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Help me understand.
So the main plotlines of the show are:
Notice how few "will they's" there are and how many "who", "what", and "why's" there are? Stories only work if you care about what's happening, and 99% of what this show is about is confusion. All of the why's/what's turned out to be pretty interesting, but telling me that all of these things/people matter but holding off on letting the audience know why they matter is watching-paint-dry, empty television.
How many characters on this show can you really say you know intimately/feel attached to?The show is so focused on the mystery of the plot, that it obfuscates its characters three dimensionality.
So let's talk about the only storyline with a tangible/clear end goal from start to finish. Maeve wants to escape. Probably the cleanest thing in the show, and it had a decently satisfying end. But it was really marred by unbelievably dumb happenings/characters. Felix is maybe the worst character I have ever seen in the history of film. I keep thinking that that statement must be hyperbolic, but I'm really not so sure. He's an idiot with no personality other than incompetence and no thoughts of his own. The blank slate to end all blank slates. Sylvester is awful too. His dialog feels like it's written by a ten year old still trying to feel out how cussing works. And they singlehandedly allow Maeve to succeed. So Maeve will tell HQ that Sylvester's been ****ing 'bots if he lets HQ know that she's ignoring her programming/hellbent on getting out of the park? Do you really think the consequences of hiding the latter are even in the same stratosphere of performing the first? (And how big a deal could ****ing the robots possibly be if we have other techs getting lubed up right next to their coworker, as we saw in the final episode - i would assume - in full view of cameras.) Plus, as they escape, Maeve is hounded by dozens of soldiers... until they hit the elevator? What? Why? Why wouldn't they just shut the elevators off? Why wouldn't they go after her at the train station? For a show so built on "the small stuff" adding up to something bigger, there's so much here that's world breaking. Pay attention to THESE little nothings not THOSE.
Wyatt/Arnold/the Maze/Ford's final narrative are all integral to the plot, and all suffer from the same issue: we're asked to care about them before we know who/what they are and what their significance is. They're only revealed after nine to ten ****ing hours of television. Just bad storytelling. Also, the ****, Ford built an android in his partner's image, and no one knows? + Remember the glasses Elsie used to look through Maeve? Why wouldn't those work on Bernard who was right next to her?
I'm really a sucker for the robot sentience issue, but I do think that if you're going to hit that issue, you need to go full Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence and make it clear that AT LEAST ONE robot is fully sentient from the start/that you should care about them. I really think this show would have been best off if it had started as being told from Bernard's perspective. For a show as chilly as this one, it really would have benefited from giving you a character to latch onto/spend time with. To care and love this guy, and to feel his wounds. Then, when the reveal comes, it'd both be proof that these robots are sentient, because you've been in his shoes this whole time, and it'd also be a gut punch that this guy we've been on the ride with has been a slave this whole time. Instead, it really just felt like a "shock".
And the board. What a ******* mess. Tessa Thompson and the lead writers were such awful characters. When Tessa opens the door naked... that's not how a person in her situation would act. The lead pissing on the park and then not being reprimanded... what? Dialog was awful and stilted. It honestly feels like the show was written by robots who sort of know what it's like to be a human, but aren't quite there. And there are such cool ideas here, I hope season 2 can pass the Turing test.
The William/Logan storyline felt kind of odd/out of place. But worst of all, it's boring.
I don't care about Stubbs or the girl who got choked out. Why would/should I?
Let's compare these to just a few plotlines brought up in GoT season 1:
These are all things we're in suspense for because we have knowledge of the situation/stakes. If characters had just kept saying "ooh, Ned's hand of the king now... I wonder if anything's going to happen..." and then revealed in episode nine that the last HoK was killed, that would have been some ********. If you were dumb, you'd argue that we didn't know what the White Walkers were. We know they're ****ing zombies coming to kill you. Nothing else is needed to make them matter.
So the main plotlines of the show are:
- What is Ford's final narrative?
- What is the maze and why does the MiB care about it?
- Who is William and why should I care about him?
- Are these robots sentient?
- Who/what is Wyatt?
- Why should I care about Arnold?
- Will the board be able to replace Ford?
- Will Maeve be able to escape?
Notice how few "will they's" there are and how many "who", "what", and "why's" there are? Stories only work if you care about what's happening, and 99% of what this show is about is confusion. All of the why's/what's turned out to be pretty interesting, but telling me that all of these things/people matter but holding off on letting the audience know why they matter is watching-paint-dry, empty television.
How many characters on this show can you really say you know intimately/feel attached to?The show is so focused on the mystery of the plot, that it obfuscates its characters three dimensionality.
So let's talk about the only storyline with a tangible/clear end goal from start to finish. Maeve wants to escape. Probably the cleanest thing in the show, and it had a decently satisfying end. But it was really marred by unbelievably dumb happenings/characters. Felix is maybe the worst character I have ever seen in the history of film. I keep thinking that that statement must be hyperbolic, but I'm really not so sure. He's an idiot with no personality other than incompetence and no thoughts of his own. The blank slate to end all blank slates. Sylvester is awful too. His dialog feels like it's written by a ten year old still trying to feel out how cussing works. And they singlehandedly allow Maeve to succeed. So Maeve will tell HQ that Sylvester's been ****ing 'bots if he lets HQ know that she's ignoring her programming/hellbent on getting out of the park? Do you really think the consequences of hiding the latter are even in the same stratosphere of performing the first? (And how big a deal could ****ing the robots possibly be if we have other techs getting lubed up right next to their coworker, as we saw in the final episode - i would assume - in full view of cameras.) Plus, as they escape, Maeve is hounded by dozens of soldiers... until they hit the elevator? What? Why? Why wouldn't they just shut the elevators off? Why wouldn't they go after her at the train station? For a show so built on "the small stuff" adding up to something bigger, there's so much here that's world breaking. Pay attention to THESE little nothings not THOSE.
Wyatt/Arnold/the Maze/Ford's final narrative are all integral to the plot, and all suffer from the same issue: we're asked to care about them before we know who/what they are and what their significance is. They're only revealed after nine to ten ****ing hours of television. Just bad storytelling. Also, the ****, Ford built an android in his partner's image, and no one knows? + Remember the glasses Elsie used to look through Maeve? Why wouldn't those work on Bernard who was right next to her?
I'm really a sucker for the robot sentience issue, but I do think that if you're going to hit that issue, you need to go full Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence and make it clear that AT LEAST ONE robot is fully sentient from the start/that you should care about them. I really think this show would have been best off if it had started as being told from Bernard's perspective. For a show as chilly as this one, it really would have benefited from giving you a character to latch onto/spend time with. To care and love this guy, and to feel his wounds. Then, when the reveal comes, it'd both be proof that these robots are sentient, because you've been in his shoes this whole time, and it'd also be a gut punch that this guy we've been on the ride with has been a slave this whole time. Instead, it really just felt like a "shock".
And the board. What a ******* mess. Tessa Thompson and the lead writers were such awful characters. When Tessa opens the door naked... that's not how a person in her situation would act. The lead pissing on the park and then not being reprimanded... what? Dialog was awful and stilted. It honestly feels like the show was written by robots who sort of know what it's like to be a human, but aren't quite there. And there are such cool ideas here, I hope season 2 can pass the Turing test.
The William/Logan storyline felt kind of odd/out of place. But worst of all, it's boring.
I don't care about Stubbs or the girl who got choked out. Why would/should I?
Let's compare these to just a few plotlines brought up in GoT season 1:
- The last hand of the king was killed under suspicious circumstances, will Ned be next?
- The Queen is cheating on the king with her own brother, will they get caught?
- *A complication to the last one - the Queen and her brother got caught ****ing by a nobleman's son and threw him off a tower to make sure their secret is safe, will he wake up and remember what happened to him/what they did? Will this lead to conflict between the two families?
- Will this nobleman's bastard be able to win the love of his family in a world where family name is incredibly important?
- *Will this bastard be able to survive a very dangerous army watch?
These are all things we're in suspense for because we have knowledge of the situation/stakes. If characters had just kept saying "ooh, Ned's hand of the king now... I wonder if anything's going to happen..." and then revealed in episode nine that the last HoK was killed, that would have been some ********. If you were dumb, you'd argue that we didn't know what the White Walkers were. We know they're ****ing zombies coming to kill you. Nothing else is needed to make them matter.
