News Netflix orders series ‘Another Life’ Starring Katee Sackhoff

[eschaton]

In regards to the "accidental" crew the easy fix would have been for the alien that visits earth to simply kidnap a (seemingly) random selection and fire them off to its home planet in a secondary ship.

I was thinking more along the lines that this was the only ship available on short notice - basically come up with some excuse that all other FTL ships were out of comms range in deep space, and they didn't have the time/energy to swap out the existing crew, so they just decided to put Niko on top of the existing command structure.

But it still makes no fucking sense. I mean, the series makes it clear that FTL drives have been around long enough in-universe that it's not seen as a big thing. Presumably this crew has had experience going to other star systems - because what the hell else would they have been doing? Yet they ooh and ahh when they land on a rogue planet as if no one has ever done it before.

The worldbuilding on the show is paper-thin in general, which is easiest to see when you look at the Earthside scenes. Everyone dresses just like today, talks just like today, tech isn't that different from what we're used to except for a few doodads, etc. Yet due to things like the existence of the FTL drive and discussion about rising sea levels, you can understand this isn't meant to be a near-future show. If they didn't have the budget to pull off a convincing "future Earth" setting they should have just cut the Earthside plot entirely.

 

[Tuvix5675]

I agree. What is "feminist" or "SJW" about this? That a white male psychopath tried to seize command? That isnt an indictment of white males. It is an indictment of psychopaths. I dont see any heavy handed intersectional preaching here.

People will see what they want to see, good for you if you don't see Hollywood brainwashing at work in this show.

 

[JoeZhang]

People will see what they want to see, good for you if you don't see Hollywood brainwashing at work in this show.

Not being mad, no I don't see it.

 

[Tarek71]

Not being mad, no I don't see it.

I dont see it either. There are plenty of shows in recent years that lay the Woke lingo on pretty thick. Cloak and Dagger, How to Get Away with Murder, Runaways. Lots and lots. This isnt one of them. I am happy to say that Intersectional Wokeism has had an increasing cultural impact. And I am happy to criticize it. But Another Life just isnt one of them.

 

[JoeZhang]

It's simply too dumb to have *any* sort of message.

 

[Professor Zoom]

People will see what they want to see, good for you if you don't see Hollywood brainwashing at work in this show.

There’s the stuff.

 

[XCV330]

I wanted to like this show so much but it just won't let me. I have to throw dirt clods at it so that it will stop following me.


oh god it's bad

they just took a bunch of stuff from every space based sci fi show they could think of and threw it in with a crew that makes no sense (is there NO kind of discipline in the human race by this point or just among the highly trained internship crews they apparently put on starships?) . Throw in a little ENT, throw in a little NuLostInSpace, throw in Sackhoff doing her best to channel Wilem Defoe but no voodoo will save this mess, toss in some Arrival, Interstellar, some Inception for good measure and maybe Gravity too.. at this point just why didn't they find an overly confident Englishman with a long scarf and put him aboard also. As long as he's young and with a kilo of makeup applied.

Oh, your starship will not have any black people. Even Enterprise did in the 60's. But they'll put a hologram of color on board. SO.. there's that.

This might be the worst sci fi pilot I've seen since in years.

positives: the alien ship thingy looked ok at the beginning. what it morphed into was a copy of the crystal structure in Sic Vis Pacem on Discovery. Wow they even copied Discovery. That's .. kind of a kudo? The Salvore looked neat. I don't THINK they owe any of the principal owners of StarTrek anything for appropriating the old XCV design. Honestly it was nice.

Spoiler

If humanity has been flying around the stars for decades by this point, why didn't they notice a gigantic blob of dark matter between one of our nearest stars causing lensing distortions.

Sorry., if that's the mcguffin for this episode it makes no sense. Bad nail to hang your lab coat on


This is a show made by a committee. A committee that was either high, distracted, did not care, dangerously inept or a bit of everything. I could keep going on, picking it to pieces. I can't get those 45 minutes of my life back. i know it was on longer than that but the show is still going and im tuned out. The only version of this show I want to see will have Crow T Robot, Tom Servo and someone in a jumpsuit talking through it.

 

[Aragorn]

The Real World: First Contact

Jersey Shore Goes to Space

 

[Mage]

Saw the first episode. Bad writing, weird characters. Will watch one more to decide.

 

[eschaton]

Again, the show does get massively, massively better after the first episode. I'd even say I think the fourth episode is a kinda good exploration of Niko's character. But it gets "better" in the sense that the pilot is the single-worst SF thing I've seen aside from some fan films, while the later episodes are for the most part just bland and unmemorable.

Amusingly, the pilot was written by the series creator, while the remainder of the show (aside from the finale, which I haven't seen yet) was farmed out to other, mostly unknown writers. Which suggests there might have been some talent in the writer's room if they weren't being constrained by a fictional universe created by a total idiot.

 

[BillJ]

Not being mad, no I don't see it.

You've clearly been brain-washed then!

God, it must be exhausting to see bogey men in every corner, pretty much every where in the world.

 

[XCV330]

Again, the show does get massively, massively better after the first episode. I'd even say I think the fourth episode is a kinda good exploration of Niko's character. But it gets "better" in the sense that the pilot is the single-worst SF thing I've seen aside from some fan films, while the later episodes are for the most part just bland and unmemorable.

Amusingly, the pilot was written by the series creator, while the remainder of the show (aside from the finale, which I haven't seen yet) was farmed out to other, mostly unknown writers. Which suggests there might have been some talent in the writer's room if they weren't being constrained by a fictional universe created by a total idiot.

I might give it one more try then. But I am becoming convinced to get a a big bag of money, I should just go down to Netflix, knock on their door and say "need money. make show"

 

[Aragorn]

Some of the funniest reading this week comes from people bending over backward to defend this show. One guy is actually trying to claim that the unprofessional, immature, loser astronauts are realistic because it's just like what happens.... in retail. That same person is also pissed off at everyone saying bad things about the show and calling them freaks for not keeping their negative opinions to themselves because it's not your job to tell people what to enjoy. Meanwhile, it's okay for him to tell everyone to watch the show because he enjoys it.

 

[tomalak301]

Some of the funniest reading this week comes from people bending over backward to defend this show. One guy is actually trying to claim that the unprofessional, immature, loser astronauts are realistic because it's just like what happens.... in retail. That same person is also pissed off at everyone saying bad things about the show and calling them freaks for not keeping their negative opinions to themselves because it's not your job to tell people what to enjoy. Meanwhile, it's okay for him to tell everyone to watch the show because he enjoys it.

He sounds like your typical internet "extreme" commenter then.

I've been a little dismayed at the negative reactions. I might still watch it, but I'm not rushing to see it like I probably would have been a few weeks ago. That's a shame.

 

[BillJ]

My wife is a fan of Katee Sackhoff, so I'm sure we'll be watching this at some point.

 

[lurok]

Only three episodes in so far - but it's not that good. Not awful, but underwhelming.

 

[Tarek71]

Ok finished the 1st season. This headline on Mashable sums it up for me: "Another Life' is an unhinged 'so bad it's good' Netflix sci-fi series".

For quality, I would give the 1st season a 2.5/5 overall, but did watch it to the end. I did like Sackhoff and Chatwin. Trans/Genderfluid Tinaco's Zayn was a standout as well. Ludlow wasnt bad either.

For me it's worth a watch. But it straddles the line between B-movie and A. Most of the criticisms you've read above are true. But I'm a sucker for "so bad, they're good" shows. This is one.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

watching the pilot now, it was the absurd crew that got me into this thread,
very strange collection of people to go on the "most important mission in the history of mankind "
by the sound of the comments here it gets better after the pilot, .... i dont know, i dont even like Sackhoff so far.

 

[JoeZhang]

I have never seen her in anything - she seemed as bad as the rest of the cast.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

battlestar galactica for most but i think she did a great job in Riddick(2013)
Also, thats a very underrated movie.