Emilespartan 5

I’ve been a huge fan of the halo universe for about 14 years now. I’ve played every game and read several books. While the series starts strong it really doesn’t stick the landing when it comes to the rest of the story and characters. The first episode starts with a great action sequence and while it had some minor flaws, it was very enjoyable and I looked forward to the next episodes. I was also ok with them removing master chiefs helmet at first. Yes it could have waited until later to show such a pivotal moment but it was acceptable. The show really lost me during episode 2. Master chief continues to walk around without his helmet which was bothersome, especially because he is in an area with lots of potential dangers. It makes him look stupid. It just gets worse when he meets up with his old friend from the Spartan 2 program and decides to have dinner with him and his family. Never thought I’d see master chief eating dinner with a normal family but sure, whatever, I was still ok with the show. The end of episode 2 was where things just get even worse. Master chief finds out that the halo rings are a weapon from some crazy man in a cage. Not only that, but he loses his temper and throws this civilian against a wall yelling at him. This is where I really started to see how poor this adaptation is and how distant it is from the halo IP. Master chief is always shown to be a calm under pressure character. He is a soldier after all and he even has implants to suppress emotions. These implants are removed later but still have an effect on him in this scene. It made zero sense and was a fairly pointless scene as it has little effect on the next two episodes. It does not get better in episodes 3 and 4. No action, and the character development that is shown in place of that action is boring and ruins certain characters. Take cortina for example. In the tv series she is meant to be a baby sitter for John. She is constantly snitching to Halsey about what John is doing and really feels like she is against him. This is the complete opposite of the games where cortana and master chief are partners that continue to grow closer over the course of 6 games. Frankly she is annoying and even Jen Taylor’s great voice acting is not enough to save that character. The best way to describe this show is that it is a generic sci fi tv show at best, and it barely resembles the halo universe. Slap a different name on it and it is a decent show, but for what it is claiming to be (a halo tv series) it fails.