Never read the book but had some friends who did and were excited about these series.
So I watched the show on Netflix and my own impressions were: a) Didn't feel at all like a $20M/episode budget that they spent. Where did the money go?
B) Overall OK and somewhat interesting, mainly due to lack of other new Sci-Fi shows with some level of originality.
C) Lots of plot holes, logical issues, bad science that's basically magic, some facts magically appearing without taking time to solve problems and mysteries, lack of answers to many questions, and other issues that made me assume that the book was quite bad.
D) Too much DEI, with the show not driven by pure talent but by the need to satisfy political requirements.
But then I've decided to watch the Chinese series based on the same book, playing on Amazon Video. And that's when I realized how much better the Chinese version is at only $1M/episode. That one does feel like little lower budget but not big much. And is is very slow-paced at 30 episodes (for Season 1), but it does have much better story with actual mysteries being discovered and then solved, vs magically appearing facts and problems in the American/Netflix version.
Now I've lost all respect for this Netflix show, just by knowing how much better, logical and mysterious it could be. Basically I'm very disappointed with Netflix screwing this show so badly.
So I watched the show on Netflix and my own impressions were: a) Didn't feel at all like a $20M/episode budget that they spent. Where did the money go?
B) Overall OK and somewhat interesting, mainly due to lack of other new Sci-Fi shows with some level of originality.
C) Lots of plot holes, logical issues, bad science that's basically magic, some facts magically appearing without taking time to solve problems and mysteries, lack of answers to many questions, and other issues that made me assume that the book was quite bad.
D) Too much DEI, with the show not driven by pure talent but by the need to satisfy political requirements.
But then I've decided to watch the Chinese series based on the same book, playing on Amazon Video. And that's when I realized how much better the Chinese version is at only $1M/episode. That one does feel like little lower budget but not big much. And is is very slow-paced at 30 episodes (for Season 1), but it does have much better story with actual mysteries being discovered and then solved, vs magically appearing facts and problems in the American/Netflix version.
Now I've lost all respect for this Netflix show, just by knowing how much better, logical and mysterious it could be. Basically I'm very disappointed with Netflix screwing this show so badly.