Post by nombrecomun on Feb 25, 2023 22:41:56 GMT
SPOILERS....in case you care about reading the book or watch the miniseries.
I'm a fan of this book having read it several times in my life time so I was exited to hear about the miniseries....with a healthy dose of trepidation. It's SyFy channel after all.
I started to watch it and quit somewhere in the second hour. I was bothered about how much it seemed to be deviating from the book. I was also not quite keen on the presentation of the conservative Christian character. Not because it rings untrue but because to me it's an overly used trope.
Several years have passed and I decided to give it a second shot in the last couple of days with the understanding that it's an adaptation and some things need(?) to change for tv. My overall impression is that it wasn't so bad. It's kinda ok but could have been much better.
The miniseries does roughly follow the book. The one big change they made was to change the time the Overlords reveal themselves from 50 years to 15. The only reason this is done is to keep the main character around. The problem is he doesn't have anything to do in the next two episodes so they add an illness subplot for him just to be able to stick around.
I will never understand why it is that TPTB seem to think they need to add a romantic subplot in scifi/fantasy stories. We're fans of these genres because it gives us something different than those dramatic elements. If it enhances the story and/or is relevant then by all means. But usually to me it sounds more like "We need to get women to watch and the only way they'll watch is if we have romance". At times I felt like I was watching something out of the Lifetime Channel
So much time is spent on romantic plots that it seems to truncate the end which could have used a lot more definition especially with the character of Milo(Jan in the book). We miss what the Overlord world looks like. We miss his conclusion about how humanity was never destined to be among the stars. We miss what happened to humanity in the 80 or so years he's been away. We miss a lot of development of what happened to the children. These were the most powerful parts of the book. The actual scifi parts. I suppose the budget wasn't there.
I liked how they fleshed out the resistance movement embodied by Colm Meaney if even just a little. That part is glossed over in the book but it certainly resonates more today and if this book were to get a remake I could imagine that aspect would be developed more.
Similarly, the conservative Christian character would significantly play into this scenario as well. Nowadays such a person would be part of the more militant resistance movement and in a more negative manner. This person wasn't bad per se. She really meant well through her own lens of what she believed was right and at least there's a line or two addressing that.
I did not like the parents of the two kids that play a major part in the last 2 episodes. If you want to talk about cliched C level actors from the Hallmark Channel here you go. The kids themselves were quite good.
BIG SPOILER:
I really did like the look of the Overlords. I always imagined it to be how Tim Curry's character in Legend looked. I appreciate that they made enough changes for it not to be an outright rip off but then again we're talking about an archetype. It's hard to portray something different. That was well done.
Has anyone watched it? Thoughts?
I'm a fan of this book having read it several times in my life time so I was exited to hear about the miniseries....with a healthy dose of trepidation. It's SyFy channel after all.
I started to watch it and quit somewhere in the second hour. I was bothered about how much it seemed to be deviating from the book. I was also not quite keen on the presentation of the conservative Christian character. Not because it rings untrue but because to me it's an overly used trope.
Several years have passed and I decided to give it a second shot in the last couple of days with the understanding that it's an adaptation and some things need(?) to change for tv. My overall impression is that it wasn't so bad. It's kinda ok but could have been much better.
The miniseries does roughly follow the book. The one big change they made was to change the time the Overlords reveal themselves from 50 years to 15. The only reason this is done is to keep the main character around. The problem is he doesn't have anything to do in the next two episodes so they add an illness subplot for him just to be able to stick around.
I will never understand why it is that TPTB seem to think they need to add a romantic subplot in scifi/fantasy stories. We're fans of these genres because it gives us something different than those dramatic elements. If it enhances the story and/or is relevant then by all means. But usually to me it sounds more like "We need to get women to watch and the only way they'll watch is if we have romance". At times I felt like I was watching something out of the Lifetime Channel
So much time is spent on romantic plots that it seems to truncate the end which could have used a lot more definition especially with the character of Milo(Jan in the book). We miss what the Overlord world looks like. We miss his conclusion about how humanity was never destined to be among the stars. We miss what happened to humanity in the 80 or so years he's been away. We miss a lot of development of what happened to the children. These were the most powerful parts of the book. The actual scifi parts. I suppose the budget wasn't there.
I liked how they fleshed out the resistance movement embodied by Colm Meaney if even just a little. That part is glossed over in the book but it certainly resonates more today and if this book were to get a remake I could imagine that aspect would be developed more.
Similarly, the conservative Christian character would significantly play into this scenario as well. Nowadays such a person would be part of the more militant resistance movement and in a more negative manner. This person wasn't bad per se. She really meant well through her own lens of what she believed was right and at least there's a line or two addressing that.
I did not like the parents of the two kids that play a major part in the last 2 episodes. If you want to talk about cliched C level actors from the Hallmark Channel here you go. The kids themselves were quite good.
BIG SPOILER:
I really did like the look of the Overlords. I always imagined it to be how Tim Curry's character in Legend looked. I appreciate that they made enough changes for it not to be an outright rip off but then again we're talking about an archetype. It's hard to portray something different. That was well done.
Has anyone watched it? Thoughts?
I am so sorry...