X-Message-Number: 23731 Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 16:57:53 -0800 From: "John Grigg" <> Subject: New tv series, "Century City" Saturday night I watched "Century City" on CBS (next episode will be this Tuesday night). It is set in a law firm circa the year 2030, and shows how various technologies like cloning, A.I., etc. may impact humanity. The episode I viewed had a father who wanted the government to give back a cell sample from his tragically ill son, so that therapeutic cloning could be carried out to save his life. With "L.A. Law" type flourishes, the lawyers battled it out in a courtroom and the writing was quite good in showing the various intellectual and emotional arguments for both sides. But the case for therapeutic cloning was seen as the sensible and even humane option which had to be chosen. I was proud of the writer/producers for pointing that out. On the negative side, the other storyline was how a N'Sync type band was planning on reuniting for a reunion tour, but one of the former members had never gotten the cosmetic surgery & DNA rejuvenation treatments to look young again. His bandmates were angry and wanted to legally force him to do it. Otherwise, it would be three guys who appeared to be in their late twenties with one guy in his sixties! This plotline was largely played for laughs, except that it had the "mature" regular cast members making derogatory comments about anti-aging technology and how it was against nature and very vain. I felt the irony when the beautiful genetically-engineered blonde haired lawyer said how much she was offended by their use of such technology. And so therapeutic cloning was seen as a valid subject for the show to make a stand, but not life extension science. The show has fairly good production values and a solid cast. The level of the writing and the acting did pleasantly surprise me. But this may ultimately not matter a bit. The show has gotten extremely low ratings and may only last a few more weeks. I think this is in part because the network has not promoted it enough. This is from the official site: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/century_city/ John ____________________________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23731