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Reverie is an American science fiction drama television series. The series was commissioned on May 12, 2017. The first season of 10 episodes premiered on May 30, 2018 on NBC and aired through August 8, 2018.
On November 6, 2018, NBC canceled the series after one season.
Summary
Former hostage negotiator Mara Kint, an expert on human behavior, takes a job saving people whose minds are lost in an advanced virtual-reality simulation, Reverie. In the process, Kint begins to work through a personal tragedy in her own past.
Cast
Main
- Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint, an expert in human behavior and former hostage negotiator.
- Dennis Haysbert as Charlie Ventana, an ex-cop and Mara's former boss.
- Jessica Lu as Alexis Barrett, an introverted programmer and the founder of Onira-Tech.
- Sendhil Ramamurthy as Paul Hammond the scientist and developer behind 2.0 of Reverie.
- Kathryn Morris as Monica Shaw, a Defense Department official.
Recurring
- Jon Fletcher as Oliver Hilll, Alexis's former partner at Onira-Tech.
- Madeleine McGraw as Brynn Mara's niece.
- Sam Jaeger as Dr. Chris Condera, a therapist and Mara's fiancé.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | First aired on |
| 1 | "Apertus" | Jaume Collet-Serra | Mickey Fisher | May 30, 2018 |
| Former hostage negotiator Mara Kint is hired by tech company Oniratech to save people who have lost themselves in a sophisticated virtual reality program called Reverie. | ||||
| 2 | "Bond. Jane Bond." | Michael Katleman | Tom Szentgyorgyi | June 6, 2018 |
| When a client becomes addicted to a “Jane Bond” adventure, Mara must help her assemble the missing pieces in her life to save her. At the same time, Mara deals with the unanticipated side effects of Reverie. | ||||
| 3 | "No More Mr. Nice Guy" | P.J. Pesce | Ken Woodruff | June 13, 2018 |
| A family man robs banks in his Reverie and Mara must uncover the deeper reasons why. Mara’s derealizations put her life in danger. | ||||
| 4 | "Blue Is the Coldest Color" | Matt Earl Beesley | David Schulner | June 20, 2018 |
| Alexis’s former partner Oliver Hill resurfaces and warns Mara that Reverie 2.0 has some dangerous side effects. Back at Onira-Tech, a BCI is stolen and Mara must go into a rogue Reverie. | ||||
| 5 | "Altum Somnum" | Dawn Wilkinson | Erika Green Swafford | June 27, 2018 |
| Monica Shaw seeks help from the team after a bombing kills dozens of people. Mara must dive into the mind of a coma victim to try and identify the perpetrator. | ||||
| 6 | "Pas de Deux" | John F. Showalter | Julia Wolfe | July 11, 2018 |
| Mara tries to save a young dancer whose recent tragedy has sent her spiraling into deep despair. The case leads Mara to a surprising reunion with Chris, the love she left when her life fell apart. | ||||
| 7 | "The Black Mandala" | Daisy von Scherler Mayer | Margaret Rose Lester | July 18, 2018 |
| The team works together to save the life of a wrongly imprisoned boy and Mara is introduced to the dangerous world of Dark Reveries where the normal rules don't apply. | ||||
| 8 | "Despedida" | Melanie Mayron | Erika Green Swafford & Ken Woodruff | July 25, 2018 |
| Romance is in the air when Mara must track down an elderly woman attempting to relive her lost love, but as Mara dives deeper into her Reverie she realizes she may have a greater mission on her mind. | ||||
| 9 | "The Key" | Kenneth Fink | Tom Szentgyorgyi | August 1, 2018 |
| Mara's personal tragedy finally comes to a head and she considers whether she has a future with OniraTech. When the client stuck in Reverie is one of their own, they must all band together before it's too late. | ||||
| 10 | "Point of Origin" | Wendey Stanzler | Mickey Fisher | August 8, 2018 |
| The team must race against the clock when one of them is kidnapped, and Onira-Tech is at risk of being destroyed. | ||||
Production
Reception
"Reverie" has received a score of 62% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10, and 42 on Metacritic, based on 7 reviews.
Writing for Forbes, Merrill Barr was impressed at the "limitless potential" provided by the procedural format of a show he describes as a "high concept thriller" with "enough breadcrumbs laid out to entice the audience".
IndieWire's Hanh Nguyen compares the show favorably with the darker British virtual reality series Black Mirror: "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."
Conversely, The Verge's Adi Robertson (who also compares the show with "Black Mirror") was left cold by what she perceived as the broadly optimistic tone: "Audiences have gotten familiar with this kind of cautionary yarn, where technology offers a lonely simulacrum of human contact. But Reverie's pilot turns the idea toward optimism and earnest schmaltz—with extremely dull results."
Shana Oneil, posting on /Film, was impressed by the premise, story, and acting, but also found the lack of hard science is a potential problem: "The ideas are certainly there, along with the creepy science tech (the actual Reverie connection module squicked me out), but good science fiction needs truth to anchor it."