Parallels (TV series)
Parallels (; stylized as Para//èles) is a French science-fiction streaming television series about four teenage friends who are affected by a Physics experiment which fractures spacetime, sending their lives in divergent directions. It was produced by Daïmôn Films and Empreinte Digitale for the Walt Disney Company. The series premiered on Disney+ on March 23, 2022 in France, the US, and other countries. Plot. Four lifelong friends preparing to start high school – Bilal, Romane, and brothers Sam and Victor – find their reality disrupted when the test of an experimental particle collider sends them into parallel worlds: Romane and  Victor in one where Bilal and Sam are inexplicably missing, and Sam and Bilal (now 15 years older) in another without Romane and Victor. Sam initially doesn't believe that this adult is really Bilal. Bilal approaches his mother who also doesn't recognize or believe him. He is later able to convince Sam of his identity. Police lieutenant Retz begins an investigation in which he gradually puts together some of the puzzling clues. Meanwhile in the other reality, Victor's parents assume that he is somehow responsible for Sam's disappearance, and send him to boarding school. He becomes  increasingly resentful of them over the following years, and begins to manifest the ability to rapidly and destructively age things near him. Romane finishes school without her friends. She is devastated when her mother dies and Vanessa's boyfriend Hervé – whom Romane blames for it – tells her that he'll take his daughter – her half-sister Camille – and leave. Victor and Romane use a repeat of the experiment to travel four years back, to the time period of the original event. Victor and Romane enlist the help of Bilal's mother Sofia, who works at the research facility. She contacts  Sam, who then connects her with adult Bilal, and the time-displaced friends are reunited. Romane contacts Camille, and in a confrontation Hervé she discovers that she can freeze time. Victor uses his power to turn Hervé into an old man, demonstrating the threat he poses. Sofia conducts an unsuccessful test to perform an altered version of the original incident, but in the process receives a message from a future Sofia explaining that older Bilal has traveled back in time to make it work, and needs his memory stimulated to remember how. Lt. Retz confronts them with what he knows , and is persuaded to help them. However, Victor's resentment of his parents develops into psychosis, and he eventually threatens not just their effort to return things to normal, but also their very lives with his power. Romane uses her time-stopping power to get past his defenses, and persuade him that they all love him. They return to the scene of the original incident just in time to use one last run of the experimental collider to return themselves to who and when the original accident occurred. Reception. Joel Keller of "Decider" stated that the first episode manages to  raise interest through its story, giving "Parallels" the potential to take many directions in the future in order to become an exciting science-fiction mystery show. Joly Herman of "Common Sense Media" rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, praised the show for promoting values such as love, loyalty, and persistence, complimented the positive role models, and found agreeable that the series has diversity among its cast members.