Reverie

Unlike “Black Mirror” though, NBC’s series doesn’t seem like it will get too bogged down with misanthropy and nihilism. The virtual reality setting is a blank canvas that invites play, and the procedural element of Mara regularly retrieving lost souls gives the series an optimistic and hopeful bent. There’s plenty of fun here, but with enough pathos to add weight.

Reverie is brightly colored and nicely designed when it’s tripping. But it’s also all over the place, and probably not worth the overall trouble of trying to grasp whatever the rules of this game are, were or will be.

It’s all quite predictable and dull with a pilot episode that suffers under the weight of technobabble-filled exposition.

Suffice it to say there are all kinds of major design flaws that are also, of course, essential to the premise. ... The cast is good, full of pleasantly familiar faces, and there is admirable color-blind casting in the main parts. And for some viewers, a half-baked sci-fi procedural melodrama seasoned with tears and hugs--a sort of psychedelic "This Is Us," to cite the network's new flagship--may be just what the dream doctor ordered.

Nothing made sense and there wasn’t enough Dennis Haysbert.

For those looking for a smart series to fuel debates about the implications of virtual reality, you'll instead find some network-level special effects and armchair psychology. But if you're looking for a case-of-the-week procedural dealing with grief, loss and escapism, Reverie will do the trick.

The premiere is notably manipulative, playing off the inherent empathy for children in jeopardy and the desire to see dead loved ones. It feels cheap and unearned, and just no fun.