Paoloc

An excellent Sci-Fi series which deserves far better ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. I guess not everyone appreciates quality hard-core sci-fi series but that's their loss not ours as for me this show definitely delivers on every front !

Those people comparing this series to Lost might as well be comparing a soggy sponge to a masterpiece painting ! Every episode of NBiaMM feels like a repeat of the preceding episode, filled with constant bickering, people misreading a situation or person. I mean aside from Zack and Amy I found myself almost wishing for the other characters to die. Its thinly scripted and truly not that engaging a series to watch.

Warning spoiler alert follows... This show is an unreal and inauthentic as it gets ! In order to watch this you need to possess the ability to completely suspend your disbelief ! Normally I can do this but struggled through until the last epsiode of Season 2 before finally conceding defeat after watching Owen: somehow manage to kill 2 russians soldiers on a boat, run across a runway without multiple guards seeing him (inc the 2 guards that he'd just evaded by hiding under a lorry - and who would clearly have seen him as he tried to hide not very stealthily behind another moving lorry as it moved toward a hangar. This was followed by him entering the hangar, disabling another guard, and freeing Jang and his wife followed by all x3 of them somehow managing to exit the hangar in clear view of the FSB agents standing 10ft away (do enemies in these shows not possess peripheral vision !!?) and then watch as Owen managed to get into a vehicle again without being spotted and then somehow manage to drive off and avoid any injury despiten what looked like a hundred soldiers, FSB and the assassin Nichka all firing directly at his vehiclE. I MEAN COME ON! In order for a show like this to work for me their has to be an ounce of credibility at its core. I dont expect a show like to be as authentic and raw as the infinitely superior "The Agency" or even the more popcorn fayre "The Night Agent" (which at least felt more credible). Needless to say I wont be returning for Season 3. When you have a show where the hero is built from teflon (and its not an Avengers movie) it just removes any sense of jeopardy and suspense so you might as well just forward to the ending knowing he will emerge unscathed aside from fake glass in his cheek. Its a real shame that Netflix prefer this dumbed down fodder over more cerebral hardcore but lucklily we still have Apple,Paramount plus Hulu (and Disney) to cater to that need !!!

Overall I enjoyed it a lot. I think if you're looking for a series with complete historical accuracy then you might be better off watching HBO's Rome but if you just want to be entertained whilst getting a taste of what life was like under Roman Rule then I think this ticks all the boxes and is quite immersive. ** Spolier alert ahead ** I thought the casting was very good, with the exception of Moe Hashim as Kwame who I found immensely irritating to the extent that I was really hoping his character would get killed off in the final gladiatorial fight scene with Viggo so that I wouldnt have to listen to anymore of his reedy annoying voice, coupled with his screeching & screams.

It was like watching Part One all over again, made worse by the fact that it reminded you of all of the things (basically everything) that you hated about the first movie. The first half of Part 2 set on Veldt plays out like a weak episode of Vikings minus the jeopardy with people sitting around talking complete mumbo jumbo, none of which is in the least bit engaging, whilst awaiting the arrival of the Dreadnought. It is a mind-crushingly boring rehash of part one which should never have made it off the cutting room floor. Had Zack Snyder gone to the bother of including a half decent script, picked a better cast instead of throwing the proverbial paint tin at the wall in the hope that something might stick (it didn't) then it might have been a better movie but then that would feature a whole different review ! I'm actually surprised it fetched up on Netflix as it really doesnt deserve any airtime.

I absolutely adored this series and for me (a fairly hard-core sci-fi fan) this probably represents one of the finest Sci-fi series I've ever seen (ranking alongside other favourites like Foundation and For all Mankind). Also, despite not being a particle physicist (which according to some reviews you need to be in order to fully comprehend the plot) I found the underlying story comprehensible, engaging and highly entertaining. Looking forward to Season 2 already. p.s I see a lot of 1 star reviews posted on here and can only assume they were written by people who dont actually appreciate hard-core Sci-Fi and/or dont understand the plot therefore resort to being dismissive. If you're a true Sci-Fi fan you WILL enjoy this so ignore the negative posts.