Reviews

This was a great show for me, very atmospheric, with great music by Max Richter (whom I really admire), until I saw an astronaut "swimming through space". Yes, propelling through the void of space, by making "swimming" moves. It completely devastated any atmosphere of mystery the series was building. So, it is a great show, up until you reach the swimming astronaut. The whole scene felt like at that moment some invisible curtain opened and the clowns flooded the theater. It was like watching something entirely different, to the point of making sure I'm on the right channel.

After a brief search, I see that some people are interpreting this as a dream sequence. That makes sense, the fact that Hinata is swimming is meant to be a clue that this is a dream, in which case negative criticism is not warranted. But there aren't any other indications that this was indeed a dream sequence. I really hope this wasn't Apple's swimming astronaut circus.

I still left my rating at 8, because up to that specific scene the show was amazing, gripping, highly enjoyable.

It's weird, but the author of this story doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the prime directive. Explaining and then giving away technological artifacts? lol

Well, I like science fiction a lot, but unfortunately it's a genre we don't see a lot now days (there is the bright exception of Doctor Who, which only serves to prove the rule it seems). This show, for example, shouldn't be called science fiction. It lacks in both the science and the fiction parts. Perhaps it could be categorized as "action", "adventure" or something like that, where it would fail in place.

I was very eager to watch it, to the point of being willing to forgive all the pilot's shortcomings, until the battle with the alien invaders (at the end of the pilot) begun. I mean, who writes these things? There wasn't anything even remotely plausible in the scenario. A group of highly advanced and sophisticated aliens arrive in a spaceship, to invade the town of "Defiance". It turns out that they are lumbering idiots clad in metal and growling like beasts, firing some slow cannons with firepower and accuracy that would embarrass first world war troops. Reconnaissance, information as a whole probably, are concepts alien to them. They were probably given the spaceships from the gods, as some form of cruel mockery towards existence (viewers included). It was so awful it made me forget of all the good and bad points I wanted to write about, as I was watching the episode. Isn't it an embarrassing disappointment for those who wrote this script? The important part in creating an action film (leaving out the "science fiction" part) or series, is not in the special effects, but in the making of an -even remotely so- plausible story, otherwise any chance to bond, to identify with the heroes, is lost. The battle scene reminded me of '90s cartoons I'd avoid on TV.

Leaving out this embarrassing finale, which made me subtract five points from the vote, moving the result from the starting point of 6 to 1, I give it a 3 because of the cool opening sequence (with the memories of the initial invasion) and some decently made and played characters. Nothing original there, but certainly professionally drafted and acted. The episode starts well, and keeps you going, with diminishing interest, until the aliens and the bike raiders arrive.

Generally speaking, science fiction is all about ideas, about "what if" scenarios, where ideas are juxtaposed, the consistency of possible futures is evaluated, and concepts are clarified and visualized in their extremes, as we are not restrained by any conventional boundary in the creation of our imaginary world, except perhaps its self-consistency. In film and TV some of these elements have to survive, in order to be able to place the work in the scifi genre, even if diminished in their plot importance. You won't find any of them in here.

Maybe I'm biased because of the disappointment I went through in the finale of the pilot...If anyone would like to point out to me some good aspects I missed, please do so.