The new NBC summer series “Reverie” premiered on May 30th. I am so excited that Sarah Shahi is back on television!  She is a tremendous actress and I have loved her in almost everything she has done, even the less popular roles.  But in “Reverie”, she jumps into an entirely new role.  First, lets review what I liked about Reverie.  As a new series with a complicated plot line, it is always hard to grip new viewers, especially during the summer time when Netflix binging rules. Many people are trying to catch up on their fall favorites and aren’t interested in new summer dramas so grabbing attention can be tough.  Many new shows make the mistake of starting out slow and trying to explain too much in their first few episodes, which can be boring and lose viewers.

So, although it was a little choppy and rushed, I did like that Reverie forged straight into action.  The series premiere started with the very first victim already being in a reverie coma, and then went straight to Shahi’s character. Although we don’t know much about her yet, little bits and pieces of her qualifications and her past traumas were trickled throughout the rest of the episode.  Reverie is a comprehensive immersion program designed to let people relive their favorite life events and even bring back loved ones from pictures, videos etc uploaded on their social media account.  The problem being that it is so realistic and so many people love it more than their real life that they are simply not coming back.  They are slipping into coma’s and their bodies are failing them.  The department of defense is interested in this program, but they are going to pull their funding if the project starts killing people. So the people at Oneiro Tech have to fix the problem immediately and make it work.

Shahi’s role as a former terrorist negotiator and FBI agent, make her an ideal candidate for this position.  Not only was she the best at what she did, but the tragic deaths of her sister and niece whom she was unable to save with her skills, make her very motivated to want to save other families.  Her job is to go into the Reverie itself and talk to these people and convince them to come back to their real lives before the die.  Although Shahi’s many acting roles have been different they all have had some element of risk, negation and law. Even in “Fairly Legal” and “Person of Interest” we saw her use her many skills and she is good in this type of character.  Of course little hints were dropped in the premiere that nothing is quite as it seem at Oneiro-Tech.  Yes she was hired to help with this technical glitch and save lives, but there is more going on behind the scenes that either Shahi or the audience know about yet.

I think this will be a really great summertime series.  It deals with so many current day issues, especially the amount of time people spend on their phone and social media, and shows the dangers of what could happen to society should this trend escalate and people lose track of what is truly real.  It also seems to have a good cast, story line, and plenty of action in the future, so fingers crossed for a great summer time show!