Critic Reviews

Dominion is dark, and the angels portrayed here are scary--not the heavenly do-gooders we’ve come to know them as through other media. Based on the pilot episode, good has a long way to go before it can overcome evil--if that’s even possible.

Dominion will never be confused with sophisticated TV but in its pilot episode, the only episode made available for review, it’s surprisingly more entertaining and a better yarn than plenty of other Syfy efforts.

As the Chosen One, Egan is blond and bland. Dale and Head do well playing against type. As the Big Bad of the piece, Gabriel appears for perhaps 40 seconds of the 90-minute premiere and is still the most interesting character here.

It still has a lot of work to do, but with care, Dominion has the potential to grow into something special.

Maybe the Thursday pilot's portentous whispers in candle-lighted spaces will seem less pretentious and more profound as Dominion moves past initial exposition from a cast trying not to sound like they're from all over the planet.

Dominion perhaps has the makings of a passable post-apocalyptic tale. But it can also be over-wrought and half-baked, with a premise that never really delivers any of the implied biblical goods.

SyFy routinely demonstrates that today’s tricks have gotten too easy, which is why Dominion feels like it is unintentionally telling a separate story of a world in which humanity is held captive by quickie CGI.

When Dominion isn’t preoccupied with filling in its portentous back story, it provides some capably filmed action and a higher grade of acting than usual for this kind of show.

Nothing on this futuristic landscape stands out: the performances, the dialogue, the direction, the special effects. The premise is solid enough. Yet everything constructed on this foundation seems to have been fashioned from nothing more substantial than cardboard.

Only Anthony Stewart Head, nefariously pulling strings as a Machiavellian senator, keeps things from becoming entirely hellish. [20 Jun 2014, p.59]