NBC could have a hit on its hands — thanks to Rosario Dawson’s engaging personality.
Dawson, the executive producer and star of the sci-fi drama “Gemini Division,” is boldly going where few Hollywood stars have gone — online.
The Web-only “Gemini Division” is set in the “not too distant future,” when New York undercover police office Anna Diaz (Dawson) is drawn into a secret war between a race of artificial life forms know as SIMs and the covert agency charged with hunting them down.
In the series’ first two episodes, Anna is on a romantic Paris getaway with Nick Korda (Justin Hartley), who asks her to marry him. It doesn’t take long before things go wrong. Anna spots a mysterious man following the couple.
Episodes are set up as video e-mails, with Anna filling in a friend or family member — we’re never sure who it is — about what’s going on in Paris.
“I wanted to tell you first,” she says to the camera. Actually, she’s telling the Webisode’s viewers. Dawson’s delivery, filled with self-conscious confessionals and a little TMI, will make viewers feel like she’s talking to them exclusively. I swear she’s my bestie now!
Her chats are intercut with shots of the events she’s talking about — her and Nick at Notre Dame, where she first spots the man watching them, for example. Both episodes I watched end with mini-cliffhangers that are meant to bring viewers back.
They worked. I’m definitely ready for the third episode.
WHEN TO WATCH
The 50 episodes of “Gemini Division” can be seen at nbc.com and scifi.com. An NBC rep told me Friday that the first four episodes will post Monday. Starting Aug. 25, a new episode will post every Monday through Thursday, and an extended “catch-up” episode will post on Fridays.
WHAT HE SAID
“I jumped at the chance to work with her. She’s really great. She’s intense when she works, really good at her job but just a total card comedian at the same time. [She’s a] really great person to be around.”
— JUSTIN HARTLEY, talking to me at San Diego Comic-Con about co-star Rosario Dawson
