Lucky you I am coming out of my weekend hiatus to write my first CineTV post! Typically I take the weekend off from the blockchain, but I wanted to get my thoughts down about this new series on NBC before I get sniped.
I saw the promos around the time the Superbowl was on. If I had to guess, the network took advantage of the commercial hype to tuck the teasers in. The promos made it very clear this was a science fiction show, so I knew I would be enjoying it alone since my wife doesn't care much for sci/fi.
The premise of the show is that three years ago a disabled alien spacecraft was discovered passing through our solar system. Now, two and a half years later the debris from that spacecraft has been entering the Earth's atmosphere for the past six months.
This isn't a spoiler because they tell you this right at the beginning of the first episode. In fact, they jump right into things with the first episode. Almost to the point that it is mildly confusing until you figure out what is going on.
Perhaps they are saving it for later, but I am a little bummed that we didn't get the expected "how the team came together" introduction or anything like that. I find it a bit difficult to care about the characters at all when they are just thrown at you like this.
Being only about four or five episodes in, I might be jumping the gun with this review. As I said, maybe they will make things more clear as we progress through the season. They have already started to cover past events via dialog, so that is good.
I find Riann Steele the female lead fairly likeable, but so far the male lead Jonathan Tucker has fallen flat with me. I honestly don't recall him from anything so maybe if I had seen him in some of his previous work he would connect more with me.
Part of the issue is the character he is playing. As a former special forces or something like that he obviously has some inner demons. He seems to be a loner and has trouble connecting with others. I honestly feel they might have been better casting someone like James Caviezel in this role. He played the loner very well in Person of Interest for many years.
Hopefully, over time I can grow to like these characters, because so far I am really enjoying the show. You can definitely tell it pulls from a lot of source material that came before it. Hints of X-Files, Fringe, The 4400, and many other shows are very front and center.
I think the fact that they were very up front about the alien spacecraft removes a bit of mystery to the whole premise of the show. It would have been cool if they had slowly built up to that realization.
I also think they are going to have to introduce some new plot points soon before it simply becomes a serial find and neutralize the piece of alien debris concept kind of like Warehouse 13 was in the earlier seasons.
I know it probably sounds like I am being overly critical of the show. I truly do enjoy and it and I will definitely continue to watch it until the cancel it (since that is what happens to most the shows I like).
If you loved Fringe and you are looking for a great new Sci/Fi show to dig into, check out Debris!
