Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
The first night of Syfy's three-night miniseries aired tonight.
After the first episode, I'll definitely be sticking around until the end. After years and years of schlock, it's nice to see Syfy attempt something truly ambitious again.
The concept -- that Project Orion resulted in an ark that the United States secretly launched in 1963 to colonize a distant planet -- is a strong one. The idea of a population that has rejected and embraced different parts of the 1963 legacy that they inherited over the past fifty years is a compelling concept to play with. The production design and the costume design are both top notch. Lots of fun historical details, and sets that cohesively fit together into a whole and feel like part of one massive ship. Even the actors -- especially the girl who plays creepy little Christa -- are a few cuts above Syfy's usual talent pool.
Where it fell short for me was the writing. It's a pretty well plotted mystery, with a terrific twist at the end of the 90 minutes that both caught me off guard and answered some of my questions. But the dialog was awful, shoehorning exposition in through the most hamfisted of ways. Because of all of the unkowns at play, you don't get a really good feel for the characters.
So the writing's only a marginal improvement over Syfy's average. But all the other elements are such a leap ahead of Syfy's average that it still averaged out into a worthwhile investment of time.
After the first episode, I'll definitely be sticking around until the end. After years and years of schlock, it's nice to see Syfy attempt something truly ambitious again.
The concept -- that Project Orion resulted in an ark that the United States secretly launched in 1963 to colonize a distant planet -- is a strong one. The idea of a population that has rejected and embraced different parts of the 1963 legacy that they inherited over the past fifty years is a compelling concept to play with. The production design and the costume design are both top notch. Lots of fun historical details, and sets that cohesively fit together into a whole and feel like part of one massive ship. Even the actors -- especially the girl who plays creepy little Christa -- are a few cuts above Syfy's usual talent pool.
Where it fell short for me was the writing. It's a pretty well plotted mystery, with a terrific twist at the end of the 90 minutes that both caught me off guard and answered some of my questions. But the dialog was awful, shoehorning exposition in through the most hamfisted of ways. Because of all of the unkowns at play, you don't get a really good feel for the characters.
So the writing's only a marginal improvement over Syfy's average. But all the other elements are such a leap ahead of Syfy's average that it still averaged out into a worthwhile investment of time.