Don’t cut that cord just yet
Irealize over the past few months I’ve excluded a certain type of viewer from my columns: those who solely watch local and cable channels. It wasn’t intentional, I promise. As someone who has several streaming services available, I rarely channel-surf (to be fair, I think I have less than 15 channels available). But going home last month reminded me that’s not the case for everybody.
Behold, my wonderful parents: loving, funny and up until recently totally oblivious to this whole Netflix thing. “What do you mean I can watch whatever movies and TV shows I want on demand? I don’t have to wait for 7 p.m. to roll around to watch a new episode of my show?” This totally blew their minds.
Knowing that there are so many others out there like them, I decided to take a bit of a cable plunge myself and find shows available right now that you all can enjoy. Boy, it’s difficult to watch TV for you!
First up is the thrilling sci-fi Fox show “NeXt,” which premiered last week. It might make you look at your cellphone, Alexa and other devices a bit differently. It also gives a whole new meaning to “smart” technology.
The first episode opens up on a very deranged man seemingly running away from something. We don’t know who or what the enemy is, but slowly we learn he is being tracked. Unfortunately, our hero doesn’t win this battle, but he leaves behind a videotape addressed to former tech giant Paul LeBlanc ( John Slattery) about tech gone rogue.
Before LeBlanc left the industry, he was developing a human-level artificial intelligence, but decided it was best to not make technology smarter than humans. Good choice! LeBlanc’s brother and his team, however, have started the project back up, now named “Next,” and as we saw with our hero in the beginning, this AI is too powerful. It has even gained a mind of its own. LeBlanc teams up with FBI agent Shea Salazar (Fernanda Andrade) to hopefully shut this technology down before things get too out of hand.
I’m not the biggest fan of the sci-fi genre, but “NeXt”
had a very gripping premiere. It really makes you think about all the technology we’re so dependent on these days to wake us up in the morning, give us directions and communicate with others. I hope my devices don’t develop a brain of their own.
There’s even a Bakersfield connection in this show with Evan Whitten, who stars as Salazar’s son, Ethan.
In the show, the Bakersfield native deals with a bully at school, and it seems as though this rogue technology has a solution for him. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’m definitely eager to find out what happens in the next episode.
You can watch “NeXt” at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on Fox. Check local listings as a new episode might not premiere every week. You
can also catch up on previous episodes at fox.com or Hulu.
If you happen to be into sci-fi, here’s another show you should put on your radar. “Soulmates” is an anthology series set 15 years in the future where you can take a test and find your soul mate. Sounds too good to be true, right? The first two episodes seem to back that up.
The premiere presents a classic dilemma we would face if this test existed today: What do you do if you’re already in a relationship or married? Do you take the test to see if you are currently with your soul mate or if they’re still out there, or do you look the other way and continue living your life as is? Nikki and Franklin (Sarah Snook and Kingsley Ben-Adir) seem to have a great life: They’ve known each other since college, have two beautiful children and a great home. But after seeing so many of their friends find their perfect match, it makes them wonder if they’re really meant to be together.
Each episode introduces us to a new set of characters and situation. In the second episode, a man meets a woman who says they’re soul mates, but can he trust her? Those “what if” situations and not really knowing what you’re going to get with each episode are what make this series very intriguing to me. And just like with “NeXt,” this show makes you think about your own relationships and what you would do if you could take a test to find your soul mate. Most importantly, if you did take it and met your person, would it really be as perfect as you always dreamed it would be?
Catch “Soulmates” at 10 p.m. Mondays on AMC. Past episodes repeat on AMC, but you can also find them by logging onto amc. com with your TV provider.