Charlie Jade
Charlie Jade
| 16 April 2005 (USA)

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SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    Actuakers

    One of my all time favorites.

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    ShangLuda

    Admirable film.

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    Geraldine

    The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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    Fleur

    Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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    critias12

    Still only halfway through the season as it airs on Sci-Fi. The first 8 or so episodes were really slow, and I understand why some people were turned off.However, it is very different conceptually from any other sci-fi series I can think of, and it kept me intrigued. The writing staff was completely changed around episode 10 and things really started to come together and take off.The acting is good, with some great performances by crazy 01 Boxer played by Michael Flippowich, as well as many in the supporting cast. Filmed on location in South Africa, it does have definitely alien feel for those in the US. The culture is Western, but not American.There's a lot unexpected in this show, in a good way, and it's hardly predictable. The 'hero' Charlie isn't trying to accomplish anything but getting home to his hot girlfriend. I'd recommend it for anyone who want's good sci-fi that's not in the action-adventure vein and requires a bit of intelligence on the part of the audience.

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    QQMcMudd

    The premise of this show was quite promising. The plot involves three parallel universes called the GammaVerse, AlphaVerse, and BetaVerse. The Alphaverse is the home of our hero, Charlie Jade, which is a fascist world. All citizens are classified in one of three groups (e.g., C-1, or Class 1 — which stands for Upper Class). It is dominated by five gigantic multinational firms. Prime among these is Vexcor. Despite the Alphaverse's dystopian society, it does contain some futuristic technology that is within our existing technology. The Betaverse is like our world and the Gammaverse is the Utopian or ideal version that our world could become. The protagonist is an alphaverse corporation called Vexcor that has designs on draining the pure water from the Betaverse and Gammaverse to replace the polluted water in the Alphaverse. Charlie Jade gets transported to the Alphverse and the story begins. That's it, no explanation, no plot line, and no plot confluence.Confused, you bet and rightfully so. This show has a wonderful and interesting concept but it is poorly and confusingly written, and turned into a convoluted mess. The writing is terrible. Only if you have closely watched each episode can you understand the plot. The writers needed to explain the plot to the viewer and clearly show the relationship of the Verses and how they differ.This show was obviously a mess... even to the SciFI network, as the new shows are only shown once on Tuesday at 3:00 AM. I Tevo it just to see how it will end. Don't wast your time watching any episodes if you are a new viewer. I am sure the SciFI network will show all the episodes on one day as they do others. But before watching Charlie Jade, check out the synopses on the this site or others. Otherwise, you will be lost.As I mentioned, this is a great premise with decent actors. Next time, SciFi Channel, get good writers. It's almost as if SciFI went to the local elementary school and asked if anyone wanted to write a script. This is just a total mess and it's sad. I would have really enjoyed this show if written more coherently.

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    Robert Collins

    Jade is still waiting to be discovered. This beautifully written, moody complex but dramatically compelling work is in fact what so many shows and films have claimed to be, but aren't, the spiritual TV inheritor of Blade Runner.The cinematography is terrific I think and the mix of languages, looks and environments is both other-worldly and gritty.This show has yet to have it's day, whether through VOD or television I predict it will be 'discovered by the right combination of powers-that-be in the US.I hope to see other work by this group of artists.

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    xanatos553

    I know a guy who worked on the crew for this. He says it's a kind of X-Files meets Sliders meets Han Solo. They shot the whole thing in South Africa with a lot of S African talent, so it looks different from anything you're probably used to seeing.Apparently, there's a ton of directors -- a new one each episode? I think that's a good thing, because science ficiton shows usually benefit from having a bunch of people at the helm. Its important to keep the ideas fresh, because without that, you don't get any challenge. X-Files was definitely better for having so many directors. Or Sopranos, even, but I know that's not sci fi.The buzz at MIPCOM was that the science end of things could be really cool, too. Parallel universes and traveling between them. I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen with machines that the characters build? Apparently the post production happened in Montreal and there's gonna be some good effects. I heard there's an entire city built in a computer.

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