Each trailer has been more promising than the last.
News Netflix orders series ‘Another Life’ Starring Katee Sackhoff
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I stayed up to watch the pilot which I'm watching now and am not liking it. I didn't know any specifics outside of the general summary. This show takes place a lot further into the future than I was expecting. I had a feeling I'd be getting a dumbed-down version of Arrival but wasn't expecting a CW-ized version of Prometheus, complete with angst and drama. We only get a hint of characterization for about half the characters on the outer space side in the pilot, and I don't like any of them. Most of them would never be trusted be on a mission like this. They shouldn't even be allowed on a spaceship.
I read the summaries for this and it sounds promising. I love Katee and think she can play the lead well. But some of the reviews have been luke warm at best.
"The Arrival that turns into episodic TNG" was a little damning.
I'm going to give it a shot and try to have an open mind but if there is one thing in Sci-Fi that bothers the hell out of me is a quote from Aragorn above....
Every damn space movie, The Martian being the exception, has that "loose cannon" character or the "overly aggressive" character. These people would never pass the psych exam for a long trip in an aluminum tube to unknown lands. Takes me out of the story every time.
Prometheus was a ship full of these people.
The dumb ass and the water snake is the best example.
"The Arrival that turns into episodic TNG" was a little damning.
I'm going to give it a shot and try to have an open mind but if there is one thing in Sci-Fi that bothers the hell out of me is a quote from Aragorn above....
Every damn space movie, The Martian being the exception, has that "loose cannon" character or the "overly aggressive" character. These people would never pass the psych exam for a long trip in an aluminum tube to unknown lands. Takes me out of the story every time.
Prometheus was a ship full of these people.
The dumb ass and the water snake is the best example.
Imagine people who auditioned to be on The Real World, got rejected for being immature and emotionally-stunted petulant children, then landed astronaut gigs for the most important mission in human history. That’s the crew of this show. I don’t even know how they managed to board the ship when they all would’ve died crossing the street because they were staring at their phones. Even the AI has emotional problems.
Ever watch 24? Seems like every season they had a character who became petty and selfish in the middle of a terrorist threat. That’s everyone onboard the ship, even the senior officers.
They even attempt an in-show explanation for why everyone but Sackoff looks like they belong on a CW show, and why there are no uniforms and everyone is dressed in Abercrombie and Fitch.
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Disagree, Sackoff and Hoechlin are great, but the show does have a pro-feminist, anti-white male in leadership position message, so some will complain it is too SJW. The plot is a cross between Arrival and Defying Gravity. The pilot ends with an interesting dilemma.
Oh, man, and I had "virtue signaling" on my bingo card.
Watching the first episode now. This is pretty much the epitome of sci-fi written for people who don't understand sci-fi. The drama comes primarily out of the characters being immature idiots rather than the actual scenarios.
It's also pretty jarring that they just sort of drop you into the story with zero background as to who the characters are or why they're onboard the ship. I mean, most if not all of the characters on the ship seem to know one another already, but it's still very odd for us as the viewers.
I'm not sure why all the characters are so upset about seven months in suspended animation. I mean, I'd sure rather spend seven months asleep than have an 11% chance of dying.
It's also pretty jarring that they just sort of drop you into the story with zero background as to who the characters are or why they're onboard the ship. I mean, most if not all of the characters on the ship seem to know one another already, but it's still very odd for us as the viewers.
I'm not sure why all the characters are so upset about seven months in suspended animation. I mean, I'd sure rather spend seven months asleep than have an 11% chance of dying.
Saw the pilot. Not bad. Agree with others that some of these "crew" seem like cast members on a Reality Show set on a starship. On Earths first ever First Contact mission no less. Which is ridiculous. The nutjob group of genetically engineered oddballs on DS9 at least had the quality of being Uber-savants. Not sure what the excuse is for these folks. The mutiny was insane. About as ridiculous as the one in SW: Last Jedi.
OTOH, Sackhoff is good, as always. Two or three of the others arent bad either. The basic premise is good. The execution is where the rubber hits the road. Overall, worth giving it a chance.
The Pilot episode: 2.5/5 = Fair to middlin.
OTOH, Sackhoff is good, as always. Two or three of the others arent bad either. The basic premise is good. The execution is where the rubber hits the road. Overall, worth giving it a chance.
The Pilot episode: 2.5/5 = Fair to middlin.
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Pro-feminist? Pro-feminist? I'm struggling to see what is pro-feminist about this show - featuring women and having women in leadership roles does not make a show pro-feminist. Having an man who is an idiot doesn't either (although all the characters are idiots in this show).
I'm a brit so to the far left of what americans consider SJWs and I just don't see it.
This.
Are there bear traps and cougars in space?
So, I watched through to the third episode last night. It got better after the deadful pilot. Not great - maybe on the level of Dark Matter - but better than it started out. It pretty much devolves into a semi-episodic space adventure. It's too bad that each of the crises the crew face are incredibly tropy and cliched. Also the earth-side plot remains just boring and unimpressive, and momentum slams to a halt whenever we check back in with the husband and the knock-off Arrival plotline.
Something I still don't understand regarding the show is Niko (Sakhoff's character) repeated hand-wringing regarding the her killing of her XO. The man had not only mutinied, but after he mutinied, and she showed mercy, allowing him free reign of the ship, he attempted to murder her, approaching her with a knife and a clear intention to stab her. In response there was a short hand-to-hand combat, and she pushed him into some machinery which was sparking, which electrocuted him. In the very next episode, she explained to the crew that she killed him because he was threat to the mission. Not that she was defending herself, and he accidentally died, which is what the action onscreen suggested. And she still seems torn up about whether she had "another option." The only conclusion I can draw is that the writers intended his electrocution to be a calculated move - that she couldn't leave him alive on the ship, because he was too much of a danger. But the director somehow wasn't communicated this, or fucked it up, making it seem like self-defense. Just amateur hour all around.
In general though, the biggest issue with the space side of the show is the premise is so fucking ridiculous.
So you have first contact with an alien race, and the only available FTL vessel sent out to investigate. The sensible thing to do would be to staff the mission with the most qualified professionals available. Yet everyone other than Sakhoff's character (who, while damaged, is very competent) and the shipboard AI (who somehow does nothing worthwhile 90% of the time) is a fucking idiot with the emotional maturity of a ninth-grader. I don't understand why they let these losers on the mission. I mean, if they wanted to have drama from "idiots in space" there are ways to do so, but you have to make them an "accidental crew" - sort of like what Red Dwarf did, but in a non-comedic fashion. But that would be very hard to mesh together with the story they wanted to tell about Niko (as an ultra-competent professional) and her family back on Earth. So instead they mixed the two together, which means you have these photogenic, stupid 20somethings (mostly played by people in their mid 30s) doing things like taking off their helmets on alien planets without seeing if there are pathogens, walking off randomly to go exploring, getting into arguments with their commanding officers, clearly being out of their depth when it comes to things like medical knowledge, etc. It's maddening - how could Earth have thought this was the crew most likely to succeed?
Something I still don't understand regarding the show is Niko (Sakhoff's character) repeated hand-wringing regarding the her killing of her XO. The man had not only mutinied, but after he mutinied, and she showed mercy, allowing him free reign of the ship, he attempted to murder her, approaching her with a knife and a clear intention to stab her. In response there was a short hand-to-hand combat, and she pushed him into some machinery which was sparking, which electrocuted him. In the very next episode, she explained to the crew that she killed him because he was threat to the mission. Not that she was defending herself, and he accidentally died, which is what the action onscreen suggested. And she still seems torn up about whether she had "another option." The only conclusion I can draw is that the writers intended his electrocution to be a calculated move - that she couldn't leave him alive on the ship, because he was too much of a danger. But the director somehow wasn't communicated this, or fucked it up, making it seem like self-defense. Just amateur hour all around.
In general though, the biggest issue with the space side of the show is the premise is so fucking ridiculous.
So you have first contact with an alien race, and the only available FTL vessel sent out to investigate. The sensible thing to do would be to staff the mission with the most qualified professionals available. Yet everyone other than Sakhoff's character (who, while damaged, is very competent) and the shipboard AI (who somehow does nothing worthwhile 90% of the time) is a fucking idiot with the emotional maturity of a ninth-grader. I don't understand why they let these losers on the mission. I mean, if they wanted to have drama from "idiots in space" there are ways to do so, but you have to make them an "accidental crew" - sort of like what Red Dwarf did, but in a non-comedic fashion. But that would be very hard to mesh together with the story they wanted to tell about Niko (as an ultra-competent professional) and her family back on Earth. So instead they mixed the two together, which means you have these photogenic, stupid 20somethings (mostly played by people in their mid 30s) doing things like taking off their helmets on alien planets without seeing if there are pathogens, walking off randomly to go exploring, getting into arguments with their commanding officers, clearly being out of their depth when it comes to things like medical knowledge, etc. It's maddening - how could Earth have thought this was the crew most likely to succeed?
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