Vienna

#2.03. The Vienna Experience ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

Imagine you’re in a car and you see a pedestrian crossing the road, and a bus is travelling at speed towards the crossing. Suddenly you realise the driver hasn’t seen the pedestrian and could cause an accident, so you bray on the horn. How did you make that split-second decision? A scientific study carried out at the Action Prediction Lab suggests that you automatically put yourself in the bus driver’s shoes and saw the scene through their eyes.

Being able to see the world from another perspective is a valuable life skill: it helps us to empathise with people, and work out what they’re thinking. It could also make for an immersive cinema experience like no other, something I’m sure that the disgustingly rich would pay through the nose for!

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Ever wanted to experience the life of an assassin? Longed to feel the thrill of the hunt? Now is your chance to get beneath the skin of Vienna Salvatori. See what she sees. Hear what she hears.

And pray she never finds out.

◆ Vienna Salvatori

Jonathan Morris does a great job at explaining why our impossibly glamorous bounty hunter has been acting as a copper for this entire series. Vienna is also afforded some excellent material generally throughout this finale, which is only to be expected: it’s been written by the man who created her. The idea of seeing the world through Vienna’s eyes sounds equal parts thrilling and traumatising; immerse yourself as a contract killer working on the right side of the law! Then you reach the half-way mark and have the rug pulled from under your feet. Something isn’t quite right with our resident assassin…

‘The Vienna Experience’ sees Chase Masterson firing on all cylinders. Not only is she playing the assassin we all know and love, she also turns her hand to voicing a psychotic shape-shifter undergoing an identity crisis; the very same creature who caused so much trouble for Vienna at the beginning of this series. An immaculate performance.

Vienna is – or was – an intergalactic assassin and bounty hunter. She had this endearing notion that her identity was a secret. Well, not to those with unlimited financial resources like Van Meyer. But money is merely a means to an end. It allows us to buy what we desire, and Van Meyer desired Vienna: his own deadly, beautiful toy to play with. Vienna is not for sale, but her services are very much a purchasable commodity. She’s not interested in being a cop. Her skills are precisely what Crime Corps needs; she is resourceful, intuitive, and according to her reputation, she will stop at nothing to get her man! Before joining Crime Corps, Vienna freelanced as a “private bringer of justice.” Now she’s on a payroll with a steady job, her own apartment, even her own pension plan!

◆ Big Brother is Watching You

Imagine being able to see the world through someone else’s eyes, and then marketing it as the latest innovation in immersive cinema. It would likely be reserved for the disgustingly rich, but they would pay handsomely to experience the thrill of being an influential politician, a pop star, or even an assassin.

Some people would be happy enough with the adrenaline rush they receive from spying on someone with an adventurous lifestyle, but others would want more. Jonathan Morris could’ve easily taken this concept down a much more disturbing route, but smartly decides to only reference the more explicit and downright creepy aspects of the immersive array: the implants are never switched off, which essentially means someone could always be watching you. That is absolutely horrifying!

◆ Human 2.0

The Brookstein Institute is a clandestine operation turning innocent people into super-human killing machines. They are provided with a regular supply of experimental subjects by body sharks; they kidnap people from the Undercity and sell them to the Institute. The Psycho Morph was one of their experiments gone wrong: it developed psychopathic tendencies and escaped from their high-security facility.

Van Meyer has been secretly funding the Brookstein Institute and taking a vested interest in their work. He believes that the super-humans could be used as the ultimate law enforcement officers. Naturally, they would be under the exclusive control of Crime Corps: it would certainly give them one hell of a business advantage! Cops faster, stronger, and more able to withstand pain than the competition. “Human 2.0” is the title given to the experimental subjects, the boffins at the Institute clearly viewing them as the next stage of human evolution.

◆ Sound Design

Van Meyer has invited his most wealthy friends and business associates to take part in his immersive cinema experience; to view the world through the eyes of his own tame assassin. Scenes of daring action are promised, and the sound design certainly delivers that.

A prison transport gets rammed off the road in a fury of screeching tyres and shattering glass, before the back doors are wrenched open by two unknown assailants.

◆ Conclusion

“Recordings of Vienna’s previous missions are available.”

Imagine being able to see the world through someone else’s eyes, and then marketing it as the latest innovation in immersive cinema. It would likely be reserved for the disgustingly rich, but they would pay handsomely to experience the thrill of being an influential politician, a pop star, or even an assassin…

I haven’t got a particularly exciting life – most of my time nowadays is spent rewatching episodes of Helluva Boss, or writing reviews – but the thought of someone watching my every move for entertainment horrifies me. It’s the ultimate breach of privacy, but some shady politicians would quite happily utilise a system like this to watch over the general public. Jonathan Morris deserves kudos for tapping into such a disturbing idea.

Crime Corps have been a dominating presence throughout this series, but their managing director has finally decided to show himself. A profiteering capitalist, who manipulated Vienna into joining his organisation, it doesn’t take long for you to realise that Van Meyer is a vile human being; an incredibly sleazy one too, based on some of the comments he makes about our resident assassin. It’s almost a shame that he gets killed off, because Nigel Carrington was excellent in the role.

‘The Vienna Experience’ then: an episode that featured a truly horrifying concept, alongside some spectacular performances. Whilst I still believe that the first series was stronger overall, this was a fantastic finale.