Perry111

In a nutshell: beautiful visuals and unbelievably terrible writing coupled with mediocre acting. It’s the kind of show where one feels terrible for the actors because there is just no way to make it work with such atrocious writing.

Unlike most mainstream professional reviewers who (by understandable necessity, of course) review after only an episode or two, I usually like to wait until a season is complete before I take the time to review it. This is one of my few exceptions because I won’t be finishing this, and I take the time to write a review so I can save others the time I wasted. It’s really quite bad all around except a few talented actors. On rare occasion I’m baffled by how so many professional reviewers had a positive take on the show. This is one of those times.

Excellent storytelling buoyed by talented actors. Many of the Star Wars shows have been almost unwatchable (with the notable exception of mandalorian, which is very good), and this was a very welcome surprise.

What a disappointment. I suppose I enjoyed the source material, though I’m hardly invested in the books and can imagine many perfectly good ways to adapt them to streaming and perhaps even improve upon them. Unfortunately, this series was pretty bad. I had a very difficult time connecting to/caring about the characters and the overarching story is oversimplified into unbelievability (just a couple examples: everyone just gets a little depressed over the fact that “science is broken” instead of it being a civilization **** event, and I’m forced to swallow the false, almost silly, emotional investment in saving the virtual reality child). Not worth the time to stream, and very unfortunate waste of the source material. Again, what a disappointment. One small caveat: the historical scenes that take place in China were quite good—almost as if someone totally different (and actually talented) wrote them; it was as though they were from a totally different, much better show.

This is excellent science fiction that arcs into the esoteric. I can certainly see why it isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy unique stories and are intrigued by the notion of the universe itself as a background character, you may enjoy this show. I was both deeply moved and impressed by this series.