When it comes to drama, I give my vote to British series, when it comes to funny and out of the box story I give my vote to Japanese series but when it comes to suspense and thriller I give my vote to American series as the best TV Series Ever (for me) is still The X Files.
I haven’t been watching American series in a long time, I think it’s because they tend to be bad in second season. I love Heroes‘ first season but hate the second season, I love Bates Motel but couldn’t even watch pass 2 episode of the second season…unfortunately as much as I love Helix, I am not interested to see its second season. Anyway…let’s talk about the first season before I give you the reason why I hesitate to watch the second season.
Synopsis from imdb
A team of scientists are thrust into a potentially life-or-death situation in this thriller, which begins with the group being deployed to the Arctic to secretly investigate what could be a disease outbreak.
I was in the mood to see something by one of my favorite Japanese actors, Hiroyuki Sanada (first known to the western world through Last Samurai) then I found that he had a couple of series in US, Helix and Extant. After seeing the trailers and reading the synopsis, I am not interested with Extant (maybe I have a peek on it one day) but very curious with Helix.
Here’s the trailer:
Looks interesting, don’t you think?
I watched one episode and instantly glued to it, if I didn’t watch it during school day I would have finished the whole 13 episode in one go…but I had to teach the next day and ended up watching 4 episodes straight away. That was how good the series is.
All the characters (I am always into characters when watching movie and TVseries) are interesting to see. Most of them have something they hide from others.
A group of CDC’s scientists led by Dr. Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell) went to Arctic Biosystem, a huge research station owned by a company called Ilaria. There was a virus outbreak in that place. Dr. Farragut’s team consisted of Dr. Julia Walker (Kyra Zagorsky) who used to be Farragut’s wife, Major Sergio Balleseros (Mark Ghanimé) who worked for the army, Dr. Doreen Boyle (Catherine Lemieux), and Dr. Sarah Jordan (Jordan Hayes). They were welcomed by the charismatic and mysterious Dr. Hiroshi Hatake (Hiroyuki Sanada). Dr. Farragut’s main reason to come to the station was because the virus victim was his brother, Dr. Peter Farragut(Neil Napier).
Finding the nature of the virus was a bit difficult because both Dr. Hatake and his adopted son, Daniel (Meegwun Fairbrother) who acted as the head security of the research station had so many secret to hide from the CDC team. One thing for sure, there was something special about Julia Walker. We found out what it was on episode 6, but I sort of already guessed it.
What I like about Helix was the constant thrill and mystery. It was nice to see how the story shifted slowly into something unthinkable, the virus changed the vectors (the people infected by the virus) into something zombie-like. Although they were like zombies but they didn’t eat people they only wanted to spread the virus to more people. Each episode left me on the edge of my chair, getting so excited to know what will happen next. It reminded me of how I felt when watching The X Files. Unfortunately, after knowing the origin of Dr. Hatake, the story slowly drifted into something a bit odd…a bit out of the place and somehow felt a bit too much. When Ilaria people came, the story shifted too wide from the virus tale. However, despite the lack of interest toward knowing the existence of Ilaria, the series was really good…I enjoyed it a lot.
As I have said in the beginning of the post, I have no interest to see the second season because I know that it would focus more on Ilaria…I would watch it if it stayed about fighting new viruses not about Ilaria.
I have to admit that I enjoy the series mostly because of Hiroyuki Sanada’s performance. He was so charismatic (as always) here, he showed more charisma than everyone else in the series. Just look at the picture below, charisma is oozing from this man.
…and the most touching moment in the series was when Dr. Hatake cried over someone (I wouldn’t say because it’ll be a huge spoiler).
Overall…Helix is a great series, I highly recommend it to all thriller and sci-fi addict 🙂
Series Detail:
Title: Helix
Starring: Billy Campbell, Hiroyuki Sanada,Kyra Zagorsky, Mark Ghanimé, Catherine Lemieux, Jordan Hayes, Neil Napier, Meegwun Fairbrother
Episodes: 13
Broadcast network: Syfy
Broadcast period: January 10 – March 28, 2014
Rating: 
Polychrome Interest 
Wow, what a glowing review. I found this so dull I couldn’t get past the first episode! It’s nice to see you enjoyed this, it’s just not for me.
Sankyu Jason 🙂
But I won’t call it as glowing as I did mention it becomes odd at the end and makes me hesitate to see 2nd season.
Yeah…this is my kind of story and I can understand why it doesn’t appeal to others.
I’m addicted to this show and since they just finished season 2 I can assure you that they do have a new virus to deal with. There is a decent bit about Ilaria, but the driving storyline is once again containing a virus, just this time on an island. (It’s a nasty one, too.)
Hi Hornswaggler, thank you for sharing your thought on the series…I might take a look at a couple episodes before deciding whether to continue or not.
I first discovered Hiroyuki Sanada on tv show Lost, he’s very good in that but only in a small role. I might give Helix a chance sometime, I love sci fi and thrillers. 🙂
I haven’t seen him in Lost yet 😦 He always shines even in small role, I remember how he overshadows Tom Cruise and Ben Watanabe who are the main cast of the movie.
Would love to know your thought on Helix 🙂
If I watch Helix I will definitely let you know what I think of it. 🙂
Yep, this one’s going on my must-see list. Thanks.
Yeaaa \(^_^)/ hope you’ll like it as much as I do
Cool! Somehow I knew you’d like this type of shows. I saw Gillian Anderson at Minneapolis Comic Con last weekend 🙂
Yup…my kind of show 🙂
I can’t wait to see her in The X Files next year