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Reviews
Oasis (2017)
ZZZzzz...
This is as dull and predictable as it gets. We've seen it all before, as others have pointed out, from the old Forbidden Planet movie to Solaris, all of which were far more entertaining than this pilot. I've long ceased to concern myself too much with the hard science or technological details involved in space travel, but frankly, here they felt sorely lacking, giving the impression of lazy storytelling. And didn't like it that there is no backstory whatsoever as to how this planet came to be and why it matters.
The priest in space idea while not terribly original still has potential, although judging from this pilot it's hard to see how relevant the Madden character will turn out to be to the colony. His introductory speech, though, seemed one of the high points in a script otherwise dominated by flat and uninteresting dialogue.
Plot holes are many, but what bothered me was when the station chief asks where the priest is. Don't they all have trackers?
Did not find this compelling, probably won't be watching this series. The colonists are having trouble sleeping? Make them watch the pilot...
Frontier (2016)
Unintentionally funny
I knew something wasn't right the moment Lord Whatsisname, while bragging about how he knew the fine art of torturing people by cutting off their parts but keeping them alive, cuts his own hand really badly while eating his lunch(!!) Heck, I don't know the first thing about cutting up prisoners, but that sort of thing's never happened to me. Involuntary humor if you ask me...
Then there's the pacing. He hires the kid to look for Big Bad Momoa Guy in the forest, for which he would need an experienced guide, etc etc. But barely has the kid entered what seemed like a couple hundred yards into the woods, and he stumbles right into Momoa's people(!) who take him straight to their boss. Wow, now THAT'S what I call a really tough mission! Not to mention the months-long sea journey said kid spent hiding below decks, which barely seemed to ruffle his clothes.
Can't say I expected much from this series, but judging from the first episode, it doesn't seem worth my time.
Aftermath (2016)
Disastrous
This one's like a lesson in How-To-Make-A-Lousy-Series-Pilot. There's just nothing worth saving in this awful mess, not one single(to me) reason to keep watching it. Plot? didn't glimpse one; it's all just a series of crazy violence scenes, one after another, with the characters reacting(stupidy) to the events. Nothing makes any sense, there's no buildup, nothing that really justifies what's going on, hardly any characterization apart from a couple of bickering twin sisters. We don't get to know anything about the apparent protagonist family, what they do, who they are, nothing. It all happens really fast, like the huge storm that appears literally out of nowhere(and despite being called "the largest storm ever", barely litters the family house garden with some trash and odd car parts
), or the guy who sits to have lunch and suddenly turns into some demonic zombie. The writing is like something out of a cheap comic book. Compared to this nonsense, Fear The Walking Dead is practically Shakespeare! I honestly don't understand what goes on in the minds of the people who invest money to produce this kind of worthless garbage...