As a scifi buff: Battlestar Galactica, and The Expanse were excellent. Nightsky was also a really good watch even though it was slow moving, and was more about relationships than SciFi
dint really like reimagined, the showrunner was obsessed with making it god arc, heard he had religious leanings, and hated it enough to not include the advanced tech of the original series. it was good until the writer strikes happened.
The Expanse is magnificent. And they are at the perfect time to get certain actors back to continue with the Laconia story in the last three books. I want it so badly.
At least they ended up on a fairly logical point if not. But I still wonder why they included the Strange Dogs novella if they knew that’s the last season.
I’m sure that at least some of the people who worked on it hoped it’d be continued in the future in some form. I honestly don’t know how it hasn’t been. It’s not like it wasn’t well received. Maybe it wasn’t as profitable as the studio wanted, but that’s a matter of cutting costs. You don’t have to drop the whole thing. With the game coming out, there’s clearly interest in it still.
Have thought the same. Its inclusion doesn’t indicate anything will happen, but it does seem intended to allow such a thing by providing some continuity over a long break.
I guess it could otherwise just be a brief apology to readers. “Sorry we aren’t getting to this.” But I remain hopeful.
Just watched the first episode of Night Sky. So far it strikes me as a really good psychological drama about getting old. Not a lot of sci-fi stuff yet.
J.K. Simmons is a really good actor, especially by American standards. I’d say he’s on the level of a good Scandinavian or British actor.
Anyway, I might just have to binge this. Thanks for the recommendation!
Edit: The mysterious sci-fi stuff gets interesting around episode 4
On an emotional and psychological level, I thought the show led to a pretty satisfying conclusion. Viewers should not expect to have any off their questions about the sci-fi stuff or the intrigue answered, though. Too bad it was cancelled after one season!
But I can see why it didn’t gain a massive audience. It’s too slow and psychological for a lot of sci-fi fans, yet it has too much silly sci-fi stuff for fans of realistic psychological dramas. The Spanish parts with subtitles may also have put off a few English-speaking viewers.
I hate Battlestar Galactica so much. The original mini series was amazing. But when it got picked up, it quickly became obvious that the writers had no idea what they were doing and just made shit up from episode to episode. It was so bad. From what I’ve heard, Lost is another example of this. It’s one of the reasons why I prefer movies. The entire story is clear from the get go and there is no creative bullshit happening for no reason. This is one of the reasons why Chernobyl and Andor are so damn good, because the story was complete before they started shooting. I think it’s better now in the age of streaming.
I’m in the middle of a BSG rewatch right now, and I still love it.
I can see how someone would say that they weren’t sure what they were going to do when they hit season 3. But the first season felt very tight. The miniseries had the cliffhanger that one of the main cast was a cylon. It’s hard to argue that the first few episodes didn’t build on that cliffhanger.
If you’re saying that at the start of the series they didn’t know how they were going to end it, sure. There aren’t a lot of shows that have a multi-season arc all planned out in advance. Babylon 5 is one of the few I know of that did. The problem is that they never know when they’re going to be cancelled, so there’s no point in trying to make a huge story arc when they will probably have to end the story early.
As for movies being better, it’s true that they can tell a longer story than a TV series. But a 2 hour movie is basically only 3 episodes of a TV show (at 45 minutes + commercials each). Movies suffer because everything has to be introduced and resolved so quickly. The “creative bullshit happening for no reason” is often foreshadowing of something that will only be resolved many episodes later.
I also disagree. I think they had a good idea of where it was going for the first few seasons. I do think that once the Cylons join them they don’t really have an idea of what to do with it though. The ending is a bit of a mess. I’d also agree that a lot of the B plots are not the best, and are just filler, and clearly didn’t have a big plan, but what show doesn’t have this? The main plot is pretty cohesive and consistent at least up to season 3, and I’d argue a lot of that was solid too.
I think, if you want to argue they didn’t have a plan, you have to reconcile that with the fact that they had secret characters working against the fleet that were hinted at for quite a long time before they were confirmed. They clearly had a long and carefully designed plan. There’s just an issue that they have to fill time, so they also have some stupid filler plots that don’t go anywhere. I think most of these are fine though. They still add character and depth.
The BSG 2000s remake is a masterpiece of a show. It brings together politics, religion, spirituality, and more and how that all ties into mankind and their robot creations is so good
I very much disagree. It’s not a good show. It’s great if it works for you, but if one is looking for at least a semblance of cohesive storytelling the show is just so bad. The miniseries the remake started with was very good. The show started off OK, but as it went on, it was so damn obvious that the writers had no plan and just made up dumb shit from episode to episode. Everybody’s a Cylon and I quit somewhere early into the last season because I just got so angry with each new episode.
He believes that a LOT of series, especially on Netflix, were originally intended to be a 2 hour movie, but Netflix wants “engagement,” so they insist that it be spread out over 10 episodes to increase engagement. That leads to storylines where they just create useless meandering plot tangents just to drag it out. Once he pointed it out to me, I’m seeing it a lot.
I just recently decided to start Him & Her because I saw that it was the current top rated show, and I quit halfway through the second episode, because I realized they were complicating the plot for no other reason than to drag it out. It wasn’t compelling, or mysterious, it was annoying.
Netflix is ruining cinematic storytelling, and the rest are going to follow.
I kinda have to disagree. I know they dis make things up as they went along, but I think they did it pretty well. The writing and acting are pretty good — though you’re right it would’ve benefited from being cohesively written.
The problem I have is the ending. I hate it, but unlike Game of Thrones I don’t hate it in a way I can never watch it again despite the amazing highs.
The drama and situations they put the characters through in BSG are mostly intense and well done. Some of the things feel a bit random without foreshadowing, but life can be that way. Anyway I think the series is well worth watching I just… I wanted the last few episodes to be something very different from what the show runners had in mind.
I’m a big fan of the books, but Cibola Burn is by far my least favorite in the series. I heavily dislike the chapters from Dr. Okoye’s view, just too much fawning over Holden, and this is coming from someone who enjoys romance novels. It really is the weakest in the series and picks up after that.
I had similar thoughts. I was able to read the books through the parts that I liked less, and I really liked the story as a whole. I was not able to continue with the series. It’s not even bad, but episode after episode there was no meaningful progress, and I just stopped
As a scifi buff: Battlestar Galactica, and The Expanse were excellent. Nightsky was also a really good watch even though it was slow moving, and was more about relationships than SciFi
dint really like reimagined, the showrunner was obsessed with making it god arc, heard he had religious leanings, and hated it enough to not include the advanced tech of the original series. it was good until the writer strikes happened.
The Expanse is magnificent. And they are at the perfect time to get certain actors back to continue with the Laconia story in the last three books. I want it so badly.
There was a reason they killed off Alex…
I want to believe they will finish the Expanse.
At least they ended up on a fairly logical point if not. But I still wonder why they included the Strange Dogs novella if they knew that’s the last season.
I’m sure that at least some of the people who worked on it hoped it’d be continued in the future in some form. I honestly don’t know how it hasn’t been. It’s not like it wasn’t well received. Maybe it wasn’t as profitable as the studio wanted, but that’s a matter of cutting costs. You don’t have to drop the whole thing. With the game coming out, there’s clearly interest in it still.
Have thought the same. Its inclusion doesn’t indicate anything will happen, but it does seem intended to allow such a thing by providing some continuity over a long break.
I guess it could otherwise just be a brief apology to readers. “Sorry we aren’t getting to this.” But I remain hopeful.
I’m 60% through the last book, it’s so good!
Oh please oh please oh please‽
Just watched the first episode of Night Sky. So far it strikes me as a really good psychological drama about getting old. Not a lot of sci-fi stuff yet.
J.K. Simmons is a really good actor, especially by American standards. I’d say he’s on the level of a good Scandinavian or British actor.
Anyway, I might just have to binge this. Thanks for the recommendation!
Edit: The mysterious sci-fi stuff gets interesting around episode 4
Its lo-fi scifi. Great character development story though
Just finished watching. I give it an 8/10.
On an emotional and psychological level, I thought the show led to a pretty satisfying conclusion. Viewers should not expect to have any off their questions about the sci-fi stuff or the intrigue answered, though. Too bad it was cancelled after one season!
But I can see why it didn’t gain a massive audience. It’s too slow and psychological for a lot of sci-fi fans, yet it has too much silly sci-fi stuff for fans of realistic psychological dramas. The Spanish parts with subtitles may also have put off a few English-speaking viewers.
I hate Battlestar Galactica so much. The original mini series was amazing. But when it got picked up, it quickly became obvious that the writers had no idea what they were doing and just made shit up from episode to episode. It was so bad. From what I’ve heard, Lost is another example of this. It’s one of the reasons why I prefer movies. The entire story is clear from the get go and there is no creative bullshit happening for no reason. This is one of the reasons why Chernobyl and Andor are so damn good, because the story was complete before they started shooting. I think it’s better now in the age of streaming.
i assume you bsg reimagined, he became directionless like the last 2 seasons.
I’m in the middle of a BSG rewatch right now, and I still love it.
I can see how someone would say that they weren’t sure what they were going to do when they hit season 3. But the first season felt very tight. The miniseries had the cliffhanger that one of the main cast was a cylon. It’s hard to argue that the first few episodes didn’t build on that cliffhanger.
If you’re saying that at the start of the series they didn’t know how they were going to end it, sure. There aren’t a lot of shows that have a multi-season arc all planned out in advance. Babylon 5 is one of the few I know of that did. The problem is that they never know when they’re going to be cancelled, so there’s no point in trying to make a huge story arc when they will probably have to end the story early.
As for movies being better, it’s true that they can tell a longer story than a TV series. But a 2 hour movie is basically only 3 episodes of a TV show (at 45 minutes + commercials each). Movies suffer because everything has to be introduced and resolved so quickly. The “creative bullshit happening for no reason” is often foreshadowing of something that will only be resolved many episodes later.
I also disagree. I think they had a good idea of where it was going for the first few seasons. I do think that once the Cylons join them they don’t really have an idea of what to do with it though. The ending is a bit of a mess. I’d also agree that a lot of the B plots are not the best, and are just filler, and clearly didn’t have a big plan, but what show doesn’t have this? The main plot is pretty cohesive and consistent at least up to season 3, and I’d argue a lot of that was solid too.
I think, if you want to argue they didn’t have a plan, you have to reconcile that with the fact that they had secret characters working against the fleet that were hinted at for quite a long time before they were confirmed. They clearly had a long and carefully designed plan. There’s just an issue that they have to fill time, so they also have some stupid filler plots that don’t go anywhere. I think most of these are fine though. They still add character and depth.
I agree on lost it got stupid. Battlestar had a full over arching story line though.
The BSG 2000s remake is a masterpiece of a show. It brings together politics, religion, spirituality, and more and how that all ties into mankind and their robot creations is so good
I very much disagree. It’s not a good show. It’s great if it works for you, but if one is looking for at least a semblance of cohesive storytelling the show is just so bad. The miniseries the remake started with was very good. The show started off OK, but as it went on, it was so damn obvious that the writers had no plan and just made up dumb shit from episode to episode. Everybody’s a Cylon and I quit somewhere early into the last season because I just got so angry with each new episode.
You sound a lot like my son except:
He believes that a LOT of series, especially on Netflix, were originally intended to be a 2 hour movie, but Netflix wants “engagement,” so they insist that it be spread out over 10 episodes to increase engagement. That leads to storylines where they just create useless meandering plot tangents just to drag it out. Once he pointed it out to me, I’m seeing it a lot.
I just recently decided to start Him & Her because I saw that it was the current top rated show, and I quit halfway through the second episode, because I realized they were complicating the plot for no other reason than to drag it out. It wasn’t compelling, or mysterious, it was annoying.
Netflix is ruining cinematic storytelling, and the rest are going to follow.
I kinda have to disagree. I know they dis make things up as they went along, but I think they did it pretty well. The writing and acting are pretty good — though you’re right it would’ve benefited from being cohesively written.
The problem I have is the ending. I hate it, but unlike Game of Thrones I don’t hate it in a way I can never watch it again despite the amazing highs.
The drama and situations they put the characters through in BSG are mostly intense and well done. Some of the things feel a bit random without foreshadowing, but life can be that way. Anyway I think the series is well worth watching I just… I wanted the last few episodes to be something very different from what the show runners had in mind.
I’m feeling so-so about The Expanse. I enjoyed the first few books and seasons, but it didn’t really capture me once they went through the gate.
I enjoyed it myself, but I remember people thought the Cibola Burn weak. It really picks up after that though. The next two books are peak.
I’m a big fan of the books, but Cibola Burn is by far my least favorite in the series. I heavily dislike the chapters from Dr. Okoye’s view, just too much fawning over Holden, and this is coming from someone who enjoys romance novels. It really is the weakest in the series and picks up after that.
I had similar thoughts. I was able to read the books through the parts that I liked less, and I really liked the story as a whole. I was not able to continue with the series. It’s not even bad, but episode after episode there was no meaningful progress, and I just stopped