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

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Mission

Member
I'm pretty happy with it but it feels like they had a lot of cool moments that evaporated into thin air... the secret message in the video from his brother, the monkeys... the scene with the super rat and the infected attack on Dr. Boyle. Avoided the actual outcome of each.

Just trying to build suspense I guess but it's annoying to have the best parts go nowhere
 
That was decent enough that I'll keep watching, but I totally get the complaints from some critics about it having no interesting characters.

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

I agree. This doesn't seem like a premise that needs another 11 episodes to tell its story.
 

Wazzy

Banned
It was okay. I found that song annoying every time
Peter appeared
. It was fine the first time but every time?
 
It was okay. I found that song annoying every time
Peter appeared
. It was fine the first time but every time?

It's corny as hell, also does anybody know if Ronald Moore is writing any episodes this season? Like I said earlier seems like they just slapped a name on here

I enjoyed it but I don't see myself caring about any of these characters in the future. Maaaybe the lead doctor but that would be pushing it
 

NJDEN

Member
This was just on a few minutes ago... glanced at it as I was doing the dishes and it looked semi interesting, but it also looked like a generic government funded biological weapons lab located in an undisclosed location somewhere in the Arctic going haywire flick...
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I liked the show, but DAMN it has some lazy ass writing.

For starters, if you are going to have characters in environment suits, think of a GOOD way to get them out of them, or just don't use them at all. The show is full of folks taking off their suits at wildly inappropriate times. I get it that no one wants to watch actors behind glass shields, so either don't use them at all or have plausible reasons (safe rooms versus hot zones, etc) for removing them. But if I have an unknown PARASITE (why do they keep calling an obvious filariform larvae-type parasite a virus?) that spreads by vomit attack, NO FRAKKING WAY am I going around without a mask! Making your super scientists dumb to ratchet up tension just ratchets up viewer frustration, IMHO.

Second, having the poor blonde veterinarian sit, back to the door, WEARING HEADPHONES, after reports of random infected folks stalking the halls and airducts, is the height of lazy writing and insulting to the viewer. Instead of scenes with actors behaving in bizarre nonchalant ways, show them get freaked out, act paranoid, and BE SCARED. No way a woman showers alone in a massive room without securing every possible entry. It is just STUPID.

I'm just so tired of these same tropes again and again. I get that writers are not scientists and it is hard to write a character smarter than the writer (witness all the stupid cop moments across media to make the bad guy seem smarter) but damn, at least TRY.

And FFS, there are MILLIONS of vets in America now, hire one to make your Army guy wear his damned uniform right! The collar is DOWN! At least he didn't velcro it up (sorry, hook and loop fasten it :p) as if he were wearing armor. Of course, maybe the guy isn't Army, but still, he just looked dumb, who was the wardrobe guy on this show? He/she made Walker look smoking hot in every outfit but just pulled an ACU blouse off the rack?

Still, it is sci-fi(ish), gory, and moderately tense, so I'll keep watching. It looks like it will have all the bad elements of Fringe with little of the fun though.
 
I loathe whoever made tjis web only on Hulu. It sucks as a Plus subscriber that I get less for paying money. Im tablet only, so I can even access Hulu's content on the site. Such bullshit.
 

Ashok

Banned
I thought it was pretty good. The supporting cast didn't stand out alas, BSG seemed to have a better rounded batch of characters out of the gate. I'll definitely be sticking with this one though, imo it's the best sci-fi pilot since Orphan Black.
 

ganon

Member
I think it was okay. Question is whether they can maintain tension in future episodes. Might turn into a "character study" with not much going on..
 
Its like most the population of the facility r bunch of whiners and annoying. Why cant we get out? Its like these people r not scientist

I'm seeing the series as infecteds slowly become part of the population then paranoia. Finally infected vs clean.
 

aku:jiki

Member
I don't know... I was looking forward to this, but that kinda bored me. None of the characters are interesting, and the premise isn't exactly unique. Don't see how they can stretch this for a season, let alone a multi-season series, without artificially prolonging it in annoying ways like Lost did. Characters not telling each other vital info and shit like that.

Actually, wait, they already did it! Obnoxious blonde lady was gone for the entire fucking day, withholding the knowledge about the monkeys and the infected lady she found. Really, the CDC doesn't bring advanced communication tools like walkie talkies? And the station has no comms at all? Oh, and yeah, army guy is withholding all the frozen monkey info. God damn it.
 

Tokubetsu

Member
You know, I get that the will to live can make us do really stupid and irrational things at times but I'm kinda tired of scientists who are aware of the risks when dealing with this kinda work are always quick to endanger everyone else by wanting to just leave or get out when they know they're infected with something extremely dangerous.

Still enjoyed it though.
 

TheOddOne

Member
I liked it overall, but yeah the scientists on this show are not that smart. Common knowledge not being used to their full potential.

Also I’m 26 and have 16 PhD’s in science. /serious
 

RS4-

Member
Caught all 3, was alright I guess, will continue to watch in the mean time.

William Adama needs to show up.
 
You know, I get that the will to live can make us do really stupid and irrational things at times but I'm kinda tired of scientists who are aware of the risks when dealing with this kinda work are always quick to endanger everyone else by wanting to just leave or get out when they know they're infected with something extremely dangerous.

Still enjoyed it though.

Same. When I watched the episode it made me think of Promethus because of how stupid the scientists would act in that movie. But yeah at the end of the day it was still very enjoyable for me. I'll have to watch BSG since I never saw it
 

~Kinggi~

Banned
Saw the premiere. Actually wasnt bad.

-Nice production
-Some good plot points
-Great visuals
-Decent acting


But its still a bit of a blank slate right now. Dont particularly care for any one character and dont know where its going. With shows like BSG or Lost they are runaway successes because right off the bat everyone is on board with basic human emotions like survival etc. If you have a show like this, you need really high quality stories and lovable characters.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Outstanding. Simply outstanding. I looks like I finally got my quality scifi fix until Orphan black returns.

Pros:

-Acting is surprisingly decent
-Characters are solid. Much more than I was lead to believe by critics (or this very thread)
-Production values are sky high for a SyFy production (barring some really dodgy CG)
-It is TENSE. I was squeaming for the better part of the second half. Fuck ventilation conducts.
-I'm very glad this is not a ripoff of The Thing.
-Main character is not a hunk. He actually looks like a seasoned doc.
-Damn, that young doctor sure is pretty.

Cons:

-Some poor writting at times (people getting out of their suits at odd times, the blonde doctor using her headphones in the middle of a crisis)
-Bright eyes are trite.
-Military experiments gone wrong are so damn trite. I wish they could have imagined something more interesting and creative.

Pros outweight the cons by a long margin, so I'll keep watching. If the show actually improves it could be something terrific.
 

DY_nasty

NeoGAF's official "was this shooting justified" consultant
Outstanding. Simply outstanding. I looks like I finally got my quality scifi fix until Orphan black returns.

Pros:

-Acting is surprisingly decent
-Characters are solid. Much more than I was lead to believe by critics (or this very thread)
-Production values are sky high for a SyFy production (barring some really dodgy CG)
-It is TENSE. I was squeaming for the better part of the second half. Fuck ventilation conducts.
-I'm very glad this is not a ripoff of The Thing.
-Main character is not a hunk. He actually looks like a seasoned doc.
-Damn, that young doctor sure is pretty.

Cons:

-Some poor writting at times (people getting out of their suits at odd times, the blonde doctor using her headphones in the middle of a crisis)
-Bright eyes are trite.
-Military experiments gone wrong are so damn trite. I wish they could have imagined something more interesting and creative.

Pros outweight the cons by a long margin, so I'll keep watching. If the show actually improves it could be something terrific.
Completely agree. Outside of the usual stuff (people not using the battle-buddy system), there's very little complain about. And everything else... is actually really good.
 
Liked it a lot. Some clunky writing, but it absolutely nailed the atmosphere. It's tense as hell.

I'm not sure if I want to watch the third ep yet. I'd hate having to wait two weeks for the fourth.
 

spwolf

Member
Whyyyy is everyone so dumb, argh! Makes me wanna cheer for the virus :\

yeah, i wonder if everyone liking also thinks CSI is the top crime drama.

Because this show makes little sense.

Production values are great, which is not usual for SyFy show... it could be on Fox.

But... story is so unbelievable.
- CDC goes to "help" with a virus
- They discover it mutates humans into being able to break through steel walls
- They decide not to call for help from CDC and Military but to go through it alone, while complete base gets overun by crazy infected people who want to infect others.

Yay, total sense. Thats how it works.

You also have black ops military guy, who is alone and knifes everyone who tries to escape.

The Avengers were more believable.

Of course, now you remember it is SyFy show, thats why it has to be crap.
 

Ducarmel

Member
You missed that they already mentioned they could not contact the cdc/rest of the outside world because they only have like a 2hr window for communication when the satellite is aligned with the base!

Episode 3 spoiler
Farragut says he is going to call for back up as the 2hr window is approaching then army guy destroys the satellite for some unknown reason.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
This was okay. I'm a little disappointed in some of the stupidity with scientists endangering themselves or not taking full precautions at all times. At least it's not quite as bad as Prometheus... then again, that one doctor went chasing after an escaped test monkey...

Who called the CDC in the first place? Was this all a ploy to get Dr Walker to the base for whatever mystery reason? Obviously she's connected to Sanada's character somehow.

Do none of the CDC folks have walkies or any form of communication? It's pretty dumb that they are constantly in the dark on what the others are discovering and have to physically meet up to talk.

I'd like to know more about where this is going. The show's negatives, if they continue, will prove increasingly annoying unless the characters and mystery develop more.

I'm pretty happy with it but it feels like they had a lot of cool moments that evaporated into thin air... the secret message in the video from his brother, the monkeys... the scene with the super rat and the infected attack on Dr. Boyle. Avoided the actual outcome of each.

Just trying to build suspense I guess but it's annoying to have the best parts go nowhere
This is unfortunately a classic trope for these kinds of shows. Characters don't stop to sort through the implications of what the fuck just happened or fill each other in. These people should be in constant contact, sharing discoveries, considering hypotheses and brainstorming plans of action.
 

Tokubetsu

Member
You missed that they already mentioned they could not contact the cdc/rest of the outside world because they only have like a 2hr window for communication when the satellite is aligned with the base!

Episode 3 spoiler
Farragut says he is going to call for back up as the 2hr window is approaching then army guy destroys the satellite for some unknown reason.

It's an hr window and ep 3 spoiler
He destroys it because him and Hitake can't let anyone else interfere. Soldier guy and Hitake both work for the some mysterious benefactor/organization. He was sent there to clean up Hitake's mess and presumambly get it back on track. They have a shady convo back in episode 1.
 

Zoe

Member
You missed that they already mentioned they could not contact the cdc/rest of the outside world because they only have like a 2hr window for communication when the satellite is aligned with the base!

Wait, I thought that's why they had a super fast fiber optic internet connection instead.
 

Kazerei

Banned
That 1-hour communication window thing is so dumb and unrealistic :\ There are actual remote research stations out there that have 24/7 satellite coverage and can contact the outside world at any time. We already have the technology. The limited communication is a useful plot device to create tension, but I just can't suspend my disbelief that much.
 

Tokubetsu

Member
Wait, I thought that's why they had a super fast fiber optic internet connection instead.

Yes, but the window to USE the super fast internet (10gig a second) is only an hour each day. By the end of episode three the window is still something like two hours away.
 

An-Det

Member
Aside from the quarantined people being pretty stupid, I'm liking it so far. Some of the logical aspects are kinda thrown out (as people have mentioned, them not wearing hazard suits when they really should be, or using the buddy system), but I'm entertained so far.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Wait, I thought that's why they had a super fast fiber optic internet connection instead.

I think they said their connection was super fast so that they could upload or download massive data sizes during those small connection windows.
 

Tokubetsu

Member
Yeah again, for a lot of stupid stuff they're doing to build tension I'm still enjoying it. If only because I use to fantasize about something similar. A show that took place BEFORE the apocalyptic outbreak.

I was just hoping for more character drama and less I'm going to go places alone and withhold pertinent information when there are things on the loose aggressively trying to spread a horrific virus.
 

anaron

Member
I think Billy Campbell was the only thing I didn't really like about it. He's always so bland in whatever I have seen him in and once again, didn't do anything for me here. Liked the rest of the cast for the most part.

Some of the shots were wonderful, in particular the monkeys frozen in the outskirts. So unsettling.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
I thought it was pretty decent, though I agree with everyone that all of the characters act really dumb. The atmosphere was good enough to keep me watching, though I have no idea how they can sustain the current storyline over an entire season, much less for multiple seasons.

Doreen is already my favourite. PLEASE DONT DIE

Same here. She's really the only character with any sort of personality so I hope she lasts the entire season.

-Production values are sky high for a SyFy production (barring some really dodgy CG)

That battling rat cgi was Lost submarine level bad. Yikes.
 

Fantastical

Death Prophet
People like Doreen? Some cringeworthy dialogue from all characters but especially her. I guess she has the most personality of all these wooden characters, though.

Very disappointed in this. Truly feels like a Syfy show and that is not a compliment.
 

Kevin

Member
Watched the first three episodes and got to say that I'm really enjoying it so far. If they can maintain solid quality across the board then SyFy has a worthwhile show on their hands. I'm definitely on board. I would imagine that a second season of the show would take place
outside of the base, possibly in a small town or something
but that's just speculation on my part.
 
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