Thoughts

So the show in my head I was calling “Lena Heady in space”… they killed Lena Heady’s character Aster technically in the finale of s1. they just instantly confirmed it in the opening of s2. So that was a gut punch. Get rid of the high profile main character I was here for. Her performance of the character (less the character and writing) was what drew me in in season 1. It was just really fun to watch her lope through the sets and interact with the characters in a way I hadn’t seen her before even between Cersei and Sarah Connor and with a wonderful physicallity and relaxed confidence you rarely see women in their 50s get to have on screen. But I gave it a bit of a go. Just to see what was happening. ep 2 was semi filler, just AI character Harm in AI office. Then she escapes so finally we start? remember its 8 episode seasons so with 2 down we’re 25% done. nope full ep and then some to introduce the new main character who can now only be here fore 75% of the season, gonna be hard to get me too attached, I’m barely here for the other human main character (Halan) and I guess the AI is a main character?

Then the standard invaders of the Beacon, we’re captured, cliff hanger, but then to kill pacing (I mean keep us on the edge of our seats?) the whole of ep 6 is a slow flash back for Aster (Lena Heady’s character, who, do I need to remind, is dead?). So it’s played by a younger actress so it’s blah. And then that ep too somehow ends on a cliffhanger unresolved? but we never get back to that. Wild

The main plot, such as it is resumes in ep 7, the final quarter of this season lol. And then Halan is throw that maybe his main memories and trauma that have been driving him are fake implanted memories? which would be a ridiculous rug pull, and boy howdy is he ready to rejoin the just terrible military when he hears this. But then they just drill holes in his head, and we think he’s maybe in heaven? or the artifact for most half of ep 7 and all of ep 8? but no rug pull, it was a hallucinated space made by Harm the AI, and actually Halan also died a while ago, didn’t you notice?

So that’s s2 and it’s finale. Kills it’s other main character, and I guess the AI Harmony is our new main character going into s3, along with the new girl Iris and then someone else she collected in the latter half of the season.

This is sadly another case of a show that thinks it’s wildly smarter than it is. There’s a million tiny examples of the writers demonstrating they heard about some scifi concept but didn’t even read the wikipedia page on it, like the “solar sail boat” that some folks come in on? That someone “fell off clinging to a rope as the ship was being rocked about” ??? And then when we see it, the sail to ship ratio is like less than traditional sail boats on earth, lol. And it takes this same lack of care, research or any depth to it’s handling of AI which is becoming the central focus of the show. It talks a lot about “imprints” and having none, one, or a few, that some were installed? or created in Harmony, and by the end of the season she’s some how got like 4? That she made some herself? It was never clear to me if the Halan one was added to her or she made even. I’m not sure all the writers could agree and tell me. So with handling of supposed core material this sloppily, we don’t find much worth latching on to here, even in the burgeoning main focus of the show.

Which is all to say this is a show that has trapping of wanting to say things about things and use scifi concepts but no one seems to actually know what they are doing so it’s not going terribly well and they seem to be inexplicably addicted to killing off their cast that you might possibly get attached to. They really seem to want you not attached to anyone on screen ever so that’s a choice. I can’t believe I watched season 2 actually after Lena Heady’s character’s death instead of just reading the wikipedia summaries but I was 2 eps in and already 25% done so it seemed easy enough to just finish the other 6 episodes. I think in hindsight that was a mistake, and if this show ever does get another season I’ll just read synopsis. Cus if they don’t want me attached to the show or caring about the characters or experiencing it, then, ok, I won’t.

Rewatching Dark Angel and it is weird the shift between season 1 and 2. I blew through season 1. They had good elements like the tension between Max and Logan, and not just romantically, but Logan’s overworking idealism vs Max’s survival instinct. They had a good story generating engine with Max being on the run, mysteries about Manticore, the other escapees etc, and it created tension and pressure. Episodes had little twists you didn’t always see coming.

Then season 2 comes, Manticore is gone, Max and Logan can’t touch, and all the others have escaped. But Max isn’t looking for the rest of the original 12, even tho there’s no one ostensibly hunting her and them (I know White will emerge later this season), but yeah, the episodes are suddenly dragging. There’s no threat, no mystery, each episode is just a weird slice of life now? We’re not even really doing Eyes Only work for Logan. We even have so little idea what to do this season 2 we have a whole episode that is a dream. Even when an episode has an A plot, sometimes it’ll be so anemic the B plot will take up as much if not more time and I’ll get done scenes on the B plot only to get back to the A plot and have forgotten it was even happening cus pacing and tension are just… gone.

Real weird and disappointing but it sounds like network interference (Fox) and show runner change just murdered the vibe, and style of the show and ejected and blunted the story. I can see why there would have been a ratings drop and then it got canceled cus I’m not even half way into season 2 and it’s dragging so hard it feels like it’ll be hard to complete. Which is a shame since I blew through season 1 happily and felt pulled through it.

There’s other warning signs. Herbal Thought’s character disappearing with out a mention. Original Cindy def is taking a further back seat in the show. All it’s season 1 vibe, edge, representation, messaging, just gone or sanded down. Someone wanted to make this show more “palatable” and killed it instead, as is often the way of these things