First Ep Round-Up Post
I watched a number of first eps! Just the first eps so far, so no spoilers please.
Stitchers
Brilliant sociopath is recruited by a shadowy government agency to enter the minds of dead people and extract information. Potentially interesting set-up, and an incredibly wonderful main character: a cold, level-headed, truly brilliant female sociopath. Can't remember the last time I saw a female sociopath on screen...
Of course, incredibly unwonderful leering geek(s) - no doubt intended to be sympathetic and amusing - immediately surround her and stick her in a clingy catsuit. One of them is, of course, set up to become the obligatory romantic interest. Ugh, do not want. Also do not want the plotline that seems to be laid out where the MC experiences second-hand emotions through the dead people's minds, and eventually no doubt begins to like them, yearn for them, and probably feel them herself. I expect her to want to love in short order, double ugh.
Still, love the actress. Love the initial character. In the hopes that the above will not happen, I will keep watching.
Killjoys
Bounty hunters in space! This series opener had a number of interesting elements and seems full of potential, but didn't quite come together into a coherent whole - it all seemed oddly cobbled together, and never quite allowed me to buy into the fictional world. Not sure what the problem is, but I suspect it's the characters. Maybe once the series has settled in, things will gel more.
Dark Matter
Very interesting scifi series about a bunch of dubious characters who wake up in a spaceship with no memory of who they are, or what they're about. Verry interesting characterization, more subtle than it appears at first. Not a series I expect great surprises from, but it seems like it could turn into a solid scifi show with an interesting cast of characters I would love to watch for seasons on end. So far, everything comes together in the way that Killjoys doesn't.
Wayward Pines
A series like short story by Kafka, where an FBI agent is trapped in a town where everyone appears to be conspiring against him, and time is out of whack. Interesting in theory, but strangely leeched of color and interest by the apparently deliberately unemotional, nightmarishly bland Kafkaesque execution. May well pick up speed in later eps. I intend to check out some more eps at a later point, but the first ep didn't really grab me, so it may be a while.
The Brink
This series attempts to be an amusingly cynical look at Middle-East politics, and falls flat on its face by instead being incredibly unamusing and enragingly arrogant. Wow, so much no. No, no, no.
The Messengers
Oh dear. From what I surmise from the first ep, a seeming meteorite is actually Lucifer fallen to earth. His arrival wakes (or creates) several angels, each with a special power. Presumably, these "messengers" are going to band together to fight Lucifer in the following eps.
You have to give the creators credit for fearlessness, but. There are so many ways this plot can go horribly wrong that the only thing I feel at this point is massive apprehension. It would take very good writers to pull this off well, and frankly, I doubt that these writers are up to the task.
UnReal
Mildly interesting look behind the scenes of a "Bachelor"-like dating show, with appropriate levels of cynicism, ruthless manipulation, and ruthless exploitation. I like the approach, but the show is probably too cold for me to watch much more of, since it seems to have no point other than breaking everyone down bit by bit.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Still haven't read the book, though I've had it standing on my shelf for ages. Stalled partway through the first ep because of a weird twist: I was interested in minor characters only, which made me cross that the eponymous characters were going to be taking attention away from them. I will try again at a later point, when I have hopefully made my peace with the fact that the main characters are the main characters. ;-)
So, have you seen any of these? What do you think?
Stitchers
Brilliant sociopath is recruited by a shadowy government agency to enter the minds of dead people and extract information. Potentially interesting set-up, and an incredibly wonderful main character: a cold, level-headed, truly brilliant female sociopath. Can't remember the last time I saw a female sociopath on screen...
Of course, incredibly unwonderful leering geek(s) - no doubt intended to be sympathetic and amusing - immediately surround her and stick her in a clingy catsuit. One of them is, of course, set up to become the obligatory romantic interest. Ugh, do not want. Also do not want the plotline that seems to be laid out where the MC experiences second-hand emotions through the dead people's minds, and eventually no doubt begins to like them, yearn for them, and probably feel them herself. I expect her to want to love in short order, double ugh.
Still, love the actress. Love the initial character. In the hopes that the above will not happen, I will keep watching.
Killjoys
Bounty hunters in space! This series opener had a number of interesting elements and seems full of potential, but didn't quite come together into a coherent whole - it all seemed oddly cobbled together, and never quite allowed me to buy into the fictional world. Not sure what the problem is, but I suspect it's the characters. Maybe once the series has settled in, things will gel more.
Dark Matter
Very interesting scifi series about a bunch of dubious characters who wake up in a spaceship with no memory of who they are, or what they're about. Verry interesting characterization, more subtle than it appears at first. Not a series I expect great surprises from, but it seems like it could turn into a solid scifi show with an interesting cast of characters I would love to watch for seasons on end. So far, everything comes together in the way that Killjoys doesn't.
Wayward Pines
A series like short story by Kafka, where an FBI agent is trapped in a town where everyone appears to be conspiring against him, and time is out of whack. Interesting in theory, but strangely leeched of color and interest by the apparently deliberately unemotional, nightmarishly bland Kafkaesque execution. May well pick up speed in later eps. I intend to check out some more eps at a later point, but the first ep didn't really grab me, so it may be a while.
The Brink
This series attempts to be an amusingly cynical look at Middle-East politics, and falls flat on its face by instead being incredibly unamusing and enragingly arrogant. Wow, so much no. No, no, no.
The Messengers
Oh dear. From what I surmise from the first ep, a seeming meteorite is actually Lucifer fallen to earth. His arrival wakes (or creates) several angels, each with a special power. Presumably, these "messengers" are going to band together to fight Lucifer in the following eps.
You have to give the creators credit for fearlessness, but. There are so many ways this plot can go horribly wrong that the only thing I feel at this point is massive apprehension. It would take very good writers to pull this off well, and frankly, I doubt that these writers are up to the task.
UnReal
Mildly interesting look behind the scenes of a "Bachelor"-like dating show, with appropriate levels of cynicism, ruthless manipulation, and ruthless exploitation. I like the approach, but the show is probably too cold for me to watch much more of, since it seems to have no point other than breaking everyone down bit by bit.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Still haven't read the book, though I've had it standing on my shelf for ages. Stalled partway through the first ep because of a weird twist: I was interested in minor characters only, which made me cross that the eponymous characters were going to be taking attention away from them. I will try again at a later point, when I have hopefully made my peace with the fact that the main characters are the main characters. ;-)
So, have you seen any of these? What do you think?