Netflix have rebooted the classic '60s sci-fi show, and we watched the first episode this evening. It's mostly okay!
The cast are all decent so far, though the kid playing Will didn't get much to do. I don't like the robot much, though the rest of the production design is pretty solid. It even managed to eke some tension out of things here and there, despite it being an almost foregone conclusion that everyone was going to end the pilot episode okay.
It's setting up some kind of Big Mystery - or, trying to - but I felt like it's showed its hand a bit too soon in the last few minutes.
Overall, though, it captures the kind of slightly hokey spirit of the original, and respectably avoids trying to get all gritty and grimdark (which I imagine some studio exec somewhere repeatedly requested).
I think I liked it.
I watched the first one. What a heap of shite.
I was only mildly curious about this until I saw Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice, the Hannibal TV show) posting storyboards from an episode he'd directed on Twitter, and now it's a must-see.
It does look a little goofier than his usual fare, but I'm kind of intrigued to see how he approaches lighter stuff.
Oh, one weird thing we did experience was that the 5.1 mix is atrocious - muddy as hell, loses nearly all the dialogue. We couldn't understand now than about a third of what was being said until I switched it into stereo.
Just finished episode 3.
I find it very distracting that the dad looks like a cross between a Jason Isaacs character and Tamoh Penikett.
Parker Posey is good, I think? Hey character is all over the place, it's hard to get a read on how good the performer actually is when it's bouncing between so many different things, often within the same scene.
Mostly I'm enjoying it, I think. Penny's clearly the best character so far.
Smith just doesn't have that clear of a goal yet. She's a survivor, or whatever, sure, but what does she want?
I enjoyed it. Smith was not good, largely because the character didn't have a strong motivation and ended up twirling her moustaches a lot, which was a shame as Parker Posey is kinda great. As noted, Penny is the best character, but they all did a relatively decent job. Also, I recommend not looking too closely at the plot, as the more you think about it, the more you notice the problems, some of them egregious. Still, more than fun enough, and a decent twist or two.
Just finished this. I liked it, overall - the cast is generally strong (Penny and Don in particular, Will less so), and it manages to avoid being entirely predictable.
I was mildly disappointed by one thing in the finale:
Spoiler - click to showThe robot didn't end up heavily damaged in the last fight but still on board where they could cobble it back together into something closer to the original series version.
I also disagree with the general consensus on Smith, in the end. I don't think she's actually that out of place, and she has a pretty straightforward motivation - she's just a survivor.
Spoiler - click to showHer "plans", such as they are, change a lot, but only because the previous quick-fix bullshit story she concocted on the spot fell apart. She's an agent of chaos - her only real objective is to keep everyone else distracted so she can buy herself another five minutes.
I liked her.
I’ve watched the first two and I like it a lot so far. It’s got a great 80s Saturday teatime vibe to it: you know it’s never going to get too scary and the kid will always be OK but that’s fine and it’s good entertainment. Looks amazing too, I can’t believe that TV series effects have come on so far, though like Ninchilla I’m having trouble with the sound mix: voices are tinny and easily swamped by the bombastic soundtrack.
Switch it to Stereo - English (Standard), or whatever it's called. It's only the 5.1 mix that's terrible, for whatever reason.
Forgot to post to say how much I enjoyed this overall - like I said above, it's exactly the kind of family-friendly sci-fi fare that simply doesn't get made these days. I'd have absolutely loved this if I'd seen it as a kid.
Ironically I'd have probably enjoyed it even more if it had just been a survival story featuring the Robinsons. The robot was pretty irrelevant for most of it and the ridiculously cartoonish villain was the weakest part of the show.
Spoiler - click to showI was hoping they'd just kick her out the airlock in the finale but sadly she's survived to cackle another day.
One thing I thought it did really well was its episodic structure. Every episode felt unique and distinct (the one with the ice, the one with the beacon etc etc) while continuing to push the overall story forward. That's actually pretty rare these days with a lot of shows just feeling like a single long story split into arbitrary episodes.
Second series of this is up now.
Has anyone watched S2? We've managed 2 episodes since Christmas Eve but, imo, it's just not as gripping, we'll probably watch more of it once the kids are back at school on Tuesday as this holiday has been very, very noisy
Watched the first episode last night, not much sense of danger and way too much smugness from the Robinsons for my liking, but I'll stick with it as I really did enjoy the first series.
Finished it between Christmas and New Year and I enjoyed it. It suffers from "what horrible thing is gonna happen next" syndrome and teases a lot of main cast deaths. There's some great character development and Smith is epic, as usual.
Ends on a cliff hanger, of course. I've not seen if it's been renewed or not, I think I would be disappointed if they cancel it.
