Riese: Kingdom Falling!!!!!!
Just finished watching the first three episodes of Riese: Kingdom Falling on syfy.com -- if you live in the U.S. please go watch and comment!!
A few thinky thoughts:
I was pleasantly surprised by the production values; the costumes, sets, camera-work were all visually interesting and the steampunk aesthetic adds to the air of mystery.
What does not add to the air of mystery was the narration. Voice-over is my A#1 pet peeve in visual media -- it's almost never necessary and usually I view it as a sign of laziness on the part of the writer/director. However, I get that this is a big story and it's being told in little tiny fragments, so some element of exposition is needed -- but NOT to tell me things the actors should be conveying, such as the emotional state of their characters.
It really needs a score -- a good score would do ten times what the voice-over is attempting to do now. But budget. Yeah, I get it.
Christine Chatelain -- she looks fantastic -- she has this beautifully androgynous/archetypal look to her -- but so far we've mostly seen her on her own and I'd like to see what kind of chemistry she has with the other characters.
I'm really not sure about Sharon Taylor as the Empress. I don't think she projects enough authority.
The hospital sequence had a very cool X-Files vibe.
Overall I think SyFy should trust this story a little more: it's potentially very epic and a little spooky and I think they could use the buzz around A Song of Fire and Ice to promote a similar action-and-intrigue fantasy story.