Minority Report
Season 1 Episode 1: “Pilot”
Directed by Mark Mylod
Written and created by Max Borenstein
Starring Stark Sands, Meagan Good, Wilmer Valderrama, Nick Zano, Daniel London, Laura Regan, Zhane Hall, Li Jun Li
FOX
Air Date: Monday, September 21st, 2015, 9pm

Steven Spielberg took a Philip K. Dick story and a Kubrick-style vision, to craft an amazing sci-fi action film in 2002. His criminally underappreciated Minority Report starred Tom Cruise as an police officer in the futuristic “pre-crime” division, a group that stops murders before they happen, thanks to the visions of three precognitive siblings. When Cruise himself is accused, a conspiracy is discovered that brings pre-crime crashing down. Now, FOX is bringing Minority Report to the small screen, picking up 10-years after pre-crime has shut down, and focusing on the lives of the now adult and free pre-cogs Dash (Stark Sands), Agatha (Laura Regan), and Arthur (Nick Zano).

A few spoilers ahead, beware!

If you forgot the details of the movie, the opening 2-minutes does a phenomenal recap, showing the onset of their abilities in a pretty scary montage. We then open on Dash in a bar in 2065 Washington D.C. “You’ll need a mop,” he tells the bartender right before a waitress spills some drinks. He gets a vision which impacts him physically as well as mentally. He writes details and images down in a sketch pad. He takes off frantically across D.C., to prevent a woman from being thrown out a window to her death. He’s close but no cigar. When Detective Lara Vega (Meagan Good) shows up to examine the crime scene, Dash watches and follows her back to her office and after she spots him, he hands over his sketches with details about various murders. Details, only the murderers or pre-cogs could possibly know.

When facial recognition on Dash’s sketch comes up positive for a released killer, Vega and her Lieutenant, Will Blake (Wilmer Valderrama) find him almost immediately. He warns them, “You have no idea what’s coming!” before stepping under a falling steel beam and killing himself. It doesn’t take Vega too long to put the pieces together, find Dash, and form a crimefighting team. First issue, Dash sees the Mayor’s wife dying in a vision. The Mayor (a former pre-crime cop) is unveiling a new predictive policing system based on data and logistics and not on “the psychic visions of freaks.” The rest of the episode is dedicated to figuring out who the murderer is, and trying to prevent it. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a distinctive buddy cop feel to the Dash/Vega scenes. They have good onscreen chemistry that will help push the show onward.

If you have 2-hours, it would certainly help your understanding of the pre-crime and the pre-cogs themselves, if you watched the Spielberg film. That, and the movie is flat out awesome. But Minority Report, the show, has tons of promise, and the continuity from movie to show is really good. They even brought back the caretaker Wally, with the same actor from the film, Daniel London. He’s useful in explaining the show’s title, in case you were wondering. First off, I LOVE the future. They perfectly meshed the world of the movie with the technological advances since, to create a future I can actually envision. It’s not so unbelievable to imagine police with contacts that scan entire rooms, and supply data, or the enhanced security and transportation structures. My favorite, as in the movie, is the in-your-face advertising that appears on basically any surface at any time. I love the Marijuana ad while Dash is on the train, and kudos to FOX for both changing the Redskins team name and throwing in a humorous Simpsons 75th (!) Season Spectacular commercial.

Overall, I really liked Minority Report. It blends the dark tone of the movie with a fun buddy cop TV feel. Stark Sands is good as Dash. He has an innocence and vulnerability to him that his character needs to have. Good is gorgeous, but lends a grittiness that Vega needs. As a huge fan of the movie, I am really impressed with the transition here, and I’m optimistic for great things ahead. Hopefully, this pilot was not just a Minority Report… sorry, too easy.

Minority Report premieres tonight, at 9:00pm ET on FOX. Get ready, the future is coming.

FOX’s synopsis:

“PILOT”
THE FUTURE IS COMING ON THE SERIES PREMIERE OF “MINORITY REPORT” MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, ON FOX
MON SEP 21 9/8c

Based on the international blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg, MINORITY REPORT follows the unlikely partnership between a man haunted by the future and a cop haunted by her past, as they race to stop the worst crimes of the year 2065 before they happen. DASH (Stark Sands, “Inside Llewyn Davis”) is a quiet, idealistic precog secretly living among society, who tries to use his ability to see future murders to save lives by teaming up with the brash, but shrewd, Detective LARA VEGA (Meagan Good, “Think Like A Man” franchise, “Californication”) in the all-new “Pilot” series premiere episode of MINORITY REPORT airing Monday, Sept. 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Image Gallery

Video

MINORITY REPORT | Official Trailer | FOX

MINORITY REPORT follows the unlikely partnership between a man haunted by the future and a cop haunted by her past, as they race to stop the worst crimes of the year 2065 before they happen.

MINORITY REPORT | Vote For The Future, Vote Peter Van Eyck | FOX

Peter Van Eyck pledges to bring crime rates down with his Hawkeye system.