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Saturday, July 23, 2011

(TV Miniseries) 5ive days to midnight

Some time ago (about two years ago) I've seen an episode of something that caught my eye. There was a professor who was trying to figure out his own murder. This seemed odd and I wanted to find out what series it was but it all ended in vain.

Two years later.

We went to my bf's family house. It seems that the TV there is on for the whole day and night. In the evening there was something called Five Days to Midnight. By accident we've seen the second episode of the miniseries I wanted to watch few years ago. This time we knew the name of the series so I tried to get the rest somewhere.

5ive Days to Midnight
This is a TV miniseries ran by Sci-Fi channel in 2004.

While visiting his wife's grave, his daughter Jesse finds a briefcase. JT Neumeyer later manages to open the case and finds there a file with an unresolved homicide case. JT is shocked because the murdered is himself. His death should happen on Friday (in five days) at 3:55 am. At first he takes it for a hoax done by one of his students - Carl. Later though when some of the things stated in the file happen he's starting to take it seriously. He's got five days to change his destiny.

The series caught my eye because of the plot. It's not ordinary to see a movie or a series about something like this. Time travel though is something that also means logical problems in the movie. This series had plenty of space for philosophy but the director probably did not want to venture there. The series is a mixture of a mystery, drama, thriller and action.

The director should have also avoided the slow motion parts. At first I thought that this was an error in playback of the file I was watching but later found out that this was an intention of the director (or whoever else). This really ruined several moments in the series where real tension or suspense could be developed. This is something that really feels off in the series.

There are relatively funny moments in the series taking in account that you as the viewer know the contents of the file. So you can expect what happens. For example JT's girlfriend giving him a present - what it is going to be? (yes, you are right, something stated in the file...).

What I did not like about the series is the end. I expected that it would have a 'happy ending', but some things needed more explanation. Actually you can see and realize that there is more discrepancy in the series. For example, we could see in later episodes that the contents of the case changes depending on what happened. This means that what JT managed to alter in his present time has impact on the future. But in episode no. 2 (where Mandy was supposed to die) we can see that the contents of the case weren't changed as there is a scene where you can still read the same article about her dying due to fallen tree.

This actually confused me in the beginning because I though that the future cannot be altered and she has to die and thus JT's death is inevitable as well. But later you see that things start to change in the file. What the hell? What happened? So now things are different (oh cool, JT will save his life for sure)

In the end one wonder why saving JT's life was actually important apart from his daughter wanting him to stay alive. You know in most series and movies changing the future is something forbidden blah blah and people are usually trying to keep the timeline as it was.

Anyway, I enjoyed this miniseries.

Personal Rating: 3/5

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