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Helix |OT| Sci-fi Thriller Series Executive Produced by Ron Moore – Fridays 10/9c

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C

Cornballer

Member
- Onion A|V Club review: Helix throws a bunch of talent at flat characters
Helix already shows signs of moving in the right direction, backing off of the mythological aspects in favor of shifting character dynamics and digging deep into questions of how an outbreak like this could even be stopped. The series still has several marks against it—particularly in the acting and dialogue columns—but good sci-fi shows are thin on the ground right now, and there’s just enough that works in Helix to make it worth following for now.
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C

CF_Fighter

Member
Really excited for this show and Ron Moore's return after all his post-BSG projects folded or failed to be picked up. Glad to hear the reviews from the sources I read have been decent and I'm not watching those 15 minutes.
 
S

Savitar

Member
The commercials got me hyped.

Yeah it does remind me of The Thing kinda show if not the black stuff from X-Files but if they do it damn well I couldn't care less.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Series premiere tonight:
Pilot/Vector

CDC pathologist Dr. Alan Farragut and his team investigate a strange retrovirus and face unimaginable horrors; the team deals with the infected victims of an attack and tries to contain the virus.
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C

Cornballer

Member
- THR Review
The first two hours go at a brisk, thrilling pace that allows for character development as well. A lot happens and there's a desire for more. The question for Helix will be whether the self-contained nature can keep breeding stories over time. There are hints that things are bigger than they appear, of course, and so Helix could move its environs and expand its world.
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A

anaron

Member
Mo Ryan's review

"Helix" (10 p.m. EST Friday, Syfy): This science-y thriller is essentially a locked-room mystery, but the locked room is a secretive medical research facility deep in the Arctic. As you can see from the first 15 minutes of the pilot, something goes very wrong up there, and a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led by Dr. Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell), heads to the base to check things out. "Helix" does what any self-respecting techno-thriller needs to do: It makes you fear not just what's medically and scientifically possible, but also what corporations could conceivably do with all their technological and biological know-how. The first three episodes of "Helix," two of which air Friday, are directed with creepy precision and crisp pace -- even if I was a bit confused at times as to how much of what transpired was a result of poor decisions on the part of the CDC or due to factors they could not control (in other words, I wanted to root for the CDC team, but I wasn't always certain they were making wise decisions).

There's no doubt that the base's research director, Dr. Hiroshi Hataki (Hiroyuki Sanada), is a tricky customer and sees no need to tell Farragut's team everything that he knows. And the tension builds nicely as people start questioning the motivations of the Arctic Biosystems management, wondering who'll be infected next and speculating about how far the contagion could spread. Though the cast is generally solid, I wished I cared about the characters more (that is what happens when Ron Moore of "Battlestar Galactica" is connected to a project -- he's an executive producer), but I'll keep watching. "Helix" developed a solid momentum as it went along, and putting frightened people in confined quarters with an enemy that can only be seen on a microscope is a recipe for many different kinds of chaos. "Helix" doesn't reinvent the virus thriller, but it's a solid slice of genre entertainment that offers some creepy visuals and believable scares.


Cheerfully cheap, reasonably smart and action-packed shows that allow you to turn your brain off on a Friday night aren't all that plentiful. If you want small-town noir-action done right, or an epidemic-driven thriller that will make you want to encase your body in antibacterial plastic, "Banshee" and "Helix" may be the shows for you.
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F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
RatskyWatsky said:
Does Ron Moore have a reputation for having weak characters in his shows or something?
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It escapes me. I always thought BSG had some of the most solid characters ever seen in a TV show. Even Starbuck was awesome in spite of the way they fucked her over near the end of the show.

I think I'll just be content if this doesn't end being another Thing ripoff.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
Honestly one of the huge reasons BSG was so good was because they were geniuses when they cast Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. They gave a great legitimacy to it and provided strong emotional moments.

Helix has its work cut out if it wants to match BSG
 
T

The Storyteller

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
Does Ron Moore have a reputation for having weak characters in his shows or something?
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Not at all. It's a strange connection to make. The critic championed BSG while it aired and seemed to love the characters. Ron Moore was also one of the lead writers for DS9 which easily had the best cast of characters out of all the Star Treks.

Weak characters does seem like a common criticism of Helix though, which is disappointing; BSG was immediately compelling to me due to the cast of characters, and the solid acting from a cast of unknowns (who managed to hold their own next to the two well known, established leads).
 
A

anaron

Member
I too didn't understand what she meant in writing that. Ryan is a huge BSG fan so I just assumed it was supposed to mean that with Moore's involvement, caring about these characters will definitely come to be.
 
B

BertramCooper

Banned
Maybe I'm alone here, but I didn't find BSG instantly compelling. The miniseries was a bit of a slog, actually.

But BSG had me at "33." Christ, that episode still stuns me. Not that I'm expecting a "33"-caliber episode that quickly, but I'll at least give the show a few hours of my time before forming a full opinion of it.
 
C

Clevinger

Member
I like a lot of Moore's character work. But while watching BSG and especially some of DS9 I'd get annoyed by awkward or sudden character changes for the sake of tension and drama. I don't have anything off the top of my head for BSG, but two big examples of DS9:

One was Waltz with Dukat. It's been a long time since I watched the series so the specifics are very fuzzy, but basically in the previous episode with Dukat all of his plans fail and his daughter who he loves dearly is killed (possibly because of him). The episode ends with him completely defeated and dejected and self-aware. I was so excited because it looked like they could have done a really, really cool arc with his character for the rest of the series. But then what happens the next episode? He immediately turns into a cartoon insane genocidal villain.

The other example is Pale Moonlight or whatever it's called. Everyone jerks off to how great that episode is and an example of how great and dark DS9 is, and it is a great episode of television. But I thought it was kind of a crappy episode of the series and the character because it didn't feel there was much character development leading up to that Sisko we see in the episode who is driven to do those things and then we don't see that type of Sisko again for the rest of the series.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
RatskyWatsky said:
Does Ron Moore have a reputation for having weak characters in his shows or something?
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I think Mo Ryan is saying that Ron Moore's involvement raises her expectations for the character work, or rather makes the weaker characters here more disappointing.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Ron Moore doesn't seem to be heavily involved in this

This is some other dude's creation. They just hired Ron Moore as a producer to give it more relevancy for syfy channel I think :( hopefully he gets to write a bunch of episodes
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Wikipedia lmao. Ron Moore is an exec producer and it says that the show creator was asked if he wanted to bring any prominent sci fi tv producers on board and he picked Ronald Moore

Also moore's not writing the pilot is he? I dunno, speculation at this point. I'm just hoping he gets some writing credits in here
 
A

anaron

Member
Dan said:
I think Mo Ryan is saying that Ron Moore's involvement raises her expectations for the character work, or rather makes the weaker characters here more disappointing.
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Yeah, that's what I'm taking away from it.

This is the lady that had Adama and Roslin as her twitter background for years. There's no way she considers his character writing weak
 
W

woodland

Member
30 minutes!

I'm so excited, that 10 or 15 minute preview was fantastic and it didn't look super cheesy like some of Sy Fy's other shows.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
I'm watching BSG right now and I'm finding the characters to be pretty well done so far. Plus, I knew Ryan was a fan of the show, so I was a just a tad confused by that comment. She really should have worded that better.
 
A

anaron

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
I'm watching BSG right now and I'm finding the characters to be pretty well done so far. Plus, I knew Ryan was a fan of the show, so I was a just a tad confused by that comment. She really should have worded that better.
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It's bizarrely constructed, as if it's missing a few words. It kinda reads like some of my posts before emergency editing. :p

And yeah, BSG has sooooooooo many memorable characters. Easily one of the best ensembles ever.
 
K

KibblesBits

Member
Great atmosphere to the show.

Someone said fracking.

Dionnne Warwick's song is fantasticly weaved into the show.

Don't know how this could be 13 episodes long.
 
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