Remaking the iconic Terry Gilliam time travel movie 12 Monkeys into a TV series for the SyFy Channel was always going to be a huge challenge. But, after Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett adapted their original concept, Splinter, into a 12 Monkeys reimagining in 2015, the paths between the movie’s canon and the TV show’s canon diverged pretty quickly. Today, among the faithful, the SyFy 12 Monkeys is regarded as not just a great sci-fi show, but also easily one of the best time travel shows of all time; if not the best. While the Gilliam film is an artistic masterpiece, its time paradoxes are fairly tame compared to the timey wimey antics of the broader sci-fi genre. And, with its second season, which debuted on April 18, 2016, the 12 Monkeys TV series proved that its scope was much bigger than the film. And, sneakily, the beginning of 12 Monkeys Season 2 also expanded the premise of the series in a way that wasn’t apparent at first.
If you’re recommending someone binge 12 Monkeys, telling them to start with Season 2 would be a little sacrilegious, but it also wouldn’t be the absolute worst thing in the world either. The first episode of Season 2, “Year of the Monkey,” starts with a comprehensive recap of Season 1, which features a narration of those events from the actress Madeline Stowe, who played Dr. Kathryn Railly in the 1995 movie, a character who was reimagined as Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull) for the TV series. This voiceover narration not only provided a nice cheat sheet for those behind on the series, but it also foreshadowed a cameo from Stowe herself at the end of Season 2, in a crucial performance that changed the entire direction of the show.
