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...so I've been off imdb boards for a very long time (returning May 2016), not sure why I came back. The message board software sucks and the boards are full of trolls. I have over 1,000 usernames on the ignore list, so can always add more if necessary. The one thing I like about these boards is that, after filtering past the junk posts and dealing with a horrible forum web app, there are some cool people and enjoyable discussion threads. So, I guess I'm back.
I still haven't updated the bio below this, the links below have long since been broken. Oh well.
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[pre]"It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof." - Jane Austen[/pre]
Stargate Viewing Order:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286039/board/flat/148390851
Themes & Arcs of Stargate SG-1:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286039/board/flat/149895933
Stargate Timeline and Brief History, Condensed:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286039/board/flat/148871696
Summaries of seasons 8, 9, and 10 of Stargate SG-1:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118480/board/flat/168810685
Feel free to reply to any and all of the threads linked above, the bump will make the info more readily available for anyone else who might be interested in checking them out.
Reviews
Saving Hope (2012)
5% fascinating, 95% fluff
5% fascinating, 95% fluff.
That is Saving Hope as it currently stands.
It will require breaking in a lot of innovative storytelling if the show is ever going to deserve more than a 5%.
One exciting aspect of this show is that it uses a surgeon and a hospital setting to explore a mysterious presence between life and death alongside his ability to function as a medium between the living and the minds of spirit-like people with out of body experiences, all the while "TBD" is stamped on their bodies, waiting to see if they will live or die.
Unfortunately, that is the only exciting component to this show.
The rest of the show is so unoriginal and so weakly handled that it ruins the entire series.
The show would do much better if the writers & producers would shift the 5% fascinating story and 95% fluff-filled story at least to a 50% mystical and 50% medical type story. Better yet, cut the 50% medical down even more and introduce outside elements.
New settings. Leave the hospital, even if just for part of the series. Introduce something else, someone else.
Greater plot developments on the mysterious ability to interact with spirits.
A third concept. It needs at least a third concept that is as equally significant to the show as the mystical and medical.
It needs more good storytelling and less blasé storytelling.
Not just the redundant, predictable layers of excrement that the show is producing from the medical drama side of the story but more of a mix with the one truly interesting component that gives it a heartbeat.
Bring in the government. Something else.
Mix it up a bit.
It needs to branch out beyond the confined walls of a mystic in a hospital.
As it stands, the vast majority of this show is so flat, so bland that the small amount of flavoring that they add to it just isn't enough. It's like eating cardboard with a dash of seasoning.
I have attempted to stick with this show but if they don't give us the full course meal and live up to the shows potential, it will be useless to even bother keeping up with it.
Let the mindless flocks of medical drama fans glue their eyes to the screen. Aside from the Shanks and Durance fans, they're probably the only other viewers that are keeping this show alive.
Banshee (2013)
Fairly strong start but with tendencies toward the cliché
Banshee shows promise, it can be an overall entertaining show - perhaps a bit shallow on the end of character and plot - but the question of the extent with which it holds up to its middle class standards remains to be seen. The general presentation of the pilot episode, as it progressed from beginning to end, came off as a bit more of a digression in quality as it started leaning toward what might end up becoming another cliché police procedural. Simply adding the twist of a criminal filling in as sheriff does not break the show of that mold. The show is going to have to take great risks if it is going to stand apart from the rest. Banshee starts off with a bone-breaking impact but, by the end of the pilot, it has fallen into the realm of redundancies. Watch the first few episodes but if it fails to maintain any quality or make any improvements, then it won't be worth watching any further.
Primeval: New World (2012)
The Dinosaur and the Elephant
Both shows, Primeval (2007) and Primeval: New World (2012), primarily revolve around the premise of detecting holes in the universe followed by finding prehistoric dinosaurs that pop out of those holes, capturing them, and sending them back through to the other side. The 2007 series eventually introduced creatures from the future. It is logical to assume that the 2012 series will do the same. However, the penultimate discovery in the original series was the ability to maintain some degree of control over the anomalies, such as predicting and locking them. That showed promise, from which could have arisen a unique blend of elements from the past and future while mostly taking place in the present. Yet, they failed to find that balance and instead chose to reveal that, ultimately, the workings of a psychotic lady managed to influence a billionaire into creating a failed energy producing experiment that would ruin the Earth's atmosphere and ozone layers, thus resulting in an End of Days scenario. In other words, that show was doomed from the moment they introduced Doom's Day. The 2012 series will follow in the same footsteps if they take a similar route.
The 2007 series failed to realize the full potential of what made up half of the premise of the show: science fiction. The title in itself, Primeval, emphasizes the significance of the other half of the show: monster thriller. The moment the show creators decided to introduce the subject of time travel into the mix, and with an extreme science fiction flavor, while relying too much on the dinosaur component with mostly asinine uses of characters, is the moment that we found a very large elephant in the room. We only received half of a story. Dinosaurs running a muck in present day? Sure, that works. Ignoring the catalyst with which that is even possible? No. While they obviously didn't entirely ignore the catalyst - the anomalies - they never fully explored that component of the show and, thus, led themselves into a dead end.
The 2012 series has the monster thriller component with the potential of a fully realized science fiction component. However, it is mimicking one of the weaker points of the original series: the asinine uses of characters. While both shows incorporate the characters' usefulness to somewhat of an effective degree, only the new series has potential of steering clear of the abysmal mistakes of the original. Both shows manage to make do with the characters that they have, yet the original also failed to introduce new characters with different back-stories that could've provided great momentum for the series. It's not too late for the new series to do that. Likewise, it's not too late for the new series to fully realize the science fiction component. However, if they continue to rely too heavily on asinine uses of characters, then they will only end up with a disappointment on par with the original series.
If the writers and producers of the new series put any effort into avoiding the mistakes made in the original series, then they will remind themselves of the very title of the new show. Primeval: New World. The monster thriller is in the Primeval. The science fiction is in the New World. If they incorporate a balance of both components, then the show could be a success.
Continuum (2012)
Additional science fiction elements will be needed.
Additional science fiction elements will be needed to improve the likelihood of "Continuum" being renewed for many seasons. I can see it getting a couple or few seasons but, unless they take things up a notch, they are going to eventually hit a dead end.
I believe it's a good show, and it's off to a solid start, though, if the show sticks with the current formula and limits itself to the sci-fi elements that are presently in the series, then it will be almost as if one could say that they traveled to the future and back again and could tell the rest of us the fate of the show: that, despite the great potential, it didn't last.
America's longest running science fiction series of all time is Stargate SG-1, and one of the primary science fiction components of that show was the stargate itself, a device that, initially, transports people (and things/matter) from one point in space to many light years away to another point in space.
At some point, later, they incorporated time travel into the stargate, which was explained as using a solar flare from a star that interfered with the wormhole. Another very "science-fictiony" element was the use of aliens. Although they had a number of planets that consisted of humans (which were basically "planted" there many years ago) the SG teams at the Stargate Command still encountered nonhuman aliens. A number of other sci-fi elements were also used in the show.
While it is impossible to tell exactly what specific aspects of SG1 contributed the most toward the show lasting so long, there were also a number of other aspects to the show that led to it being repeatedly renewed, from the characters and their developments/character arcs, to the various settings, the multiple story arcs, themes, and how all of those components were wonderfully interwoven together fitting within one universe.
Being a science fiction series, there was a lot of sci-fi type content, which could possibly have been one of the more dominating components to the show that contributed toward it lasting 10 years plus 2 movies.
Continuum, the TV series, has some sci-fi elements, including the technology and people from the future, along with any remnants of the future that find their way to the present. Though, at the core, time travel is (obviously) the one primary science fiction element to this show.
It is fitting, too, considering the title "Continuum" in itself is a truncated form of "space-time continuum".
Similarly, for SG1, it was fitting considering the title "Stargate SG-1" was in itself the primary 2 focus points of the show: the stargates and the SG-1 team.
However, SG1 continued to expand upon its original premise.
If Continuum - the series, of course not to be confused with the movie "Stargate: Continuum" - if the series is to last a number of seasons, then it will need to expand not only on the other aspects of the show but also the science fiction elements.
Until then, like the title, which is a shortened form of space-time continuum, the series itself might end up becoming a shortened form of how long it could end up airing.