Look Series 1
Based on the 2007 movie Look, the TV
series goes beyond the original premise as it gives a glimpse into the
lives of "normal" Americans as they live their lives, believing that
only themselves can see what their doing. With over 40 million
surveillance cameras being used in America, it's actually quite
frightening that so much of our lives are actually filmed with the
average American being captured hundreds of times per day. This is the
idea behind creator Adam Riftkin's TV series and at times is a
disturbing insight into the psyche of humanity with this voyeuristic
series.
Riftkin plays on this fear as many
of the characters in this series are actually quite nasty people,
especially when they don't believe that anyone is watching them. It's
this Big Brother ideal that makes Look such a powerful series. With
that said, the series contains all the episodes from series one as we are
slowly indoctrinated to these sometimes quite evil people yet normal
people. However apart
from surveillance footage, Riftkin also cashes in on other technological
devices such as webcams and mobile phones... not to mention cybersex.
There's also a clever play on SMSing such
as one scene involving a class of students as thought bubbles says some
insulting things about their overweight teacher like "let's harpoon her" as
they text each other back and forward. Hannah is one of the main characters in the series
who is a high school girl played perfectly by Sharon Hinnendael for her
bitchiness and doesn't have a nice thing to say about anyone. She is
quite the self centred character and karma gets her back when a group of
security guards watch her undress via surveillance in the women's
changing room. Of course karma also pays the security guards a visit
when they watch two women undress, only to discover they are men.
Another disturbing character is Ron (Trevor
Torseth) who plays a homeless army veteran. This character has hit rock
bottom as we watch his anger and his loneliness unfold, all captured by surveillance
footage. It's also quite sad to watch him push his trolley around with
all his worldly positions as he attempts to find a safe place to sleep
every night. One of the more colourful characters is Dan the Weatherman
who is Hannah's father and is rather unaware of his daughters double
life and even though he appears quite comedic as a weatherman, he is
actually quite down to Earth as opposed to his TV personality.
The series also stars Claudia Christian
(Babylon 5) as Stella, the neglected wife of Lenny (Marcus Giamatti) who
is cheating on her husband and there are some strange surreal moments
with this character. From getting waxed in a salon and caught on security
surveillance taking drugs with her lover and engaging in sex with him,
it's quite voyeuristic, fascination and disturbing.
Even with so many characters in Look, there are a collection of main
characters who keep the themes and stories going which are
sometimes quite emotional, upsetting and sometimes amusing. Riftkin
should be commended on this idea which he successfully achieves in this
TV series as people are unwittingly caught by technology.
Recommended!
To find
out more on Look the TV Series, check out our exclusive interview with
creator Adam Riftkin here!