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Actually, I kinda wondered about this. Sort of another echo of LOST. Polar Bears in Hawaii....kangaroos in LA. Same/Same....but different! *shrug*
Sadly, I think the impact of seeing the kangaroo was probably not as strong when it came to LOST fans tuning in to this show. I mean by now, we Losties have seen EVERYTHING. A kangaroo hopping down an LA street is not even out of place to a LOST fan.
I enjoyed it. I had heard about the changes they made to the plot to fit everything into a tv friendly format and that had me worried. I see now that those worries were misplaced.
I thought the pacing was good. The characters worked. I'll keep tuning in. I would've liked to see more visions, but I'm sure we will as the season unfolds.
Best part: Courty B. Vance's character see's himself shitting in the future. I'm sure if this happened in real life, that'd be what my vision would be too.
I was expecting the payoff to be a trailer carrying animals to the zoo that crashed during the blackout and thus the animals escaped. But there was no payoff. Unless the kangaroo is behind it all!
Yeah, a submarine doesn't seem like a bad place to be. Heavy traffic doesn't seem too bad either. The highways with fast moving cars would be a problem though. Imagine what must have happened there.
Yeah, a submarine doesn't seem like a bad place to be. Heavy traffic doesn't seem too bad either. The highways with fast moving cars would be a problem though. Imagine what must have happened there.
Yeah, most people on a highway and probably just about everyone on an airplane would have been screwed. I just figured a sub would be bad, too, but I guess it depends on how deep they were when the blackout happened and how far a typical submarine can sink in two minutes.
Planes in flight would be fine, only ones taking off and landing would sink.
Subs would be fine too unless they were actively diving at the time of the flash or if the planesman slumped forward onto the yoke pushing the sub into a crash dive.
I would have expected more people to mention God as the most likely suspect for an event of this magnitude. I wouldn't have been surprised if that crowd watching the TVs tuned to world news had fallen to their knees and started praying.
Well, of course. This is, after all, a group of people who cream their drawers because they think they see shapes in their toast and omelettes--and this is a far bigger event than breakfast. But from that dully predictable reaction, there's no need to grant it any prominence or legitimacy on the show--certainly the book never did. Yet here we have not one but two characters who are defined (so far; admitedly it's early still) by their 'spiritual' reaction to the flashforward, salvation-boy and sinner-girl. It's all the more jarring to have this kind of insipid apologetics in a show based on work by a noted atheist author like Robert Sawyer, who always has rationality win out over superstition. And particularly after The Great Battlestar Cop-Out (tm), I want less mysticism and more science in my science fiction.
American TV doesn't have all that much God-babble that I've noticed, certainly not compared with the amount you'd expect from parallel situations in the real world. What shows are you watching?
I'd turn that question right around on you, frankly. There are few mainstream network shows that don't stoop to this kind of inane pandering. Heck, even an admirably pro-reason show like House does the 'inspirational Christmas episode' thing.
One problem is that for some of us (namely, me), soap stuff is just inherently uninteresting compared with mystery, mythology and the actual sci fi content.
I quite agree. If I wanted soap stuff, I'd just watch soap operas, no? I truly do hope this show doesn't wind up going the way of Defying Gravity, with the soap elements bloating like a corpse in a swamp until it takes up every dragging moment, leaving the actualy story stagnant.
I just figured a sub would be bad, too, but I guess it depends on how deep they were when the blackout happened and how far a typical submarine can sink in two minutes.
I'm no navy expert, but I imagine submarines must have their courses locked in, rather than piloting manually all the time, so barring a crash would have woken up just a bit further along that course than they were before. Same thing with planes, when you think about it--most crafts on autopilot should have gotten through it fine, barring a sudden storm or similar crisis that would have required waking hands.
Sawyer used the 'observer effect' to justify that--the idea that since nobody was conscious to observe reality, it was actually suspended for the duration of the flashforward and only resolved itself when it ended; and cameras, of course, can't record a state of indeterminacy. But that's iffy science in the first place, and wouldn't have been applicable if there were, as we saw in this case, people awake during the event.
Well if the plane was not on autopilot and the pilot blacked out and fell onto the yoke pushing it down, because commercial jets have very limited maneuverability the plane would begin to rise very quickly, possibly to the point where the airframe would begin to buckle, the plane gets ripped apart, and the debris comes crashing down to Earth.
Sorry, but it was jarring. I don't view it as an attack on myself or anything, but Trent is right when he says that Sawyer is a quite prominent atheist, so it seems quite odd to see this sort of thing popping up in something based on his work. And I say this as someone whose favourite book by Sawyer is Calculating God which
results in the main character seeing irrefutable evidence of God.
It's all how it's handled, and I didn't like the scenes which included religion in this pilot.
Anyway, just finished watching this, and I thought it was fine. Didn't really grab me entirely, to be honest—I thought the characters were pretty bland, on the whole, and didn't really connect with any of them. Particularly the lead charcter (Mark... something?)... you'd think they could come up with something a little more interesting or unique. Especially combined with his wife being a doctor. Don't we have enough cop shows and medical shows?
It did do a number of things well, though. The flash itself was cool, and the aftermath was explored quite thoroughly, and yeah, this bit was definitely done better than the novel. I also liked the idea of having the flash be six months in the future. That should work quite well for the constraints of a TV show, and make for a better arc.
Overall, I'm not sold yet, but I'll give it another chance or two. It's got potential, and one or two solid episodes could easily get me on-board.
Sorry, but it was jarring. I don't view it as an attack on myself or anything, but Trent is right when he says that Sawyer is a quite prominent atheist, so it seems quite odd to see this sort of thing popping up in something based on his work. And I say this as someone whose favourite book by Sawyer is Calculating God which
results in the main character seeing irrefutable evidence of God.
It's all how it's handled, and I didn't like the scenes which included religion in this pilot.
Anyway, just finished watching this, and I thought it was fine. Didn't really grab me entirely, to be honest—I thought the characters were pretty bland, on the whole, and didn't really connect with any of them. Particularly the lead charcter (Mark... something?)... you'd think they could come up with something a little more interesting or unique. Especially combined with his wife being a doctor. Don't we have enough cop shows and medical shows?
It did do a number of things well, though. The flash itself was cool, and the aftermath was explored quite thoroughly, and yeah, this bit was definitely done better than the novel. I also liked the idea of having the flash be six months in the future. That should work quite well for the constraints of a TV show, and make for a better arc.
Overall, I'm not sold yet, but I'll give it another chance or two. It's got potential, and one or two solid episodes could easily get me on-board.
It was too jarring? It was one sentence that lasted like 2 seconds. Besides in the context it was spoken it made perfect sense whether you take it at face value or as a joke.
BTW...if anything, I'm agnostic. I just get annoyed at the bigotry directed at Christians by people who decry bigotry.
and we should probably drop it before it turns into a TNZ thread.
