User Reviews

This would be an OK episode if it hadn't been done fifteen times already in this series. Once again a man comes into a town where there are strange things going on. It's obvious he shouldn't trust anyone but he does anyway and it leads not only to his undoing but that of everyone else on the face of the planet. A former resident of the town in question, he gets a cryptic message from his brother. The town has become the prototype "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" place. Just before he arrives his brother is killed by his wife. Everything then is orchestrated by a ten year old who gains his confidence. Did we not see that one coming. Anyway, a super-computer has gained control of the towns brains and wants to move on. This guy does everything in plain sight, stupidly bumbling around, and telling people things that are going to draw attention to him. Once in a while, it would be nice to allow a protagonist some opportunity for success.

The rating of 8 is for the story which basically has a military wi-fi system controlling the minds of a small community. When this movie came out, Wi-fi was in its infancy... so the implications of the story are much more profound if you watch this movie now that the antennas can be seen swallowing up hundreds of communities. This gives the movie a lot more impact and credence.

However, Sweeney was a very poor choice to portray the main character role of Scott. In this episode, the character of Scott learns that his brother was killed by a community under the control of a computer. Instead of portraying the role of Scott in a sympathetic manner as had been written in the script, Sweeney's portrayal was a belligerent, hateful, angry bully. He did not garner the sympathy from the viewers as the brother of the victim. The actor's bullying attitude was totally destructive to the role.

If you watch this episode, listen to the words Sweeney says from the script and imagine those same words being spoken by a more sympathetic actor with a more gentle approach. The audience should have been feeling sympathetic toward the character Scott about the loss of his brother and his quest for the truth behind his brother's death... yet, when we saw the illusion of Scott being "drawn and quartered"... the audience felt like Scott deserved what he was getting. This is NOT the reaction this role should have created.

Throughout the entire episode, Sweeney stormed through every scene with hateful belligerence in every word he spoke. Even his facial expressions were filled with anger and hate from the onset.

Perhaps the actor was instructed to portray the character in this manner, but it seemed a bit too natural for Sweeney which gave the impression it was the actor's own personality getting in the way. Whatever the case, the audience was supposed to be on the side of the victim... instead, Sweeney's portrayal had us hoping for the character's demise. Sweeney's twisted portrayal of Scott as a belligerent bully made it seem that the character of Scott was getting exactly what he deserved... instead of garnering the audience's sympathy for him as the brother of the victim seeking the truth behind his suspicious death.

Again, the story was great. It is too bad that the actor's inappropriate, hateful portrayal of the main role was in complete conflict with the "intent" of the character in the script.

As one reviewer note, it has all been done previously. Scott goes to see his brother in a town only to find when he asks about him, the eyes gloss over followed by a pause and then a scripted type response follows. He searches for answers but the robots give no good ones.

Acting is awful throughout one reviewer refers to Sweeney as obnoxious, mean, etc. not sure what show midge56 was watching but that is not correct. When Scott finally does get upset, I wondered why it took him so long! If people were obviously hiding facts about my brothers death you can expect me to get a lot more than just belligerent!

Not a bad premise just been done a lot.