Minority Report
Season 1 Episode 3: “Hawk-Eye”
Directed by Allan Arkush
Written by Kevin Falls
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, October 5th, 2015, 9pm

Hawk-Eye was mentioned by the Mayor in episode 1 of FOX’s new sci-fi thriller Minority Report. Hawk-Eye is the “predictive policing” program that will finally replace pre-crime. Dash (Stark Sands) is one of pre-crime’s pre-cognitive siblings, years removed from police enslavement, he is free and… working to help the police solve murders before they happen. Then again, I would too if my partner were Det. Lara Vega, the magnificent and beautiful Meagan Good. Together with the help of his former caretaker Wally (Daniel London), and the reluctant assistance of his twin seer brother Arthur (Nick Zano) they have prevented two murderous crimes already. Of course this draws attention; the type that could get them both busted… by her boss, Lt. Blake (Wilmer Valderrama), and his psychic sister Agatha (Laura Regan). Agatha has good reason to be skeptical, she sees a future where her, Dash and Arthur are back in the milk bath.

What is Hawk-Eye? What is “predictive policing” you ask? Well, when a man looks to impress his wife by manually speeding on an auto-drive highway, he is flagged as a “public safety risk” and red flagged, all habeas corpus rights gone. And you thought “Stop and Frisk” was bad!? Hawk-Eye studies patterns in human behavior to assess who the risks are. Vega jokes that they better have good lawyers. For a show about the future, Minority Report certainly makes a point about modern policing and tactics. While on a brotherly bike ride, Dash has a vision of the same guy Hawk-Eye spotted. Turns out, Hawk-Eye may be right, he was a risk to public safety; as in, he’s a murderer. They’re hiring civilians analysts for Hawk-Eye, and wouldn’t you know, that’s just a perfect job opportunity for Dash to help Lara.

When they investigate their suspect, they interrupt a spontaneous interlude with his wife… whoops! They visit his therapist and inform him that Hawk-Eye supercedes doctor-patient confidentiality laws. The therapist asks, “How do you sleep at night Detective, knowing that you work for a police state?” Eventually, they are able to prevent the murder from taking place, but not before having to then prevent a therapist-induced suicide attempt.

In terms of plot, Dash and Vega are like a futuristic Castle and Beckett minus the romantic entanglements. The visions Dash gets and their race to catch killers, is not too different from most episodic police dramas. What makes the show special is its ability to capture the moral dilemma posed by both Philip K. Dick and Steven Spielberg. Pre-crime; Hawk-Eye; they’re the same thing. Technology designed to invade your privacy and take away all semblance of constitutional liberties. But if it prevents murders, is it okay? If you can track someone’s every move and arrest them before they commit crimes, hold them without habeas corpus like terror suspects at Gitmo… is it okay? How safe are we, if we are living in a police state? These questions, this dilemma, make Minority Report a can’t miss show.

This week’s awesome future tech: those digital arrows from the commercials that lead you where you need to go; well they exist in the 2060s, as do marijuana versions of listerine tabs (“takes the edge off” declares Arthur). In 2002, Minority Report was one of my favorite films, and in 2015, Minority Report is one of the best new shows on TV.

Minority Report continues next Monday night at 9:00pm ET on FOX.

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MINORITY REPORT | #FlashForwardFridays: “Hawk-Eye” | FOX

Meagan Good shares a sneak peek of Dash’s pre-vision in the next episode of MINORITY REPORT!