Spoilers The Debris Series Spectacular Thread

[Christopher]

The best way I can describe it is... take 11 standalone X-Files episodes that have nothing to do with each other, then put an episode at the beginning and an episode at the end that states everything is connected and leading to something bigger.

That's a bit of hyperbole since there is connective tissue with Debris, but you get the general idea. There's a lot of "part of this episode is interesting but who cares" going on.

Reminds me of season 1 of Fringe, which was the least effective season because there was so little rhyme or reason apparent to the weird cases of the week, with the explanations not really coming along until late, and the rich mythology arc that made the series so effective not really coming into focus until the second season. Indeed, seasons 4 & 5 made season 1 better in retrospect by revisiting some of its random weirdness and connecting it more fully to the arc.

So I presume the intention here was to eventually begin tying it all together in the back nine or in a second season, if it had gotten either. A lot of these shows on the main networks die young because they start out with such slow burns and lose their audiences before they get around to kicking their arcs into gear.

 

[EnderAKH]

Annnnnnnnd cancelled.

https://tvline.com/2021/05/27/debris-cancelled-season-2-nbc/

 

[Aragorn]

There's a lot of good that Debris had the potential to offer, I just don't think the execution was any good.

 

[crookeddy]

Why do network channels keep making sci fi shows? 90% fail.

 

[Dukhat]

Meanwhile, Manifest is heading into its third season without any intrigue or urgency.

I guess I am glad I am not following this show now...guess we will wait for Manifest to start up again (which this show kinda feels like)

Just caught up with Manifest.... from what you guys are saying... Debris clearly dies NOT have the character/relationship strengths manifest has

For the most part, the characters on Debris are very much "on the job." You get under the skin of a couple characters, but it's not particularly interesting for one of them. Manifest does a better job giving warmth and emotion to the majority of their main characters, but there are so many one-dimensional stock characters (like the Eureka scientist who seems to exist only to disagree with Ben, and the lead meth head with his cartoon villainy). Debris has a better sense of where it wants to go, but that's not saying much since there's a lot lacking there too. In my opinion, Debris is focusing on the wrong aspect of their mystery.

Since there doesn't seem to be a dedicated thread for Manifest, what's the consensus about this show? I liked it up until this last season, where it seems like the writers just decided to go in a new 'biblical' direction for the plot, and main characters like TJ are just randomly forgotten halfway through, even by Olive, who's his girlfriend! The show's just getting too over the top. I liked it much better when the reason for their disappearance was more ambiguous (and looking like it was the work of something extraterrestrial.)

 

[Aragorn]

I watch Manifest but it's horribly underwritten. And by that I mean that none of the characters seem to actually exist in a world where a plane and its passengers disappeared for five years. I get that if this were real life, these passengers' lives would be over with all the scrutiny if they were ever released back into the public so there'd be no TV show. But there's no oomph to it. Lots of broad strokes. It also feels like one of those shows where the writers have no knowledge about what these characters' professions are other than what they've seen on TV.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Since there doesn't seem to be a dedicated thread for Manifest, what's the consensus about this show? I liked it up until this last season, where it seems like the writers just decided to go in a new 'biblical' direction for the plot, and main characters like TJ are just randomly forgotten halfway through, even by Olive, who's his girlfriend! The show's just getting too over the top. I liked it much better when the reason for their disappearance was more ambiguous (and looking like it was the work of something extraterrestrial.)

they have had religious stuff from the get-go... My wife and i are Christians, so we cringe every time they misquote the verse "All good things..." and even if it weren't a verse, they overuse it so much we cringe when we hear it (especially when they did it like 3 or 4 time sin one epsiode!)

Yeah, i agree --- what happened to TJ? Also, they morphed Olive from a younger high schooler to practically college grad student fairly quickly too (though it might be to course correct her romance with a college student, who must have been live 3-4 years older). That was pretty annoying, for sure.

What i like about it is more the interactions of the characters....like i was actually sad when the Jack Black character met his fate, and love how close the family is (but still having conflict). I ain't watching it for the sci-fi aspect,, but rather the relationships, and how people decide to do what is right.

I watch Manifest but it's horribly underwritten. And by that I mean that none of the characters seem to actually exist in a world where a plane and its passengers disappeared for five years. I get that if this were real life, these passengers' lives would be over with all the scrutiny if they were ever released back into the public so there'd be no TV show. But there's no oomph to it. Lots of broad strokes. It also feels like one of those shows where the writers have no knowledge about what these characters' professions are other than what they've seen on TV.

I know what you are saying...but since thince ain't a police procedural, i can forgive them for all craziness that wouldn't happen in real life (like her former fiance Jaredbeing her boss... pretty sure that would be frowned upon)

 

[Aragorn]

Manifest is a very safe and sanitized show. They never push far enough with the cult or the hate group or the government conspiracy. And now they have a new regular in season 3 who fell in love with a guy after talking to him for two minutes, then he died, now she's suddenly gone Single White Female/The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. It's like they needed to give Olive something to do so they had Angelina go nuts.

 

[Dukhat]

they have had religious stuff from the get-go... My wife and i are Christians, so we cringe every time they misquote the verse "All good things..." and even if it weren't a verse, they overuse it so much we cringe when we hear it (especially when they did it like 3 or 4 time sin one epsiode!)

Yeah, i agree --- what happened to TJ? Also, they morphed Olive from a younger high schooler to practically college grad student fairly quickly too (though it might be to course correct her romance with a college student, who must have been live 3-4 years older). That was pretty annoying, for sure.

What i like about it is more the interactions of the characters....like i was actually sad when the Jack Black character met his fate, and love how close the family is (but still having conflict). I ain't watching it for the sci-fi aspect,, but rather the relationships, and how people decide to do what is right.



I know what you are saying...but since thince ain't a police procedural, i can forgive them for all craziness that wouldn't happen in real life (like her former fiance Jaredbeing her boss... pretty sure that would be frowned upon)

Manifest is a very safe and sanitized show. They never push far enough with the cult or the hate group or the government conspiracy. And now they have a new regular in season 3 who fell in love with a guy after talking to him for two minutes, then he died, now she's suddenly gone Single White Female/The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. It's like they needed to give Olive something to do so they had Angelina go nuts.

I wasn’t trying to sound anti-religious. It’s just that it’s an over-used trope. And now it’s all in-your-face with the Mt. Ararat and Noah’s Ark stuff. It’s like the writers just saw the new The Stand and decided to go into overdrive with the religious aspect.

As for Angelina, I didn’t have too much of a problem with her connection to Pete, since the callings were leading her in that direction, presumably to help them both have better lives. But then, wham, Pete dies and Angelina completely forgets about him and immediately becomes the creepy live-in houseguest for no real reason whatsoever. It’s like they can’t seem to keep going on a logical story course and feel the need to constantly change things up because they think it’s dramatic storytelling, when in fact it’s just annoying cliched crap.

And as for TJ, it’s obvious that the actor isn’t coming back, but instead of writing hm off, they say he’s in Egypt doing research. They even make it clear that he and Olive are still together. But as soon as I saw that smartass kid working in the museum, I knew the writers were going to hook them up. The problem was that they get together with zero mention of TJ. It’s not even like they broke up offscreen. They literally forgot about him, even though he’s mentioned several times at the start of the season!