
member of the Bluth 
family 
potentially 
implicated 
in 
the 
crime. Sadly this storyline barely 
simmers in this first half the new 
season (the rest will come sometime 
later this year). The election storyline 
is marred down by two main issues, 
one of which is the basic absence 
of De Rossi from the show, which 
renders the plotline toothless, and 
the other is the fact that and election 
storyline involving a candidate 
advocating for a wall now feels 

incredibly played out.
It’s hard to judge these first 
eight episodes in isolation without 
knowing how it all pans out in 
the second half. They certainly 
don’t stand on their own. The only 
characters who truly shine are the 
now grown up George Michael 
(Michael Cera, “Molly’s Game”) 
and Maeby (Alia Shawkat, “The 
Intervention”), who are the only 
members of the Bluth family who 
can offer up new things that we 
haven’t seen before. Will Arnett’s 
GOB has a potentially emotionally 
resonant story about struggling to 
come out of the closet, but the almost 
complete absence of his counterpart 
Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller, “Brad’s 
Status”) again causes his storyline to 
feel incomplete.
In general the new season feels 
strangely barren. Unlike the first 
four seasons, which were in different 
ways crammed to the gills with jokes 
and guest stars and enough plot for 
episodes double their length, season 
five feels devoid of content, as if they 
had to stretch out a few episodes 
worth of story to fill the entire 
season. Even more so than season 
four, it doesn’t feel like “Arrested 
Development” and with so many 
important characters and actors 
either missing or barely appearing, 
it seriously begs the question if it’s 
worth it to keep moving forward.
The show no longer knows what 
it is about or what story it is trying 
to tell. Back in 2013 Mitch Hurwitz 
claimed he had a three act story 
planned out, of which season four 
was act one and a forthcoming 
“Arrested” movie would be acts two 
and three. It seems unlikely that this 
version of season five 
is even remotely close 
to what he originally 
had planned for the 
movie and it seems 
doubly unlikely that 
another five year wait 
for season six will 
result in anything worthwhile. This 
is besides the fact that off-screen 
problems now mob the cast and key 
actors are aging faster than the show 
can keep up. It was once said “there’s 
always money in the banana stand.” 
In this half season of a once-iconic 
series, the banana stand is gone, the 
money is nowhere to be found and 
the magic that once made this series 
great seems to be gone with it. 

Season five of 
‘Arrested’ loses

