The Outer Limits (TV Series) Nest (2000) User Reviews

The Outer Limits - Nest

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 19 August 2016]

Disappointing episode of Outer Limits reboot (which had some solid episodes during its surprisingly long run) has too good a cast to waste on rather flimsy (and cliché-ridden) material. Way too much emphasis on Robert Sean Leonard agonizing over what Martin Cummins "did" in saving his life and having to let his brother die. Survivor's guilt to the extreme, Leonard is a scientist in charge of a university research project in the Arctic, with cockroach-like bugs, which came from the ice, crittering throughout the base, entering humans and causing them to become paranoid and unhinged (mostly resulting in suicide or violent reaction towards others). Despite the urgency and danger of studying the bugs and finding a solution to how to cure what they to do humans and stopping their spread, Leonard continues to sulk and bellyache about Cummins, despite the fact that the incident happened when all of them were ten years old! Cummins, kudos to him, is the mature one, admitting that his presence on the base was based on worries from back home that Leonard wasn't handling his team efficiently. Cummins tries assure Leonard that his appearance is to help him not cause any harm. Kelly Rutherford is the concerned fiancé of Leonard, sadly wasted in an underwritten role, doing what she can regardless. She tries to urge Leonard to forgive and move on from his angst and grief; ultimately, it takes blowing up a cavern containing the bugs and finding a cure after spitting up dead critters in order for Leonard to do so. Working together and finally just getting off their chest the feelings that have distanced Leonard and Cummins is what might can resolve their strife. I liked Cummins in this a lot; his character is level-headed, patient, tolerant, and assertively friendly towards Leonard's cold reception of him. The plot about the bugs (they crawl into mouths and under the skin, causing all kinds of hostile reactions in their victims) unfortunately takes a back seat to Leonard's pain and discomfort reuniting with Cummins; he totally makes him feel quite unwelcome! I wish Rutherford was given a better part: she deserves better. Leonard is a fine actor--always has been--but he's saddled with a character who should be intellectually capable of forgiving someone who had to make a terrifying decision when just a kid as ice hockey turned frightening with the ice under them was breaking threatening to drown them all.

Yes, You'd Rather Be Dead!

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 10 October 2014]

Bugs that can affect the thoughts of people are loose in the arctic. A group of university researchers find themselves in grave danger from these things. One, played by Robert Sean Leonard (the long suffering oncologist on "House") carries around intense guilt from childhood, when he was chosen over his brother by a friend as the two fall through the ice during a pond hockey game. He as been blaming the friend who saved him for allowing him to live. So who should show up but his "enemy," seemingly from the university, investigating the stresses going on there. Well, several of their colleagues are killed through a prevailing madness. It would seem that the danger from the alien insects would be enough to occupy their time, but instead we get this maudlin, whiny banter from Leonard character. His former friend is at least coping. I think the direction and evolution of this episode is laughable.