Parallels follows Ronan and Beatrix, an estranged brother and sister who are reunited when their father mysteriously disappears. Their neurotic neighbor Harold tags along on their search for their missing father, which leads them to a building they accidentally discover is a portal to parallel Earths. Helped along the way by another traveler named Polly, Ronan and Beatrix are forced to face their pasts as they uncover the dark truths behind their family’s broken history and the real secret behind “the building.
The most recent outing from Fox Digital Studio (projects created for online viewing and streaming entertainment outlets) has an epic scope; innumerable parallel Earths all traversable using highly advanced technology hidden in a single building that’s been anchored in the exact same location to every existing world might remind long time scifi fans of the TV series Sliders, but traveling between parallel worlds is where any comparison ends.
The mystery surrounding how the building works, who created the building and why, the need to discover how to travel to the highly advanced core world and possibly shut the building down, plus the breadcrumbs hinting about a shadowy war between some of the parallel Earths — unresolved points that left me with many questions — all were left dangling… along with new questions raised at the end about some of the characters, Polly in particular.
The good news is, this seems to be more of a pilot for a series rather than a standalone movie, and hints about upcoming announcements regarding Parallels may tell us when to expect more, either in series format or in successive movies. Either way, the many questions raised by the movie seem to be leading us into a new online series, one that I am looking forward to watching.
Parallels stars Mark Hapka (“Days of Our Lives”), Jessica Rothe (“Next Time on Lonny”), Constance Wu (“Fresh Off the Boat”), Eric Jungmann (“Not Another Teen Movie”), and Michael Monks (“End of Watch”). The film marks Fox Digital Studios’ fourth time partnering with director Christopher Leone (“Suit Up,” “Wolfpack of Reseda”).
Parallels is available now on Netflix, and will be available on iTunes, Xbox, Amazon, and other VOD platforms on March 31.
If you’re interested in a more in-depth overview, complete with spoilers, check out a recent Slice of SciFi episode where Sean from Edwards joins me for a discussion about “Parallels” and potential directions a series might take.
Reviewing "Parallels"
Summary
“Parallels” (the most recent outing from Fox Digital Studio) has an epic scope; innumerable parallel Earths all traversable using highly advanced technology hidden in a single building that’s been anchored in the exact same location to every existing world might remind long time scifi fans of the TV series Sliders, but traveling between parallel worlds is where any comparison ends.
Fortunately, the many questions raised by the movie seem to be leading us into a new online series, one that I am looking forward to watching.
I stumbled across this on Netflix today-
not bad, I’m definitely on the hook for more
episodes… if there are any? but I’m getting the
feeling there aren’t any yet? Don’t ppl at FOX understand
that we expect entire seasons released at once, now?
I’m pretty bummed out that this is it for now, unless they
are sitting on more until some numbers come back.
Parallel Universe shows have been with us for a while.
This reminds me of two of the decent ones – the light-hearted SLIDERS
(cartoon-ish by today’s standards), and the more serious X-files -like,
FRINGE (still one of my favorites).
and the excellent FRINGE.
The folks at Fox Digital assured me that there would be an announcement sometime in the next few weeks that would satisfy people interested in seeing more “Parallels”… I have no idea yet whether it’ll be in series form, or miniseries form, or maybe a series of movies.
But you can be sure that as soon as they send me that info, I’ll post it here… and feel free to leave your own rating for the pilot!
I love parallels
We want moore left us hanging. Awesome
I watched it last night and really, really enjoyed it. The ending was a little problematic for me, more because I expected a movie, that is: a filmed narrative with beginning, middle, and a satisfying end, but what I experienced was a (really exciting & promising) feature-length pilot. Can’t wait to hear where this is going. Thanks!
I honestly loved this movie, personally it reminds me of “Continuum”. By the title and description I expected to be watching a spin off of Sliders, but what I found was fairly original and can’t wait to see more.
I can’t believe fox just let story like this just be a lone movie without having series or something to back it up. At the very least have some web series or something.
That ending demands a continuance!!!! The fans do too!
Excellent and can’t wait for more!
This has to have more coming! An amazing look into what possibilities and fantasies might look like if they collided and made a movie
Excellent. If I knew more content was coming it would be 5 stars.
Great Pilot! Looking forward to the series.
a really good movie, we liked it, until it just stopped in the middle of the story, the story never had an end, we were just left with nothing, no conclusion, nothing. even though what we had of it was good, it was a waste of time to watch a movie with no end.
Agree with Donna ^^
This is just similar to the manga series Steins Gate. I haven’t seen the Parallels series yet but I hope they will be able to nail the plot of the story because it’d be confusing for the audience if they don’t create interesting and a clearer picture of the story. 🙂
Loved this movie, had me and my family all interested and wanting more. We would watch this every week if we could. I grew up watching sliders and find that show hard to watch. This newer age version would be a great thing. Or even a series of movies. There are so many potentials
Very good watch, loads of cliffhangers, and questions at the end. I either need a sequel or something similar letting know there will be answers.
Worth the time!! ?
I liked the movie but hated the ending. Why were there 3 pollys? Did they get home or to the core world? Who controls the building? we need answers.
Interesting- not original though. There are many series with the same “mysterious” plot (mostly a 90’s-early 00’s trend, though), so there were not that many surprises. The dialogue is incredibly poor and sadly makes the actors come off as amateurs.. The series could do with some professional writing for the scenes- that would make a huge difference in quality! Great potential to become quite legendary!
This movie is a rip-off not only of Sliders. Watch the 2004 Australian TV series Parallax – it is way better than Sliders or Parallels. I don’t care if it’s a kids show, it’s still way better than a bullshit story about bland characters with little to no pleasant traits wrapped up in the same American crap you see in everything else that was Parallels. I’m convinced they even stole all sorts of plot points from Parallax: main character’s parents having a secret that the main character finds out about. Main character not existing in other worlds. Main character entering their own room to discover it all different. Main character losing one of their’ parents. One of the worlds being more technologically advanced than most. The “goofy” side character ruining their parallel self’s life due to conflicting morals. Doppelgangers conspiring together to achieve selfish goals. A parent trying to protect their children from the secret of the parallel worlds. The concept of worlds being destroyed. The concept of the Reading Room/Core World. Parallax is only better because there’s no time limit and you can explore the culture of each world for as long as you like. It also does not succumb to all the American political fears and stereotypes in Parallels and doesn’t suffer from the same cheesiness of Sliders. All 26 episodes are available on YouTube to watch since it was made in 2004.
Forgot to put my rating.