Wednesday marks the series premiere ofReverie, a new NBC drama about, well, a lot of things!
They discussed the episode in real time via Slack.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
Credit: Vivian Zink/NBC
Kristen:I literally don’t even know where to start here, Darren.
Darren:We’re four seconds intoReverie.
Kristen:But he’s REALLY in a coma, affected by something called “the Reverie program.”
And Dennis Haysbert is here!
I hope it’s the latter, better music.
Kristen:Sarah Shahi is taking pills and taking shots from tiny hotel liquor bottles.
TV pet peeve 4,072: secret drunks who drink out of tiny hotel liquor bottles.
If they wanted to keep it secret, they’d use a flask.
Darren:She’s also leading a seminar about figuring out if people are lying.
Is this set in theLie to Meuniverse?
I really likedLie to Me, it was likeCSIbut for lying.
Kristen:This is actually a college class where people read each other’s expressions.
“Their parents pay money for this?”
I tweet about it all the time.
Kristen:Sarah Shahi apparently used to be a cop, and Dennis Haysbert used to be the chief.
Dennis Haysbert is saying “Reverie is the place where the impossible becomes possible.”
So it’s aWestworldbut without the West.
Kristen:And without the rape?
This is where I had to turn the show off last time.
Thank you for joining me for Take 2.
Backstory alert: Shahi has two daughters (maybe) but something caused her to lose them?
RELATED VIDEO: EW Personality Test: Sarah Shahi
Kristen:Oh NO!
It was her sister!
Her sister was killed by her angry brother-in-law!
Her sister and her niece were killed!
THIS is why she drinks out of tiny hotel liquor bottles, I guess.
Darren:Well now,Reverieis really off to a lighthearted start here.
Kristen:Can we go back to the video game now pls?
Kristen:And they’re always walking.
Also, the Reverie building has an AI!
It’s name is Dillon and it sounds like one of the kids from thePeanutscartoons.
Kristen:Yeah that’s not creepy AT ALL.
EWWWW Reverie has been “integrated with living tissue.”
#nope
Darren:I mean like, can you use this to playMarioKart?
I would get cybertech integrated into my living tissue if it helped withMarioKart.
Kristen:You could probably use it to playMarioKartwhile talking with Duck McScrooge about hisStar Warsissues.
Darren:OH MY GOD WAIT.
This episode was directed by Jaume-Collet Serra???
He madeThe Commuter, the movie where Liam Neeson punches a train!
AndNon-Stop,the movie where Liam Neeson punches a plane!
Is that the dude fromHeroes?
Darren [the same instant]:Hey, it’s Suresh fromHeroes!
You owe me a VR soda!
Kristen:Darren is she IN the game right now?
And if so is Heroes Dude in the game too?
Does he live there?
Darren:Yes, I think they’re in the tutorial section of the game.
Also, you just know that the Reverie employees would be all like “It’s NOT a game!
It’s a TRANSDIGITAL EXPERIENCE, GEEZ.”
Kristen:Wow he really is still so very handsome.
My Reverie would be me discovering how handsome Sendhil Ramamurthy still is, over and over again.
Darren:Now she’s in a forest.
Have we been watching this for ten hours?
Kristen:Okay so we’re 217 minutes in and now she’s running around a Reverie forest.
(We’re actually only 15 minutes in, give or take.)
Also, now the whole forest is burning down.
I feel like that’s a hot new trend, remember the burning forest inLost in Space?
Kristen:Well to be fair, the fire does look really fake.
Burning forests are the new flash forwards.
Darren:Wait, everything’s changed, now she’s drowning in a coffin.
Also Sendhil Ramamurthy just said “de-realization” I think???
Darren:Every time the scientists talk about Reverie, I get very confused.
Kristen:Oh, ok so the Coma Guy is staying in Reverie to be with his dead wife.
Even though his daughter is still alive in the “real world.”
Darren:So his show isthe Domhnall Gleeson ofBlack Mirrormixed with the ’80s episode ofBlack Mirror.
Mixed with Sarah Shahi learning to breathe underwater, mixed with frankly not enough punching of planes.
Kristen:I have never watched an episode ofBlack Mirror, but I’ll take your word for it.
Darren:Technology is bad, there, saved you some time.
Darren:I feel like a lot of Reverie looks like the final act of a romantic comedy?
Like, sky lanterns and hot air balloons and fancy libraries?
It’s like the Matrix forMaid in Manhattan.
They want to pull in those female viewers who might be scared off by the sci-fi element.
Darren:And they’re in the middle of what looks like a Chinese New Year parade.
What’s that movie where the technology doesn’t want the person to succeed so it keeps cockblocking them?
Throwing obstacles in their way?
Darren:Ummmm.It’s notNon-Stop, I know that.
Kristen:It’ll come to me.
Oh, maybe it wasn’t a movie, and maybe it wasn’t technology.
Darren:God, Kristen, I am ALL ABOUT THIS LIBRARY.
Kristen:Yeah the show really loves this set.
We’ve been here three times now.
Darren:It’s like the hub corridor of Reverie, this cool circular library.
Kristen:Reminds me of the elevator in Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride.
Darren:With a lot of doors, and I assume one door leads to the MAZE.
I hope this show has a maze.
Darren:Also, there’s a blue butterfly.
Because she (maybe) saw her dead niece.
I think I thought there was a ghost in theSecret Garden?
Kristen:I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of a ghost inSecret Garden.
Quiz: What is Sarah S.’s character’s name?
We are now 27 minutes in, btw.
Darren:Thanks to Dillon, I know that it’s Maura!
Kristen:Maura or Mara?
Darren:Sorry, “Mara.”
As in Rooney, not Tierny.
Kristen:Also what is happening right now?
Mara/Maura is talking to Dillon about people in Coma Guy’s social media photos.
His “social media footprint,” if you will, Darren.
COMA GUY IS NAMED TONY!
(Baby steps.)
The Reverie doctor says Mara might have an “underlying psychiatric disorder.”
Darren:The blue butterfly is maybe some kind of drug?
Dennis Haysbert says it “Helps college kids get through finals.”
Or, also, the blue butterfly symbolizes guilt?
Darren:Butterflies are the new Maze.
Kristen:I couldn’t understand this show LESS if it were in Esperanto.
Darren:Mara is back in Reverie chasing coma guy through a nice hotel.
I take back all previous references, this is veryVanilla Sky?
I bet they pitched this show as “Vanilla SkymeetsLie to Me.”
Darren:There’s a drug in this world called Scarin'.
I’m sure it’s not spelled that way, but that’s how I will spell it.
This would never happen in Scandinavia.
Scandinavia is like Reverie in real life.
Darren:So serious question, is this show basicallyTouched by an Angel: Internet Edition?
Darren:I get high on Scarin' every Halloween!
(Sorry)
Kristen:I guess Coma Guy didn’t realize he’s trapped in Reverie?
Darren:Just like Tom Cruise inVanilla Sky, spoiler alert!
Kristen:And Rosebud is a sled!
Darren:And Thanos is a sled, triple spoiler alert!
And rose petals are floating into the sky for some reason.
Darren:Romcom Matrix is the best Matrix.
Kristen:It certainly is the prettiest.
Darren:Coma Guy has just woken up.
I like the idea that Mara is an excellent hostage negotiator because she’s just super chill.
Like, she can just talk people through stuff.
Kristen:Yeah, Sendhil Ramamurthy is handsome but he’s definitely not a good guy.
Kristen:Oh god, I don’t know or care.
Darren:I give it a 50/50 shot that everything we’ve seen is digital.
Also, Lexy, who I think invented Reverie, sleeps in a cool post-modern looking orb bed?
Kristen:Playing virtual checkers with Dillon, WHO IS MODELED AFTER HER DEAD (?)
So this isThe MatrixmeetsVanilla SkymeetsEternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindmeetsMaid in Manhattan.
Darren:Whoa, it’s Kathryn Morris fromCold Case!
Kristen [the same instant]:Wait, what’s the chick fromCold Casedoing here?
Kristen:Meanwhile, Mara is out of the Reverie, and has arrived home.
She seems to be on the verge of Reevaluating Her Life.
Darren:Oh god, another flashback to the murder of her sister and niece.
And now we get to see her murderous brother-in-law kill himself, too!
Kristen:Mara is picking up her messy apartment!
She really IS ready to change her life!BUT WILL SHE THROW OUT THE PILLS DARREN?
Darren:Seems like a waste of pills.
Also not great for the Citytown, USA water supply.
Darren:Wait, she just heard her niece, laughing?
Kristen:OH F HER NIECE FOLLOWED HER OUT OF THE REVERIE.
Wait, wait, wait.
Was that the show?
Kristen:I mean, yes?
Darren:It ends with the niece hanging out at the end of the hall?
Kristen:But she doesn’t speak… yet.
Darren:You know what her niece was doing, Kristen?
She was…SCARIN'.
Kristen:High five!
I was not expecting the in-depth conversations about family trauma!
Kristen:LikeElementarybut with talks of “mindfulness”?
I don’t know what I was expecting.
Actually, that’s not true.
I guess I thought there would be monsters.
Aren’t there always monsters in video games?
I thought Sarah S. would get trapped in Reverie and have to fight off digital monsters.
Can we just jump ahead to that part?
What do you think, Kristen?
Nothing made sense and there wasn’t enough Dennis Haysbert.
I would like to see Sarah S. find a show that is worthy of her appeal.
This, however, is not it.
Darren:RIP,Fairly Legal!
Let’s go with your grade since I just remembered there was a symbolic butterfly.
And with that, I am Exodus-ing myself away fromReverie.
Reveriepremieres tonight at 9 p.m.
