A modern first-person narrative

“I feel like I’m on a roller coaster–and I hate roller coasters.”

Anna (Rosario Dawson) is speaking to a “friend”–me–via video e-mail from Paris. It’s a Web-age version of that favorite literary conceit–the first-person narrative–augmented with video clips that Anna supposedly took while involved in an increasingly strange situation. Good thing she’s a cop and somehow learned to take good pictures while in shock.

No, I’m not really getting e-mails from Rosario Dawson. It’s the first four chapters of a new online serial, Gemini Division, accessible from NBC or Sci-Fi Channel online. In the first chapter, Anna’s happy that boyfriend Nick has just proposed to her–until she starts seeing a strange man watching them and Nick starts acting strangely.

The first four chapters come in bites of less than seven minutes, each in the form of a message or messages from Anna. I’m glad I came in slightly late, because an individual short chapter doesn’t tell you very much. With four, I get an image in my mind of where this is going–Nick’s an android who needs plugged in regularly and is being chased by Star Wars villains with lightsabers–to be reinforced or shot down in later episodes.

It did draw me in by parceling out its information so sparingly, but as with old media serials, the reality may not live up to the anticipation by the end of the story. I can also see that the e-mail conceit could get tiresome after a while. The story is augmented by “viral” messages from Anna that don’t really add much and, from the two I saw, could be skipped.

It’s worth a look. We have full episodes and extras for you, after the jump.

For Episodes 3 and 4, visit geminidivision.com

Bonus: What is Gemini Division?

Bonus: The cast of Gemini Division…

Bonus: The making of Gemini Division…