The show's ultimate impact was blunted by far too much talky (and often preachy) exposition, by some of the project's self-imposed technical limitations and by the stop-and-start rhythm dictated by the commercials.
It all happens in such a frenzy of momentum and on-the-fly exposition that some of the more preposterous elements in the story will strike you only in retrospect, after the helicopter leaps, the elevator-shaft daredevilry and the race-the-clock flirtation with thermonuclear war.
The exposition is some of the laziest ever committed to film one scene starts with a character saying, "Roy has been my best friend for years and tonight we're celebrating his going-away party".
But let's hang in there, see past the plot holes and pray for less time in Louisiana next week (or at least some exposition of the link between the London and Louisiana cases) and more time for Maya and Nick's almighty stand-off.
That meant not only having a main character from each show tell its story in rushed, hard-to-follow blocks of narrative exposition but also abbreviating some of the songs by omitting second and third verses.
The short demo was accompanied with an exposition heavy video showing some of the story beats behind the new world, and the demo's tutorial hints at some Black Mirror-like elements to the plot, with a HUD initially filled with advertisements and GPS tracking.
We did get a little development on the Henry and Aurora front; Rumple imparted some helpful exposition about victims of the sleeping curse journeying to the Netherworld between life and death in dreams after they wake, and even provided a talisman to help Henry take control of the nightmare.
Some of the exposition is awkward (the characters seem constantly to be asking each other what year it is), but "Airswimming," nicely directed by John Keating, is poignant, intelligent and at times wickedly funny.
Nikita's noble father, Akim (Steve Brady), seems more like a collection of tics than a real character, and some of the exposition will remind audiences that the playwright was better known as a novelist.
