Reviews
Five minutes in and I know everything I need to know... Star Trek Next Generation meets Galaxy Quest... the Next Gen rip off is so replete that every single character on the bridge is a direct corollary to the Next Gen cast. Its basically Next Gen with some goofy adolescent comedy. It might be fun for a couple episodes, but its definitely going to be canceled.
As a bonus, its misogynistic, as the female co-lead is called a BITCH at least twice in the first episode.
Great show, supurb acting, sets, costumes... the period peice aspect of it is done remarkably well. The girl playing Anne *must* win awards for this. I'm watching the Canadian broadcast, so already at episode 6.
This is how we know time travel is impossible, cuz someone from the future would have gone back in time and ensured this show was slightly better so it wouldn't be canceled so fast.
Sometimes I feel like I'm a Traveler from the future injected into the brain of someone from the distant past... even though I know that is not possible and never will be... I still feel that way. Especially when Trump is on TV and Obama is deporting Russian Operatives for manipulating dumb amerikans during the election.
If you overlook the superstitious schizophrenic religiosity couched in the rubric or fake quantum entanglement physics, its a fairly well done show. The animation is similar to Philip K. Dick's 'A Scanner Darkly', which is weird because its his kind of story. It looks like it was filmed in real life and then animated in overlay.
Episode 5 was particularly good with the flashback to her and her boyfriend both having speech issues. Its a very unique story. I loled at the end.
Just researched the show, they did shoot it in live action and then animate over it and it was inspired by A Scanner Darkly. The main actress is the same woman in the also real life + animation movie Alita Battle Angel.
This review contains spoilers. Click the text to reveal.
If netflix made HUMANS in Russia. The little girl is an amazingly good actor. The English is dubbed over the original Russian, so their mouths don't move in the same way since Russian doesn't have the same lip oriented language as English, its much more guttural, so it does distract a bit. The bad translations sometimes come off as bad writing, but the plot is not bad. There is a ton of fake cyber-punk tropes... just wear goggles on your head and you are a cyberpunk rebel.
Edit: I bumped it up to 4 stars. It kept getting better. The writers did a great job.
I couldn't make it through the second episode. Its violent and pyschotic. Perhaps the short story by Martin makes more sense, but this series is like a nightmare with near constant fast cuts to violent imagery that might be real or might be a delusion from the telepath on board the ship(its not of course) or the "Vulcan" computer virus (which I suspect it is)... unless it turns out to be a ghost in the ship, as they really could make up anything and it would be just as plausible in this implausible story world. If you like psychotic horror in space, this is your show.
Martin is of course known for his violence in Thrones, but this series is like Alien meets Space Odessey meets The Shining. Its crazy weird mental institution violent. There is even an opening scene with an axe. I think we might want to lock Martin up for the good of humanity.
I also have great distain for the false drama they cooked up with the ship breaking orbit. Firstly, rocket engines?? really?, its 2093, there are telepaths now and an alien ship nearby, and we are still using Newton's third law rocket engines to break from orbit? You would never break from orbit against the orbital speed (~17500 MPH) that you already had, so there would be zero (ZERO!) chance of you falling back into the earth. Even a thimble full of thrust would take you to a higher orbit. Fake physics, fake drama. Sad that such crap gets made by the SYFY channel.
There are also a few horribly written lines about the secret energy that the Vulcans may have mastered but we humans are incapable of understanding. Unclear how we would know that since the Vulcans are far away in The Void. It comes off like a bad saturday afternoon horror film from 1970, just with really good CGI. They spent serious money on this crap. No doubt everyone will say what a genius Martin is. Sycophants.
The term "Vulcan" is used to refer to the aliens, but this is not related to Star Trek. Though at times it feels like a Star Trek horror prequel.
SPACE IS COMING
This review contains spoilers. Click the text to reveal.
Its soooo boring. Maybe it gets better in the third or fourth episode, but I will never know.
Its full of 'mystical' crap instead of sci-fi. The word 'miracle' is used in every other scene. And the woman is now 'psychic' or 'channeling an angel'. What crap. Very disappointing.
I tried for a second time to watch the second episode, the writing and acting is so bad. Dropped again.
This review contains spoilers. Click the text to reveal.
Two episodes in.... Imagine that Mr. Rogers was a creepy divorcee who stalks his ex-wife and creates chaos in her life. Its funny a couple times in the first episodes then extremely un-funny and just gets weird. Some of the supporting actors are B or C level actors that I like from indy movies. I think its got one more episode before I drop it.