Customer Reviews

Harsh Realm : The Ultimate Mind Game - The Complete Series (Three-Disc Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

"Harsh Realm" was meant to be Fox's Great White Hope for the 1999 season. Created by "The X-Files" Chris Carter, the show borrowed pages from "The X-Files" and "The Matrix. General Santiago (O'Quinn) has taken over a virtual reality program named Harsh Realm. Originally developed by the military to give a realistic simulation of how the world would react to a terrorist strike, the military has sent in a number of operatives to take out the elusive Santiago but none have returned. Lt. Hobbes (Bairstow) plans on leaving the military in a month after serving for five years in war torn areas around the world. A hero for saving a friend at the expense of his own life, Hobbes is asked by his C.O. (Henriksen) to go into the game and beat Santiago bringing it to an end. He's told nothing else about Harsh Realm or about the "occupants" that exist there. What he finds is a virtual reality simulation of the real world. With the help of Mike Pinnochio (D. B. Sweeney) Hobbes must try and complete his mission and find a way out of Harsh Realm to his fiancé (Samantha Mathis) and the life he left behind.

Critically drubbed and abandoned by its audience within the first week of its premiere, "Harsh Realm" was a rare failure for Carter as it was cancelled after only airing three episodes. Carter and Fox also faced legal action when James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette the creators of the comic book series "Harsh Realm" sued Fox and won recognition that their work was the basis for Carter's series. While the basic premise and title were similar enough to suggest that Carter had been influenced by the comic book series, "Harsh Realm" the TV series departed radically from the initial premise of Hudnall and Paquette's creation.

It's sad, really, as the show has its moments and the supporting performances of D. B. Sweeney and Terry O'Quinn make even the weakest episode shine. Carter's initial premise had as much promise as another abandoned Fox show ("Sliders") in that it would have allowed him to examine many different issues in an "alternate" reality. "Harsh Realm" doesn't pick up steam or break any new ground like "The X-Files" or even "Millennium" did but the story potential for the series was great.

Although grainy newsreel like style used in "Black Hawk Down" bookends the first episode, the transfer is far from "harsh". The solid blacks and vivid colors are brilliantly realized and provide a sharp contrast to the gloomy scenes set in the virtual reality world. Although the box says the series is presented in 1.33:1 full screen mode, it's actually in what appears to be a 1.76:1 widescreen mode. It's evident how expensive the series was from the very first frame of footage. The stark sequences set in the former Sarevjo have epic big screen production values and the fine detail set in the destroyed city looks terrific. The 5.1 soundtrack, unlike most shows from the same time frame, uses the format pretty effectively. The result is that you feel like ducking whenever a helicopter swings by or someone shoots off a machine gun. The sound has considerable presence and depth as well.

The three disc set features all nine episodes of the series so, needless to say, there's not a whole lot in the way of extra features. On the other hand, Fox has priced this boxed set accordingly. The two featurettes mimic those of the "Millennium" set. We get a standard behind-the-scenes featurette about the creation and production of the series. I got the impression that Fox produced this while the series was shooting in anticipation of eventually releasing it to DVD. There's also a clever, well thought out featurette on the creation of the show's main titles much like a similar featurette for "Millennium".

Chris Carter and director Sackheim provide a single commentary track on the pilot. It's rather interesting as Carter discusses some of his casting decisions in the commentary track as well as the inspiration of the series (while avoiding the painful topic of the lawsuit he and Fox faced). While supposedly the lawsuit had no bearing on the cancellation of the series, I'm sure that it helped contributed to tension between Carter and Fox thus hasting the untimely demise of the show. Unfortunately, none of these issues is discussed (although its understandable as to why). It's too bad that there's no commentary track by writers/producers John Shiban and Frank Spotniz. Like Carter, both are veterans of "The X-Files" and "Millennium" and their episodes are, like Carter's initial ones, real gems that offered much promise for this critically attacked series.

Although it certainly couldn't live up to "The X-Files" (or, for that matter, "Millennium") due to its short life, "Harsh Realm" demonstrates that a great premise isn't necessarily the best springboard for well written television. The episodes included here indicated that "Harsh Realm" had developed an interesting story arc. "Homicide: Life on the Street" and even "NYPD Blue" didn't offer much originality in the "premise" department. It was the striking writing and character development that made those series so memorable. The same could have occurred with "Harsh Realm". I'd suggest giving the series a chance despite the fact that the cliff ending ninth episode leaves the series unfinished and hanging.

Chris Carter's third show was never allowed to develop from its short appearance due to a miserable marketing campaign on the part of the Fox network. I am a fan of Chris Carter's work, and had been eagerly awaiting the premiere of this show. Surprisingly, I had a difficult time trying to find out when the show would be premiering, since Fox was not promoting it. By accident, I tuned in on the night of the series premiere, and caught the tail end of the prologue. Fox claims that the numbers weren't there for the premiere, and cancelled the show after just three episodes. It's unrealistic to think that viewers would tune in when there's no advertisement for the show. As such Harsh Realm suffered from the harsh realities of marketing gone wrong.

I think Harsh Realm had another thing going against it: it was the replacement of Chris Carter's second series Millennium, which had started to develop a loyal fan base. Millennium was and still is a remarkable show, and I believe a lot of the fans, including myself, expected an equally remarkable show as a successor. So, at the beginning, Harsh Realm had big shoes to fill.

The series pilot was not the best of Chris Carter's work (except for the final scene of the episode, when the viewer realizes how widespread the problem is), though the story had only just started. The two subsequent episodes continued to reveal the plot that was introduced in the pilot. Only after the third episode "Inga Fossa" is there enough told to proceed to the first stand-alone episode. Unfortunately, until the FX cable network debuted these episodes a year later did anyone get the chance to see the remaining 6 episodes of the series.

I have seen some of the remaining six episodes that aired later on FX. They are very good in production quality, and the plot device of a virtual reality landscape allows the writers a lot of creative freedom to place the characters in very unusual circumstances. Perhaps, the best of them is the eighth episode "Cinncinnati", where the audience finally gets a real taste for how evil and committed the series' villain, Omar Santiago, is. His quest for supreme domination and the establishment of his fascist society shows its true colors.

The two main characters: Hobbes (Scott Bairstow) and Pinnochio (D.B. Sweeney) are essentially polar opposites. Hobbes is the good all-American soldier, which for the most part makes him a caricature of sorts, though he does have some shining moments. Pinnochio is not a bad guy, he's honorable, but he's also jaded and his loyalties are questionable at times. This makes him a much more interesting character than Hobbes, and it is a shame we didn't get the chance to see his character develop. As for the other players: Florence (the mute healer/soldier), Sophie (Hobbe's fiance), Inga Fossa (the duplicitous informant), Waters (Hobbes former friend turned enemy) and Omar Santiago (a Hitler-esque fascist dictator)...they make their contributions here and there, but we never got to learn too much about them. The only real exception being Santiago who gets fleshed out very well in "Cinncinnati".

This was not one Chris Carter's finest moments, but it may have developed into something special if given the time. Millennium, too, had a rocky start, but found it's loyal viewers. Perhaps, on DVD, it will be given the opportunity to shine for the first time. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing these episodes on DVD, and the various extras provided within the boxset.

"It's just a game..."

Harsh Realm, created by X-Files and Milennium creator Chris Carter, was just one of many prime time sci-fi dramas that died a quick death on Fox. Three episodes were aired when it originally premiered in 1999, with the other six episodes aired on Fox's FX cable network the following year. The sad part about Harsh Realm, is that there was plenty of promise and potential, but none of it ever got to get off the ground thanks to yet another brilliant idea from the bigwigs at Fox. The story revolves around Army Lieutenant Tom Hobbes (Scott Bairstow), called back into action to supposedly test run a virtual reality war game called Harsh Realm. He becomes trapped inside, with hundreds of others who identify him as the "savior" they have been awaiting. Plenty of comparisons to the Matrix (which was released earlier that year) could be a turn off to some, but Harsh Realm was never given the chance to take off like it could have. The rest of the cast includes D.B Sweeney as a fellow trapped soldier, Milennium alumnus Terry O'Quinn as deranged Harsh Realm dictator Santiago, and Samantha Mathis as Tom's estranged fiance. Now that Harsh Realm is on DVD, it's worth checking out, and we can thank Fox once again for squandering good potential (Firefly anyone?).

I was the writer of the Harsh Realm comic. I can tell you the lawsuit against the show had nothing to do with its cancellation.

The show premiered against the baseball playoffs in the dire Friday nights at nine time slot. The head of Fox TV at the time was really cancel happy as other people have noted, but I get the impression from talking to people behind the scenes that Carter and Fox were having run ins unrelated to our lawsuit.

Anyway, the show deviates from the comic in that the comic is set in the future and deals with pocket universes, not virtual reality. But the basic storyline is the same. Instead of a mad general hunted by a soldier, ala Apocalypse Now, my story dealt with a detective hired to find a missing teenager who went into a world designed to work like a medieval fantasy world. The teenager, it turns out, went native and became mad with power and was creating havoc in that world.

Anyway, we got the credits we wanted in our settlement. I don't hold any grudges and the show is halfway decent. It would have been a lot more interesting if they stuck to the comic, though.

When I saw that a DVD set of "Harsh Realm" was going to be released, I pulled out my grainy old VHS tapes and watched the whole series again. Did this series still fascinate me, five years after it had been cancelled? Was I really going to spend almost $40 for just nine episodes (plus commentary)? The answer to both questions was "Yes", because these first nine episodes are better than some series achieve in their whole run.

Years earlier, I had by chance seen "Reunion", the fifth episode of the series. In the virtual world of "Harsh Realm" Tom Hobbes and Mike Pinocchio have just been kidnapped to work in a forced labor camp. The camp's Commander comes out to tell the new men that they are now free - within the confines of the electric fence; and no longer have to worry about food and shelter - as long as they do the work and respect the rules. Then a mechanical "skull bug" in shot into their brains to insure compliance. "A simple security measure" the Commander explains.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Hobbes mother lays in a hospital dying of cancer. Beside her sits Sophie, Hobbes beloved fiancee. Hobbes has "disappeared" in the real world, and Sophie has been told that he is dead.

These two storylines don't sound like they have very much to do with one another, do they? Well, the point / counterpoint between the two "realities" is one of the main charms of this complex, many-layered series for me, and by the end of the episode, when Sophie shakes a little snow globe in the "real" world - and to the delicate sound of wind chimes, it starts to snow in Harsh Realm, I knew I wanted to see more of this series.

The commentary on the set does not clear up some of the unsolved mysteries of the series - is Florence a renegade nun from the real world? Will the seductive Inga Fossa betray them all? - but it does make clear how hard the crew worked to give Harsh Realm the look and feel of an epic feature film on a TV budget.

This series was cancelled by the Fox Network after only 3 (THREE!) episodes were aired. Fox seems to have a problem recognizing quality work; witness the untimely cancellation of Joss Whedon's excellent "Firefly" series.

Every person has a different take on what delights them. Below, I list some of my reasons for buying the "Harsh Realm" DVD set.

1. Mark Snow's amazing music. From the opening theme (with clips of WW II Italian dictator Mussolini's speeches) with a driving, almost mechanical beat, to the ethereal sound of wind chimes, this soundtrack is still fresh and unexpected.

2. During the pilot episode a military aid says he might be able to help Hobbes out in California - this subject was only mentioned briefly when Hobbes and Sophie were snuggling earlier in bed. How is this private information known by a stranger? Have we already entered Harsh Realm?

3. Also in the pilot, Hobbes is pointed to a chair with red upholstery, in which he is to sit while being briefed on the specifics of Harsh Realm. After he sits, he notices the words "Siege Perilous" scratched into the arms of the chair. (Arthurian scholars will understand the deadly significance of this phrase; the rest of you will have to look it up.) The Mythos Officially Begins.

4. Or maybe the Mythos really began when Hobbes pulls Waters to safety in the "real world" of Sarajevo, and first sees the ominous skull and cross of bones - note the "Welcome to Hell" graffiti with the same image when he enters the wreck of his former home in Harsh Realm.

5. One of my favorite scenes: Hobbes and Pinocchio are tied up, prisoners in the basement of a house. A soulful melody is heard in the background. As Hobbes gazes sadly around him, he sighs deeply, chest heaving, looking heavenward, and addresses "dearest Sophie" in his thoughts. "Shut up, Hobbes!" says Pinocchio. "I didn't say anything" returns Hobbes. "Yeah, but I can feel you thinkin'."

6. The entire cast is superb, but in particular, D.B. Sweeney is great as the foul-mouthed but faithful Pinocchio. He is also a thief, and steals all but the clothes on Hobbes back. Later, Hobbes furiously demands the return of his wedding band. Pinocchio coolly refuses, and threatens to eat Hobbes's dog, Dexter. (I always hoped that ring would show up again, had the series continued.)

7. I also loved the elegant Rachel Hayward (as Florence), who tearfully sacrificed her beautiful hair to play this miraculous character.

8. I might as well mention "Kein Ausgang" (the fourth episode) which has justifiably been compared to the best of "The Twilight Zone" episodes.

9. The scene in "Inga Fossa" where Sarah-Jane Redmond whips off her prim business jacket to reveal her sexy underwear, seducing Major Waters right on the conference table. What a vixen! (I thought her lisp was enchanting - listen closely as she tries to pronounce "Major Waters" - it comes out "May-jaw What-uhs".)

10. Harsh Realm works as a pretty nifty morality play too. "Is this nightmare only a mistake away?" asks Tom Hobbes.

Please rent this beautiful, thought-provoking, surreal, series and see if you, too, need to buy your own copy of "Harsh Realm".

Because of this series being truncated so dramatically, part of me wants it to be one of those too-good-for-TV shows that was simply written over the heads of the hoi polloi. Alas, it's not the case, although Harsh Realm has some classically stylish moments that are savorable. It sort of wants to be a post-modern Combat (there's a dated TV reference!), through the weird filter of Chris Carter; and it kind of wants to be dystopian fiction, though the virtual reality artifice steals a lot of that particular energy.

That being said, I liked this show. It doesn't try to overreach the narrative too often, and the premise is thin (to say the least), but it has some entertaining moments that don't quite add up to a whole vision. I run hot and cold on D.B. Sweeney; he is very watchable in this. The hokey comic book bushido of the villain, Santiago, is a bit much, as is the spiritual overreaching in a couple of the stories.

If you want to watch interesting virtual reality fiction, head straight for VR5. Harsh Realm is an interesting failure that might have become something, if it had not been strangled stillborn by those mokes at the Network. And to Carter's credit, he approaches the difficult waters of war fiction and has a go at it. It is certainly the case that carter's failures are often more interesting than some other's successes.

X-Files and Millennium fans will immediately recognize the landscape in Carters third series, Harsh Realm. Basically the series is about a soldier who has to go into a virtual reality game to assassinate this legendary general, Omar Santiago, who has taken it over and plans to end the real world in order that his virtual reality world may be all that survives. At least, that seems to be the gist. As is probably already obvious to those who bought this set, the series lasted for only nine episodes, three of which only got to be aired. The first question I asked myself, of course, was why this series tanked. In the featurette interviews with Carter and producers, it was pointed out that Harsh Realm debuted just after The Matrix had hit the theaters. Maybe the viewing public had had enough of virtual realities for awhile. For myself, I just wasn't won over by the lead actors. Scott Bairstow was just too young and unconvincing as Thomas Hobbs (a reference to the celebrated 17th century philosopher-and the nasty, brutish and short-lived nature of Harsh Realm), who along with Samantha Mathis, who played his fiancé, could've come straight from the college dorms. Tipping the scales, however, we also have D.B. Sweeney playing a cynical soldier named Pinocchio, who has no wish to return to his disfigured self in the real world, and Terry O'Quinn, whom viewers will remember from the Millennium series, who plays the villain, Omar Santiago. Aside from the casting, the production and set designs are first-class. The stories run from mediocre to above standard. My two personal favorites were, "Kein Ausgang", which is an awesome tribute to the legendary "Twilight Zone" show, the "Three Percenters", which is a pretty decent science fiction story, and "Cincinatti", which is about as intense as anything on TV for the first 35 minutes (Quinn's stand-out performance is essential for this episode's relative success), but then shoots itself in the foot at the end with a very trite ending-which ironically is probably what happened to the series in real life, as both viewers (and maybe the network investors) just probably weren't in the mood for the hook and play style that had been used so successfully in the X-Files.

Before watching Harsh Realm on DVD I was under the solid impression that any canceled series (e.g. Firefly, Wonderfalls, Deadwood, Huff, Dead Like Me, Miracles, Veronica Mars - you get the idea!) was better than just about anything currently on the networks. Harsh Realm is one of the exceptions to the rule.

Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable enough to watch. But it's all just cotton candy.

HR suffered from massive holes in its plot and the obvious arrogance of its producers who thought they could placate their audience with multiple dead end cul de sac episodes that contributed nothing toward advancing the arc of the larger plot.

HR's biggest plot point was that Santiago, the man who had taken over the virtual reality game, could somehow destroy the real world. It's nonsense on two counts - how is such a thing possible? And how could the game continue if the real world no longer existed? Another gnawing flaw was the idea that the VR world was identical to the real world in every possible way,as if not just people were copied, but their entire life histories as well. Just how could the government know every single possible detail about every human in the country?

One of the lessons that the producers of shows like "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" (season 3 mostly) discovered is that you can't get away with multiple dead end episodes. In Harsh Realm we basically get the first two episodes that advance the larger plot and then it's essentially abandoned.

I actually enjoyed watching the show. But the reasons for its cancellation were rather obvious.

Chris Carter - the maker of X-Files - wrote Harsh Realm, so it should have been a hit. Although the concept of a Matrix-like virtual world where everything seems real is a great one, Harsh Realm in no way matches up to the standard of the Matrix. It has fewer and less spectacular special effects (of course a series has a smaller budget than a movie), it is also rather slow and doesn't have much of the compelling "must watch next week" factor.

The season was axed half way through, so it remains unfinished and no issues brought up in the plot are ever resolved. It is easy to see how Carter could have made this into an interesting series if he was given the time, but it wasn't immediately gripping in the way that the X-Files was. Firstly, there isn't a set format for each episode. The first few follow on from one another, and then you start getting random "stand-alone" episodes. While this worked well in the X-Files (something weird happens and Mulder and Scully are called in), it doesn't work so well in Harsh Realm. These episodes just leave you thinking "Well what about all the people in the story last week? What's happening with them?".

Above all, the worst thing about Harsh Realm is the reason given for the renegade General Santiago needing to be eliminated in the story. Apparently his great scheme is to somehow destroy the world and have only the virtual world of Harsh Realm exist instead. This made no sense in the story - for a start, the military have control of Harsh Realm - surely they can shut it down if they feel Santiago is a threat. Secondly, destroying the world will not be the best idea if your body still needs to be alive to be plugged in to Harsh Realm. Thirdly, in the story the military has sent hundreds of soldiers in to Harsh Realm to kill Santiago... yet none of them have thought of banding together and forming an army to take him out.

All in all, a dark series which could have done with an injection of humour. All of the actors are great - it's a shame that nothing better was done with it. Worth watching if you're bored.. but nothing to get excited about.

Like many here, I missed 'Harsh Realm' when it was first broadcast: It was yet another Fox show that was shot down after a handful of episodes were broadcast. Now that Fox is a 'mainstream' network, it no longer has to take the risks of developing innovative and intelligent programming - goodbye 'X-Files', hello 'The O.C.'...

Anyway, having finally seen this show - 8 episodes, at least - through some minor bit of surfeit, I'm convinced that this show could have gone on to become a postmodern incarnation of Patrick McGoohan's old series 'The Prisoner'. Unfortunately there were legal hurdles: 'Harsh Realm' existed as a comic book before it was a television series, and by the time it had aired, the creators had decided to back out of the deal, and demanded either more money or more credit for a premise that Carter only partially used.

The litigation resulted in more prominent credits being given to creators James Hudnall and Andrew Paquette, but part of the reason for he show's cancellation was that Fox simply didn't want to be bothered with the litigation or whatever payouts they'd be required to hand over to Hudnall and Paquette.

And it's a bit of a shame - 'Harsh Realm' wasn't able to fully establish it's 'mythological' arc in the first 9 episodes, and the show alone could have been a meal ticket for the creators if they hadn't chosen to be greedy: All that was required was a reboot of the comic and more active collaboration with Carter's group. But no. I suppose Hudnall and Paquette had 'dot-com' fever, and wanted to get rich in one fell swoop: Thus, they were instrumental in getting 'their' own show cancelled.

Where are they now, I wonder. Carter's probably still a millionaire, but Hudnall and Paquette? Ever?

As for the show, it's an interesting piece of entertainment, for adherents of both Carter's output and of the old McGoohan series, if not JMS' 'Jeremiah'. One never knows - good sales of this product might result in renewed interest on the part of Fox, Carter, Hudnall and Paquette...

(William Gibson apparently wrote a couple of unproduced episodes, and Carter hinted at possibly bringing it back, after the 'cancellation'.)

After all, worked for 'Family Guy'...