This show is definitely something else, right?
Like episode 2 ends on a huge cliffhanger and then episode 3 jumps several years into the future. Like, I am positive that they will resolve both items in a future episode, but this is like the third time in the show that major things have happened and then they are kind of just brushed off for a different plotline. I don't know if I hate it yet, but if it continues like this, I definitely will lol
Positives for the first 3 episodes:
- The Empires are cool. I love the concept of a constant stream of Dawn, Day, and Dusk.
- The Special Effects are for the most part really well done (there have been some glaring exceptions)
- The reveal that the artifact on Terminus wasn't built by the colony, but existed before. Gives me an obelisk from 2001 vibe now, (don't ruin it for me, book-readers!)
- The world's themselves are very interesting, even if the series itself eschews world-building oftentimes for matter-of-fact plot pivots.
- No HBO-type, "Look at me, I'm on cable, let's cram tits and ass in every episode" content. If this ends up being really good, this is a show I'd love to show my kids. In fact, the women characters have been dressed appropriately for their settings in every episode I can remember. Hallelujah
- Some great acting from a handful of the actors.
- Slow pace for me is good. With all the jumping around and the introduction of so many characters, it is hard to get a feel for all of them. Episode 3 could have felt like a filler episode, but it really revealed a lot about the Empires, their histories, and it ditched the kid actor, which is always a plus (nothing worse in media than a shoe-horned kid), it also expanded on how Terminus was built, and the erosion of the belief system of its inhabitants, the role of the warden, etc.
Negatives/Things that bug me
- The constant jumping around reduces the impact of every scene, as well as the time shifts. When is this happening, now? was this scene 20 years in the past, or twenty years after the ship left the planet?
- The constant jumping around makes the story feel like the characters shouldn't have progressed, nor their relationships together. Like, in one scene Raych and Gaal barely know each other, and in the next, they have fallen in love and are intimate.
- If Psychohistory can only be interpreted by two people ever, what's the point of hiding it in a magic eight-ball? Why keep it a secret? Is it because, as Gaal says, Hari took a couple of liberties with two parts that weren't complete? Was Hari just a narcissist? Why wouldn't you invite all the best and brightest to study the formula?
- I wish it would show the relationship that the Empires have with Terminus. Do they send emissaries? Do they check in on the progress?
- If and when they end up pivoting back to the loose thread storylines, it's going to lessen the impact of that cliffhanger. You can't shoot Gaal in a capsule in an asteroid belt and then pick it up a few episodes later and expect the audience to care as much as continuing from that moment.
- The Han Solo character introduced in episode 3 says "hard pass." That just feels out of place as hell in this show. Might as well have Gaal refer to Hari as "based scientist dude" at that point.
I am sure I could remember a few things for column A and B if I tried. I am still on-board, but episode 4 needs to fire on all cylinders, or I'll probably drop off. My wife doesn't like it, and I almost never watch TV, so I'm not going to pencil in an hour each week to watch something unless I love it.
