Steve Hirjak

So many missed opportunities. The main storylines are drawn out too long and too predictable at that. Interesting beginning, then ruined with the ongoing cliches of only-one-person-knows-everything while the world does crazy, stupid things around them. The predictable conflict of the terrorists trying to get revenge on the evil empire to their own detriment, but in a way that is justified from their point of view. The ongoing battle of the two female warriors that somehow escape everything and do everything right to perpetuate a stupid conflict in the first place. The most compelling storyline is of the clone emperors and the weird predicament that they find themselves in, but even that is ruined and destroyed in the season finale. Storyline inconsistencies of all of the lead players are akin to the horror movie victim that inexplicably hides in a closet instead of fleeing the house...only, after every suspenseful moment, we learn that the person hiding in the closet is so brilliant and/or psychic that they were the only one doing the right thing the whole time. Fairly hack with a really high budget. Good performances by Lee Pace as the emperor and Lou Lobell as Gael Dornick, but she's hardly in it except as a tease that, at some unknown point, she will have a storyline (teased for season 2 in the finale). I was going to give up around episode 3 but the emperor storyline was very compelling until they ruined it in the final episode. Hope I save you some regret for having invested up to episode 10.

This definitely feels like television writers. Hack. So many cliches. Character development? What’s to develop? Every cliche in the book is thrown in here. Will the bully ever get his come-uppance? Who cares? I’ve seen this bully nonsense over and over. It was obnoxious twenty TV shows ago and is just as obnoxious here. The wife that is smarter than everyone we’ve ever met who has a weasel for a husband but holds the family together because she is the strongest, smartest, and wiliest person we’ve ever seen. The girl hacker that is smarter than everyone else, but unfortunately, has bosses holding her back…did I mention she’s a rebel and the only person that keeps the entire space program running single-handedly? The strong, cute girl that protects AND falls for the nerd for no discernible reason in their budding teen romance? (except the absurdity of the little furtive looks and touches when they are literally in a crowd of other kids trying to stay alive! Oooh. We accidentally brushed hands!) The apocalypse crowd fighting for gas and food (but before we know there’s a threat?)? The chosen one that can probably communicate with the aliens or the other cliche, or maybe has some special dna that must be studied to protect us all? There’s even the Army Sarge that is the only thing holding his unit together and that is the father/big brother figure from war movies of old. Here’s an idea: have a storyline first, then develop the characters along the way, like just about every decent story. I give it more than one star for decent production and acting, but what’s the point if there isn’t a story and the characters we’re developing have all been shown in other movies before? If the apocalypse is the McGuffin to highlight good writing and acting, perhaps they should have good writing. The Walking Dead started with a character we didn’t know waking to an apocalypse…it set up the ground rules for the dangers that would create the complicated human dynamic…THEN it developed the characters (before that series went too long and turned into garbage). This one expects us to enjoy watching lengthy cliches that are supposed to be protagonists before we have any reason to care about them. In fact, their cliched introductions make us dislike them to start. The only interesting storyline is the Sarge in Afghanistan, and even that is a cliche, learning that the Bedouin man is just like him after all. If you are one of those people that like to watch movies about married people who bicker just before a divorce, you may like this as that seems to be the main story arc. The other parts are short enough to ignore. Wasted 3 hours so far and will just skip until the end of the series, read the spoilers to see if there was ever a story, then decide.