Even though he's probably too old for it I'd rather have Robert Patrick as the special forces guy. That dude just is not working for me.
I am talking about that specific incident of russians shooting russians. Thunder posted: I personally 8 out of 10 times prefer the machiavellian portrayal of politics that is closer to real life like they did it on the Wire or even Game of Thrones.
I liked it, but some things were still a bit off for me: The Russian transponder that identified itself as TRANSPONDER The COB disagreeing with the captain I can see; the COB trying to frag an officer I just don't buy--neither of them are Vietnam era draftees nor is she directly over him So is this island an independent country? A French colony? Shouldn't there be some government official? Why would a submarine officer ever be inserted into North Korea? Still looking forward to next week. It almost helps if I think of this as a Star Trek episode: Kirk or Picard has gone rogue rather than follow an evil admiral's orders and the Klingons or the Romulans try to involve themselves (the Russians). The episode felt like it was the second day of a miniseries rather than standalone episode number two, which I like a lot. This is not the kind of series that strikes me as something that can a "________ of the Week" kind of thing--sort of like Vegas which seems to want to do a mob story as a "Sheriff Investigates the Murder pf the Week."
Series co-creator Shawn Ryan discussed this in an interview that I thought I had linked to earlier, but it turns out I forgot to include the actual link:
Man, I find it hard to give any fucks about anything that goes in this show. I think the hour long pilot really hurt the development of the cast, because I find none of the characters aside from Chaplin to be interesting and at worst, they're intolerable. The female cast in particular is pretty bad, with the French chick who acts like a bitch all the time being the worst, followed by self-centered military contractor, the XO's wife, Token Female Officer, and finally the Tibetan Fox (Dichen whatever her last name is). I found myself skipping over their scenes a lot in this latest episode, because I just couldn't stand the characters and wanted to get it over with. If anything sinks this show (pun intended), it's going to be the characters, because the premise is pretty interesting, but it can't compensate for the lackluster characters.
I'm normally really tolerant of TV shows. I gave a lot of stuff full seasons that most people bailed on. I just can't get into this show.
That's how I feel about this show. I want to like it based on the submarine aspect, but that's such a small part of the show and there's so much emphasis on the weak characters that I can give any fucks about this show.
I'm enjoying the show. Well, I'm enjoying Andre Brougher and how he acts, manipulating but still human. And I like taking premises raised and thinking about them philosophically. How much would you trust your spouse when confronted with this seemingly inexplicable behavior? Do you follow your captain or his superiors? Do you apply your own thoughts and analyses when you're military or "just follow orders"?
It's only the second episode. How much character development can occur in 84 minutes? I'm really liking this show so far so I'm going to give it a chance.
Well I've watched a lot of shows over my lifetime--the premise can be rocky and the writing weak at first but if the cast and characters arent ones I care about in the first ep or so it pretty much torpedoes the show for me and honestly beyond Andre/Chaplin the rest are bland as can be. Plus these limited premise type shows--based on their track records--never get better--believe me I've learned that lesson after sitting through the likes of post Season one Heroes, Fringe, Alcatraz, The Event, Surface, Flash Forward etc. I don't know why every new series that has come out in the last decade has to be a mini-series drawn out. It might have been true of shows in the past like TNG where it had a rough start and improved but that simply doesnt seem to be the case anymore. I've been revisiting earlier series since nothing on now is compelling and the one thing I liked was the way they would focus on the characters even if the storylines werent serialized or very good so that when they did become more sophisticated the characters were already well established and involving rather than the way they are treated nowadays as mere plot devices within some overly complicated epic that just spins their wheels.
I was considerably less entertained by this episode. The arrival of the Russians was a nice twist, but overall the episode felt incredibly short, as though it was just thirty minutes of set up that never delivered in a final brief burst of action. There's something to be said for taking your time and building up your story, but in these crucial first episodes which increasingly serve to decide a shows ultimate fate, why would you hold back anything, most importantly the pace. You've got a specific amount of time to get your story across and less than that to hook an audience, so pack every minute with story. I'm not saying it needs to be non stop guns blazing action, but more needs to be going on than what the second episode gave us. We should have seen more with the missing crew members already and there should definitely be some other characters in play native to the island other than the bar girl.
If you were responding to my post, thinking I was criticizing, nope! I just think that, rightfully considering the show, the captain has to be well-cast and well-acted...and it is. Brougher's plays the role just perfectly. I don't care how too much how realistic the overall premise is, I'm willing to run with what they have and see if it's good from that point on. Unless they were to get totally outrageous. I think that premises of interesting shows can be shifted to the real world, with modifications of course, for discussion of serious and personal morality. I believe this allows people to explore their own thoughts and know themselves better, such as where would THEY draw the line they will not cross. I always thought that if a show seemed to go quickly, it was usually because it was well done and not dragging on, in other words, a good thing.
Totally outrageous? Showing an ubernasty us government that could pull of flase flag terror and kind of stuff birchers fear or just some cabals within it? I think safe to say we are already in that territory. Or you mean having a ridiculous plot or jumping the shark?
I admit I'm getting tired of there always being a conspiracy in every damn show. What would really make this show unique is if it's Chaplin who's wrong...
What other conspiracy show are out there? X-files, Burn Notice (* If i remember correctly there is nothing as sinister as in this one), something called 13 or something like that. I cannot think of anything else in which evil/sinister cabals can have such a huge impact on a US government similar to the real one.
No, I was responding to a couple of people who posted before you did. I was posting from my Playstation and multi quote doesn't always work right on this browser.