Finally got a chance to watch the first episode. While the overall mystery is somewhat interesting and Krysten Ritter is fantastic as always, the overall execution of the story feels a bit sloppy, with Lucy doing some very questionable actions (but I guess the same could be said of Sarah, especially in the first season).
I find it a bit weird how the story begins with Lucy somehow escaping (or just let go?), before jumping two years with her on the lam (but apparently not that far away from the city, which is particularly weird). I get that we don't need to have everything filled in at the start but I feel like that's a really awkward start before then jumping to the cliché "coming out of hiding to confront the big baddie directly to tell them to back off (but of course that never works)."
I also hate how Charlie easily killed Lucy's attacker. I'm so very tired of "the untrained kid is able to kill someone with a headshot" cliché. That was completely unnecessary as a means to get Lucy to go on the run.
I'm sure we'll get more explanations later but I find it rather upsetting that Kira would be involved with
anything like this considering her family history. I imagine it'll be a case of "being slowly lured in by the science before she got in over her head" kind of situation but it still feels inexplicable. I do wish I hadn't been spoiled by that reveal at the end of the episode (Aunt Cosima!) but at least it was within the first episode.
I remember initially not liking the original series during the first season. I slowly watched it for a month (after all of the episodes had aired) and the show didn't really click together for me until towards the end of that season. Maybe that'll happen again here, but I feel a lot more skeptical about the set-up this time around, especially regarding Kira.
One thing that is distracting me so far on the first episode is this show takes place in 2052, yet it feels like it takes place in present day. Why are they still using cars and cell phones? Couldn't they make things a bit more futuristic?
That doesn't bother me. It's only 30 years into the future so it's a little tricky imagining what kind of advances we would have. Yeah, we get the classic "look at all of the aerial holograms, self-operating farming equipment, and fancy tech at the big corporation" to make it feel somewhat futuristic, but honestly I don't need anything more. The focus should be on the story and characters and not the futuristic gadgets (aside from cloning tech).