I recently binged it. I liked some parts of it and really disliked other parts. I give it a simultaneous one thumbs up and one thumb down. I liked how the show explores the moral side of the...
I recently binged it. I liked some parts of it and really disliked other parts. I give it a simultaneous one thumbs up and one thumb down.
I liked how the show explores the moral side of the UNSC's actions as it's forced to desperate measures to fight the Covenant and interrogates how far humans are willing to "rebalance" their ethics in face of overwhelming danger.
But I disliked the bias of the show in tipping that balance heavily in favor of the "we should stick by our ethics no matter what" side by totally demonizing Dr. Catherine Halsey and elevating the Miranda Keyes who never gets to see the consequences of her moral idealism. In the Halo canon, the Spartan supersoldiers are literally the only effective weapons humanity has against an alien alliance that will exterminate billions upon billions upon billions of humans across many worlds without hesitation. But Dr. Halsey is the woman with a plan; everyone else in the UNSC is clueless and too busy playing corporate politics and caught up with their own career progressions.
I liked how the Spartans come to question their roles, humanity, and personal identity as military equipment.
I really dislike some of the characters. Miranda Keyes and Kwan Ha act like juveniles with respective mommy and daddy issues. Contrast this to Dune's characters who were very competent and cognizant about their roles in a grand military-political struggle — and acted like it by being serious, careful, and deliberate about their actions and expressions. Miranda and Kwan were in an inter-species war — but emotionally still in high school. After the first few episodes, I would just entirely skip any scene of Kwan because I already 100% know what it'd be about: her unsuccessful crying and screaming about her father, the resistance, and how the people of Madrigal would totes rise up against the UNSC while... totally ignoring an otherwise-totally-world-shattering revelation of advanced genocidal aliens.
Also, Madrigal and Rubble look more like Burning Man parties than real oppressed settlements.
Same thing goes with John 1-1-7 and...
Spoilers
his sudden romantic relationship with Makee. John is supposed to be serious, skeptical, and determined. Yet he's portrayed as a teenage boy giddy about his first crush because he's found someone who also had a tough childhood while letting his guard down on a hunch around her even though she's extremely likely a Covenant asset.
Because logically why would the Covenant keep a human prisoner, feed and clothe and educate her well, and then give her up right after a battle? And who admits that she's super super special because she's one of the extremely few who can activate the Forerunner artifacts that the Covenant dedicates itself to finding?
My eyes nearly rolled out of my skull. You could fly High Charity through a plot hole that big.
I think your assessment closely mirrors my feelings on the show. Overall, I enjoyed a story in the Halo universe that I didn't know where it was going, but some of the stuff really did not work,...
I think your assessment closely mirrors my feelings on the show. Overall, I enjoyed a story in the Halo universe that I didn't know where it was going, but some of the stuff really did not work, notably most of Kwan and the later Makee stuff. The battle scenes were awesome (if not cheesy). Several parts of the show felt like contrived high school level drama.
Anyone who has played the games or had any passing interest in the universe knows the Covenant was in the finals steps of exterminating the human race, but I am not sure that is really the case of the Covenant in the show. We don't see them glassing worlds or exterminating human colonies. The UNSC doesn't seem to be preoccupied with defending humanity at every step. If anything there seems to be a weird stalemate war where the Covenant mostly ignores humanity but makes military incursions from time to time (abducting Makee as a child, strike on Madrigal, etc) for advance their own goals. The whole situation is kind of confusing. The lack of this agency on the UNSC/humanity makes the actions of Halsey lose their moral trade-offs from the game/book universe.
Ultimately a very mixed bag. It certainly has many cool moments and they spent a lot of money on the series ($200 million for 9 episodes, for reference Game of Thrones averaged 10 million an episode). Functional warthogs? Amazing! The prop department hit it out of the park. The show struggled with what it wanted to be. The finale was better, and I hope they take what worked and was well received from the first season to make a better second season.
While I wouldn't necessarily fully agree with the author's opinion (there's some things I think could have been handled better in the show), I think that there's been a lot of negativity around it...
While I wouldn't necessarily fully agree with the author's opinion (there's some things I think could have been handled better in the show), I think that there's been a lot of negativity around it for negativity's sake. Personally, I enjoyed it and found it action packed, with awesome music and some emotional moments.
Full alert: I haven't seen the show yet. Hot take: I'm excited to check it out. I actually think the Halo franchise has done a pretty good job thus far with having shows stay true to the source...
Full alert: I haven't seen the show yet.
Hot take: I'm excited to check it out. I actually think the Halo franchise has done a pretty good job thus far with having shows stay true to the source material. I really enjoyed the Halo 4: Forward onto Dawn mini series that came out back in 2012 and from the trailers I've seen of this it looks pretty great. I kind of wish they had stuck to the Forward onto Dawn route based around a group that exists in the Halo world but has almost no interaction with master chief.
That said, for those who haven't read the short MSN article posted there is a non-spoiler spoiler in it so heads up.
Nah... Arcane is the gold standard.
I recently binged it. I liked some parts of it and really disliked other parts. I give it a simultaneous one thumbs up and one thumb down.
I liked how the show explores the moral side of the UNSC's actions as it's forced to desperate measures to fight the Covenant and interrogates how far humans are willing to "rebalance" their ethics in face of overwhelming danger.
But I disliked the bias of the show in tipping that balance heavily in favor of the "we should stick by our ethics no matter what" side by totally demonizing Dr. Catherine Halsey and elevating the Miranda Keyes who never gets to see the consequences of her moral idealism. In the Halo canon, the Spartan supersoldiers are literally the only effective weapons humanity has against an alien alliance that will exterminate billions upon billions upon billions of humans across many worlds without hesitation. But Dr. Halsey is the woman with a plan; everyone else in the UNSC is clueless and too busy playing corporate politics and caught up with their own career progressions.
I liked how the Spartans come to question their roles, humanity, and personal identity as military equipment.
I really dislike some of the characters. Miranda Keyes and Kwan Ha act like juveniles with respective mommy and daddy issues. Contrast this to Dune's characters who were very competent and cognizant about their roles in a grand military-political struggle — and acted like it by being serious, careful, and deliberate about their actions and expressions. Miranda and Kwan were in an inter-species war — but emotionally still in high school. After the first few episodes, I would just entirely skip any scene of Kwan because I already 100% know what it'd be about: her unsuccessful crying and screaming about her father, the resistance, and how the people of Madrigal would totes rise up against the UNSC while... totally ignoring an otherwise-totally-world-shattering revelation of advanced genocidal aliens.
Also, Madrigal and Rubble look more like Burning Man parties than real oppressed settlements.
Same thing goes with John 1-1-7 and...
Spoilers
his sudden romantic relationship with Makee. John is supposed to be serious, skeptical, and determined. Yet he's portrayed as a teenage boy giddy about his first crush because he's found someone who also had a tough childhood while letting his guard down on a hunch around her even though she's extremely likely a Covenant asset.Because logically why would the Covenant keep a human prisoner, feed and clothe and educate her well, and then give her up right after a battle? And who admits that she's super super special because she's one of the extremely few who can activate the Forerunner artifacts that the Covenant dedicates itself to finding?
My eyes nearly rolled out of my skull. You could fly High Charity through a plot hole that big.
I think your assessment closely mirrors my feelings on the show. Overall, I enjoyed a story in the Halo universe that I didn't know where it was going, but some of the stuff really did not work, notably most of Kwan and the later Makee stuff. The battle scenes were awesome (if not cheesy). Several parts of the show felt like contrived high school level drama.
Anyone who has played the games or had any passing interest in the universe knows the Covenant was in the finals steps of exterminating the human race, but I am not sure that is really the case of the Covenant in the show. We don't see them glassing worlds or exterminating human colonies. The UNSC doesn't seem to be preoccupied with defending humanity at every step. If anything there seems to be a weird stalemate war where the Covenant mostly ignores humanity but makes military incursions from time to time (abducting Makee as a child, strike on Madrigal, etc) for advance their own goals. The whole situation is kind of confusing. The lack of this agency on the UNSC/humanity makes the actions of Halsey lose their moral trade-offs from the game/book universe.
Ultimately a very mixed bag. It certainly has many cool moments and they spent a lot of money on the series ($200 million for 9 episodes, for reference Game of Thrones averaged 10 million an episode). Functional warthogs? Amazing! The prop department hit it out of the park. The show struggled with what it wanted to be. The finale was better, and I hope they take what worked and was well received from the first season to make a better second season.
While I wouldn't necessarily fully agree with the author's opinion (there's some things I think could have been handled better in the show), I think that there's been a lot of negativity around it for negativity's sake. Personally, I enjoyed it and found it action packed, with awesome music and some emotional moments.
The show has its problems, but it has been way better than a lot of the online discourse led me to believe it would be.
Full alert: I haven't seen the show yet.
Hot take: I'm excited to check it out. I actually think the Halo franchise has done a pretty good job thus far with having shows stay true to the source material. I really enjoyed the Halo 4: Forward onto Dawn mini series that came out back in 2012 and from the trailers I've seen of this it looks pretty great. I kind of wish they had stuck to the Forward onto Dawn route based around a group that exists in the Halo world but has almost no interaction with master chief.
That said, for those who haven't read the short MSN article posted there is a non-spoiler spoiler in it so heads up.