SyFy's Alphas (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

This was the second time that Alphas has left me with my mouth wide open, and now I can't wait to see what happens next (if Syfy decides to renew it) to the team. That last scene when all those people dropped to the floor, and Gary walking all alone, sent chills down my spine.
The fact that Skylar's power gets worse or harder to use the older the technology is, is both smart and nuanced, and a perfect example of why I love this show. There's a brain at work here, trying to write real things. Also lines like, "I don't like horses; they look confused." (Don't EVER take him to see Equus.)
This show, on one-fifth the budget of Heroes, is five times the show that Heroes, in its wettest dreams, was ever able to be. Great season finale. I really hope there is Season 3, as most of Syfy's programming sucks donkey balls. But if not, it could be a nice, grim coda to the series.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The second season didn't consistently defy my expectations the way the first season did, with Miller's tenure defined mostly by good-Mutant-group versus bad-Mutant-group instead of the ever shifting sands of the Behr's run.
That being said, the finale was something else. David Strathairn got to put on a one man show as the hallucinating Rosen. I liked that the hallucination explicitly wasn't Dani but rather his guilt and anger manifesting as Dani. I also liked Bill stepping up and Kat being pissed about being mistreated in the previous episode.
But man, that finale sequence with Gary walking through a Grand Central Station full of bodies while "The Only Living Boy in New York" plays.. absolutely haunting. If the show comes back, I can't imagine they're going to kill off 90 percent of the cast, so it'll be interesting to see how they handle it. I'd hope that Syfy wouldn't have OKed that finale if it were really on the bubble.

 

[joshEH]

The second season didn't consistently defy my expectations the way the first season did, with Miller's tenure defined mostly by good-Mutant-group versus bad-Mutant-group instead of the ever shifting sands of the Behr's run.

Looking back on it now, the whole "good-Mutant-group/bad-Mutant-group" arc of this season was pretty much set up by Behr during his tenure as showrunner -- Stanton Parish getting established near the end of the first year as the major baddie to be dealt with in the second year, etc.
I'm wondering how much in the way of notes (if any) were left behind by Behr before his departure that Miller might've used, but I quite enjoyed having what turned out to be a rather tight season-long arc this year, compared to last year's more standalone premises. That said, if they plan on going back in the other direction next season, I'd be fine with that, too.

That being said, the finale was something else. David Strathairn got to put on a one man show as the hallucinating Rosen. I liked that the hallucination explicitly wasn't Dani but rather his guilt and anger manifesting as Dani. I also liked Bill stepping up and Kat being pissed about being mistreated in the previous episode.
But man, that finale sequence with Gary walking through a Grand Central Station full of bodies while "The Only Living Boy in New York" plays.. absolutely haunting. If the show comes back, I can't imagine they're going to kill off 90 percent of the cast, so it'll be interesting to see how they handle it. I'd hope that Syfy wouldn't have OKed that finale if it were really on the bubble.

Yeah, there's still no renewal notice yet for the show, but its ratings picked up once it moved to the earlier timeslot, so the expectation among various sources is that it'll likely get that third season. However, for the past few weeks, the show has been getting an 0.4 rating among adults 18-49, which pushes it into Nikita-territory, and I'm wondering if Syfy is nearly as forgiving as The CW.
(Damn you, America! Why do you watch that Ghost Hunters crap, and not this? You're mentally ill.)
I loved Rosen's arc this season, taking away the thing he cared about most in the world, and leaving him a broken man hellbent on revenge. Strathairn and the writers did a remarkable job with his transformation. Obviously, there's a big question about Rosen's future, and whatever the writers have in mind, I think this is kind of a frustrating way to handle it (presuming the show returns).
If Strathairn is or isn't coming back, it'll be apparent from the casting news in the next couple of months, so either we'll all know he's really dead, or we'll know he isn't. I think they're leaving themselves some room in that regard. Strathairn can't be cheap.
Also, it would be awesome if they find a way to keep Summer Glau around, but I doubt it.
I do feel that the show doesn't quite costume or light Summer properly -- she's not as hot on Alphas as she is pretty much everywhere else. I appreciate that the show for the most part doesn't glam up the characters, but still this seems slightly criminal to me.
("Oh, Dr. Rosen...don't get shot again.")

 

[Walter Kittel]

Finally got around to watching the last two episodes of season 2. As much as I enjoyed this season, I don't know if I'll watch Alphas next year if Strathairn does not return to the show. He is pretty much irreplaceable for me (as others stated assuming the show returns.) Maybe he is a latent Alpha and survives. (I can hope. )
Great final sequence which kind of reminded me of Radiohead's music video for "Just". Probably not what the show was going for, but it stuck in my head. Just like Hell on Wheels, the show has kind of blown everything up, and the question is where do they go from there - assuming either show returns for its third season.
- Walter.

 

[Quentin]

This is a pretty amazing show. Super well acted and very tightly written.
Yeah, is the good mutants vs. bad mutants thing a little tired? If you're an X-men fan I suppose it is. But, I think this show has done it better than any of the movies!
Gary is just flat out KILLING it! I couldn't believe my ears when I saw him as a British actor. This is Walter Bell level acting.
And, I'm with Walter K - I can't see this show working without Strathairn. Him being a latent Alpha would be one way to bring him back...but, do we really think they'd do that and kill all the people in the station? That would be brutal. I think they may find a way to save a few lives.
The question for me is how much powerful will any of them be? And, for how long? Gary didn't even get knocked out! He could be ridiculously powerful now...of course, he already pretty much is.
This is the best show on SyFy so I hope they don't cancel it. W13 and Haven don't come close for me. This is also everything Heroes should have been and more. Where is that audience?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The question for me is how much powerful will any of them be? And, for how long? Gary didn't even get knocked out! He could be ridiculously powerful now...of course, he already pretty much is.

I believe the photostim didn't work on him because of his autism, the same reason Nina's power doesn't work on him.

 

[Quentin]

I believe the photostim didn't work on him because of his autism, the same reason Nina's power doesn't work on him.

He also sees energy waves as part of his power.
But, the question is - did it NOT work? Or, did it work in a different, unexpected way?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Syfy: "Alphas" Cancelled

 

[Joe_H]

Kind of interesting. I mean, I'd kind of just assumed that there would be a third season because I guess I forgot they hadn't announced a renewal. And also, I would have assumed that the ratings for it were just as good as any of Syfy's other scripted programming. I won't be THAT sad to see it to go, but it was still a good show that had its moments of greatness.

 

[Stan]

I won't be THAT sad to see it to go, but it was still a good show that had its moments of greatness.

Similar to my reaction, good but not great. Then again that was the only SyFy show I watched, so unless something really good comes along, they're off my favorites list. They run a lot of fun but really cheesy "giant shark, python, octopus, etc." movies, but even those are getting repetitive. Frees up more time for shows like TNT series like "Falling Skies", "Perception" and "Rizzoli & Isles", AMC's "The Walking Dead" and other cable shows.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Sad news. I was really hoping to see if Gary had changed in any way ie becoming normal because of the photostim. I've become a big fan of Ryan Cartwright and look forward to his next project.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

I'm sorry it's gone. It and Merlin were the only shows I watched on that network, and Merlin isn't their own show anyway.

 

[Quentin]

Well, I'm pretty sad to see it go. There aren't many quality genre shows on TV these days. With this gone and Fringe leaving...I don't watch any unless you count GoT. Arrow just does not cut it for me. Alphas was funny, well acted, interesting, and entertaining.

 

[NeilO]

I won't be THAT sad to see it to go, but it was still a good show that had its moments of greatness.

I enjoyed the show and would have liked to have seen how things changed. The article says, Syfy said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "We’d like to thank the show’s dedicated regular viewers for their tremendous support." They forgot to say, "but we are leaving you without any resolution to the cliffhanger because we really just want the wrestling audience."

 

[Steve Armbrust]

And it's not like the creators could just take their show to a lower-rung cable network, because there are no networks more lower-rung than SyFy.

 

[Sean Bryan]

With each of these cancellations I'm getting less annoyed at the networks and more annoyed at the show runners. I love serialized TV shows, but the folks who do these types of shows NEED to stop with the damn stupid season ending cliffhangers already! Shows like this getting cancelled is nothing new, and anyone making such a show should take that into account when they end their story for the season. If the plug is pulled mid-season, then it is what it is and you can't blame the show runners. But each season they get the opportunity to wrap up their story in a way that should be satisfying if the show doesn't come back. It seems like so many show runners take the lazy way out and instead of writting a good season conclusion they just throw in a cliffhanger that they don't even know how they are going to resolve most of the time. For f**k's sake! Tell your season long arc over the episodes you know you have and actually give the audience an ending to the story you are telling. Sure they can pepper in a few little seeds of things that they intend to follow up on in a subsequent season, but stop with the cliffhangers. Just stop it.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

With each of these cancellations I'm getting less annoyed at the networks and more annoyed at the show runners.

Sorry, but it is almost always the networks, not the show-runners, who insist on those season-ending cliffhangers you hate so much. They fear the audience will bolt to some new and shiny series when the new season starts up, and they hedge their bets. This was often a problem in the pre-VHS and especially pre-DVR days when people would sample many shows in the first weeks of a season before deciding on "their" shows. And it doesn't only apply to serialized shows. Even episodic TV shows often air the first half of a proposed two-parter as the last episode of a season, for the same reason. One upon a time there was no such thing as a cliff-hanger ending. I think it started with Dallas or one of the other nighttime soaps in the 70s or 80s. but like many bad ideas it spread and now people just do it automatically. It is like "icing the kicker" in football. What objective evidence there is suggests it either makes no difference or is counterproductive. But in a sport dominated by statistics, coach after coach ignores the numbers and wastes a time out just before the kicker reaches the ball. So, too, in an age of DVRs and video-on-demand, when you can record new shows and sample them on your own schedule while watching your regular series (or vice versa), not to mention split cable seasons that don't line up with broadcast anyway, cliff-hangers make no sense. But the networks still demand them, and the producers have to supply them. Regards, Joe