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Post by mllemass on Sept 7, 2020 15:37:21 GMT
I’ve watched 5 episodes of this new series, and I’ll probably stop there. It looked kind of interesting and not too science-fiction-y. But by the third episode, I was hoping that their spaceship would be captured by aliens or something, just to make the story interesting. I decided to read some twitter comments about it, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is a formula to these Netflix movies and series that just doesn’t appeal to me. They throw millions of dollars into their productions, but that money clearly isn’t going to talented writers. I can forgive or even overlook a boring plot if there’s some other reason to watch. But I cannot tolerate characters behaving out of character, and there’s far too much of it here! And to remind us that this is a serious adult series that you won’t see on tv, there’s the startling random profanity thrown in at one point in each episode, but at no other time. People just don’t speak that way! I have a friend who throws swear words into everything she says - it’s who she is and we’re used to it. Netflix needs to decide whether characters use that language or not, and then stick to it.
Yes, I’m being really picky, but some twitter comments criticized other things that didn’t even occur to me, so I think I’m right in not recommending it.
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Post by Hannah Lee on Sept 9, 2020 2:06:17 GMT
I watched it all the way to the end and enjoyed it. It was more of a character study than a scientific show, but I like that the show caught a bit of the wonder of the possibilities of space travel. Also, I thought the performances were pretty good, as a whole.
A few reviews I'd read said the scenes on Earth in Texas (with one of the crew's family) dragged it down, but I didn't mind them, even if they kind of whitewashed the nitty-gritty, probably grueling care, day to day .... of something .... I can't figure out how to put in spoiler mode LOL!
I may have a bit of a bias: I've liked Josh Charles since years ago watching Sports Night, so that's what caught my eye to watch in the first place. It's a little strange, after following Benedict's career for a bit, to see an actor who is 'good' believable in the role, the range of emotions, interesting to watch, but who always kind of plays a variation of the same personality (even if the trappings are different in each role, and sometimes he's the earnest or heroic version and sometimes he's the scheming or evil version)
The one thing that trips me up a bit is the communications: part of me doesn't quite buy that each of the crew of a space ship to Mars has their own private tablet, phone to use to trade texts, videos, voice memos with people on Earth and that some of the communication happens in real time or with just a slight delay. Maybe that's actually possible now? But it was jarring to see the commander of a Mars landing mission pick up a cell phone while en route from the Moon to Mars, and casually chat with her teen daughter. I sometimes have trouble carrying on a coherent conversation with a friend driving across town, due to interference and cell issues, or in their kitchen because the house frame, rocky hill or granite countertops seem to be causing interference, so having flawless audio transmissions as one person is hurtling through space in a metal capsule millions of miles away sets off my spidey sense and takes me out of the drama. Though maybe I just have an outdated concept of space telecommunications.
I do recommend it, but only if you're in a 'slow tv' mood.
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Post by queenzod on Sept 9, 2020 2:35:00 GMT
Haha! I just found this on google:
All communication between Mars and Earth goes through satellites. Because of the distance, there is a substantial delay. As communication signals travel at the speed of light, this means that it can take between 3 and 22 minutes for the information to reach the other end, so a phone call would not be practical.
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Post by mllemass on Sept 9, 2020 2:46:42 GMT
I couldn’t get past the idea that these astronauts were chosen to be on this team and had apparently already trained together for 2 years! There was no sign of that at all. They acted like they had just met. And I cringed every time they spoke rudely to their commander. I kept thinking “You’d never speak to Tom Hanks that way!” - Apollo 13 was just on tv again last week, so I couldn’t help but make the comparisons. It was disappointing that the characters were written that way.
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Post by mllemass on Sept 9, 2020 2:49:51 GMT
Haha! I just found this on google: All communication between Mars and Earth goes through satellites. Because of the distance, there is a substantial delay. As communication signals travel at the speed of light, this means that it can take between 3 and 22 minutes for the information to reach the other end, so a phone call would not be practical. But I didn’t think they weren’t on mars during the phone calls. They were in space and then on the moon. |
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Post by queenzod on Sept 9, 2020 5:39:49 GMT
I haven’t seen it yet, but just saying communication in space isn’t instantaneous. I thought it was on Mars, lol. The moon would still have a slight delay, I would think. It wouldn’t seem like talking to your neighbor, for instance. Maybe it would feel like one of those transatlantic calls from back in the day, as seen in the beginning of Patrick Melrose. A delay, perhaps some echoes.
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