Binged this over the weekend. I never read the books so went in completely cold and without pre-expectations. It’s a very intriguing and interesting story that leans more into hard science—something we don’t get a lot of these days.
I didn’t know that this would be a “Season 1” primarily based on Book 1 of the trilogy until I realized around episode 5 that the pacing and character development didn’t seem to be on track to tell an entire story in 8 episodes. Again I didn’t know the source material, but the setup is huge and the table stakes were still being put in place. That’s when I checked and confirmed it was indeed S1, which actually took pressure off the viewing experience. That said, it does create two concerns.
#1: Benioff and Weiss: I will never forgive them for crash landing GOT after season 5. However, i figure they’ve paid their penance so am willing to give them a second shot. The books are complete so they won’t be making up a new story, and after watching the “making of” vignettes I think a lot of the changes they and the show runner made to the adaptation have been good choices both for storytelling and to appeal to a broader audience.
#2: Netflix: They are notorious for pulling the plug on series after a season or two. I’ve been burned by that once before. I haven’t checked, but this is one of those deals that should have been a 3-season guarantee.
Pros:
High Stakes: global level storytelling, balanced with personal characters
Science: leans into much more realistic hard science. Sure they’re making up things and pushing a lot into theoretical science, but that also works with the sense of desperation.
Very good cast: especially Liam Cunningham and Benedict Wong. Also cool to see Rosalind Chao from Star Trek TNG/DS9 who did a nice job.
Terrific set pieces: including one of the most imaginative sequences I’ve ever seen done for a show or movie
Production Design: Overall good
Cons:
Pacing: meanders from time to time.
Script: a bit uneven. Some parts needed tightening for clarity or character development. Some parts needed more time to breathe, expand ideas, or connect to the overall story.
EFX: a bit of a mixed bag. Most effects were pretty seamless, and there was quite a bit of practical. However, some scenes looked very green screen and one fully CGI character looked very outdated. Not enough to take me out of the story however.
Props: the design of the main prop (as seen in the trailers) just comes across as somewhat cheap and underwhelming. However, it’s a pretty tough challenge and I’m sure they experimented with a ton of designs before landing where they did.
Scale: while the scale of the story is definitely global, some of the sets and locations felt small. One would expect to have a huge teams and multiple international agencies working on this initiative. Maybe that will be expanded upon in future seasons.
S1 Overall Score: 7.75/10
Hopefully this will get S2/S3 if not contractually guaranteed. I am planning to read the books regardless. I also know there’s a Chinese adaptation from Tencent that was done a few years ago, so I may check that out as well.