Colony: 2016 TV Series

Anyone other than me watching this one?


Man, I slept on this show! I mean - what girl DOESNT like looking at Josh Holloway (and he's had several false starts in TV since Lost), and I can bear Sarah Wayne Callies (mostly), but for some reason I had this sense that this show would be WAY to preachy or message-y, so I took a pass on Season 1. Plus, I couldnt bear the thought of watching Josh Holloway be a sellout, whatever the reason.

And then I got bored at the end of last year and took the plunge. Not disappointed. At all. They have quite a few different story angles going on, but they never get too grandiose that they lose the strands. Visually stunning videography, beautiful people to look at - what's not to like? Oh, right. The story! Actually, the only character we found slightly unbelievable was Sarah Wayne Callies' character. Parents will take/do a lot for their children - even unthinkable things. I think that is the entire point of Josh's character. So we found it hard to believe that a mother would be so indifferent to how her actions could affect, even endanger her young children. Id go so far as to say she was written almost as a single woman, in a "mom" character script. Not sure WHO wrote her character.

But that aside - it wasnt SO unbelievable as to be unwatchable. And the characters after Season 1 are so interesting. I dont know how I ended up liking Proxy Snyder who was ousted for a far more sinister person --- and I still have yet to figure out whether Katie Bowman's sister has any point at all -- I mean, other than to suffer a loss of personal dignity, repeatedly.

I will say this, having not yet started Season 2 - I found the Season 1 Resistance hard to figure out. They are soft. No, they are hard. No, they are soft. Maybe its just Katie Bowman that is conflicted on her allegiance - or her commitment to the "fight."

And maybe that's the point of the show - to reflect that there are no easy black and white answers, or clear cut distinctions when it comes to survival. So far they have done a great job of humanizing the differing sides of the conflict, or of the humans in the conflict - when all humans are the losers in the end. It begs the question: how can you be on the side of the force that is against us all?

And the writers proffer an answer.

Maybe survival is betrayal sometimes.

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something witty goes here......

I have to say, as of E4, Im really starting to lose my ability to choose a side in this one. I truly did not like the Govenor General woman, but watching her deal with the summit attempting to destroy the LA bloc really showed how she was between a rock and a hard place. Its hard - these people on the one hand are trying to save a common way of life, but are making huge compromises and taking great losses to do so. For the revolutionaries - their bottom line is so much more clear: they want it back the way it was. For the current human establishment: they want life as they know it to continue - at all. Such a thin line to walk. You know you want to destroy and eject the overwhelming force that has taken over your land (revolutionaries), but you have to be alive to do so (human govt). As off-putting as the character the GG actor plays is (all her characters are off-putting to me), she always manages to expertly convey the knife's edge of the high-stakes gambling she plays at. Well. Its only hundreds of thousands of lives at stake.

Beyond that - I have to give Josh Holloway his acting chops. He is really working this material - his character agonizes of every choice, every loss - and the shock he displays doesnt register as "an actor displaying shock at an appropriate time," but as a person who is being constantly hit with a one-two punch and trying to survive it with his family intact.

Also - Sarah Wayne Callies is starting to warm to the role - I think the chemistry is really starting to gel. I like her better here than in TWD or Prison Break.