TV Show Reviews

Dark Matter Season 3 (2015-2017)

Dark Matter Season 3 (2015-2017)

Network:

SyFy

Starring:

Melissa O’Neil

Anthony Lemke

Alex Mallari Jr.

Plot:

In the dystopian 27th century, six people wake up on a deserted spaceship with no memory of who they are or what they’re doing there. They reluctantly team up and set off to find answers with the help of a female android.

Review:

Why do I even let myself get invested in shows these days? Nothing seems to ever get closure. Everything ends on a cliffhanger and worlds are always hanging in the balance.

I really liked Dark Matter, the crew was interesting, just the right amount of good vs bad. The tech was fun. The world was ruled by evil corporations. There was time travel and alternate dimesions. Seriously, the show had everything I loved and I really enjoyed it.

Kiss of death apparently.

Even though the third season ended on a cliffhanger it had one of my favorite episodes. They travel back in time and get to integrate into our society for an episode. It was fun.

There are a ton of unanswered questions, but even knowing it has been canceled I’ll probably go back and re-watch it because I enjoy it that much. Maybe one day I’ll learn my lesson and just stop watching TV all together.

4/5

 

The Good Place Season One (2016-?)

The Good Place Season One (2016-?)

Network:

NBC

Starring:

Kristen Bell

William Jackson Harper

Jameela Jamil

Ted Danson

Plot:

A woman struggles to define what it means to be good.

Review:

Alright, so when this aired last year I wasn’t really interested in it. However, once the finale aired and I discovered what was going on it intrigued me and I figured why not. It’s currently on Netflix so it was a real quick binge and I ended up really enjoying it. I’m actually going to watch the second season as it airs on hulu.

Kristen Bell is hilarious and I’ve loved Ted Danson since Cheers, the actors I’m not familiar with were all great as well. Seeing Eleanor, Kristen Bell, someone who isn’t murderer bad, but who isn’t a good person try and become one is amusing. Even though she’s not someone the viewer would like based on flashbacks you start to root for her and she grows as a person.

Overall, liked the show and looking forward to the new season.

4/5

Star Trek: Discovery (2017-?)

Star Trek: Discovery (2017-?)

Network:

CBS

Starring:

Jason Isaacs

Sonequa Martin-Green

Doug Jones

Plot:

Ten years before Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien.

Review:

I really like Star Trek, specifically Star Trek: The Next Generation. Currently, I’m in the middle of a re-watch with a bunch of friends so it’s also fresh in my mind. Big reveal, I’ve never watched Star Trek: The Original Series. I’ve seen episodes and what I’ve seen has not been my cup of Earl Grey tea. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I am not a fan of prequels. The fact that this show happens before TOS is not a bonus to me.

I went in with very low expectations. The trailers did nothing for me, the articles I read about the story did nothing either. All they showed me was that this was not going to be the diplomatic, thinking Star Trek with hope that I love so much.

First, the positives. I liked the interior design of the ship. It was interesting and looked different from the other ships, but still modern. I liked the little rivalry between the first officer and the science officer. I liked the different species, though I didn’t know what any of them were. I also really liked that the captain and first officer were women, even though I’m pretty sure TOS had an entire episode about how that wasn’t possible.

As far as positives go, that’s it. There was so much changed and I felt like there was very little respect for the source material. I get wanting to do your own spin to things, but when you’re dealing with something that’s got so much lore and cannon material already you can’t just reboot and expect people to fall in line.

They completely changed the design of Klingons, fine, they looked too much like Lord of the Rings orcs for my taste but whatever. However, why did they have to go and change the bat’leth? Why did they have to completely focus on one side of the Klingons and forget all the development that was done on their species? Yes they’re a warrior race, but they also have traditions and honor and diplomacy. It also felt like Klingon sounded different and I wondered if they had someone who spoke it on staff, but I could be wrong on that front.

I disliked the fact that the captain of the ship loses control on the first episode, that the first officer, who was raised by Vulcans, loses her emotional shit on the first episode as well. There was hardly any introduction to characters and you were just thrown into action. Where is the camaraderie? Where is the competence? I have no faith in this crew at all.

The first episode ended on a cliff hanger because CBS wants you to subscribe to their All Access streaming service, however they’re not uploading all episodes at once they’re releasing them weekly. My original plan was to wait until either the midway point or the end of the season to subscribe and binge, but the more I think about the episode the more I disliked it so I’m not sure what I’ll do.

I want more Star Trek, but I want the Star Trek I love. I’m tired of the grim dark, hopeless, action packed Star Trek. That’s fine for a Sci-Fi action series, just not Trek, not my Trek at least.

2/5

The Orville (2017-?)

The Orville (2017-?)

Network:

Fox

Starring:

Seth MacFarlane

Adrianne Palicki

Penny Johnson Jerald

Plot:

Follows the crew of the not-so-functional exploratory ship in the Earth’s interstellar fleet, 400 years in the future.

Review:

I honestly have nothing to add to the hundreds of reviews that are already out there for this pilot. It was like a Star Trek work drama with comedy thrown in. If it had stuck to one thing, drama or comedy, it might not have been that bad, but just when it would start to be alright as a drama it would throw in crude humor. It was unbalanced and if the goal was for a dramedy it failed.

I didn’t like the pilot much, but I like the concept enough that I’ll give it a couple more episodes.

2/5

The Defenders (2017-?)

The Defenders (2017-?)

Network:

Netflix

Starring:

Charlie Cox

Krysten Ritter

Mike Colter

Plot:

Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist team up to fight crime in New York City.

Review:

I was excited for this to come out, even after the horrible Iron Fist that I was unable to complete. If I had known just how much of the plot revolved around Danny I would have tempered my expectations. Instead I spent most of the series rolling my eyes, ignoring large portions, and wishing someone would just kill him already.

What I noticed first was the different filters for each character. It was at best distracting and worse down right annoying. I’m not sure who thought that was necessary but I thought it was stupid.

By far the best part of the series was Jessica Jones, they did not deserve her. Her character was funny and I enjoyed it every time she was on the screen and allowed to talk. I feel like her part was the smallest but I’m not positive about that and would like to see a breakdown of the amount of time each character had on screen.

I enjoyed Luke Cage and Daredevil to a lesser extent, and again absolutely hated Danny. I’m not really looking forward to The Punisher and after this I’m concerned that they’ll find a way to screw up the second season of Jessica Jones. Time will tell, but once I watch Wet Hot American summer with my husband we’ll probably be canceling Netflix again.

The only reason I’m not giving this a one star is because there were more than a few instances of everyone treating Danny like an idiot and I appreciated that.

2/5