watching another life on netflix and--huh

Spoilers if you haven't watched, but for the record ,I have yet to work out what that title is supposed to refer to.




For those playing the home game: middle-near future, space travel but fairly limited, no alien contact. Super cool ouroboros-esque ship appears in sky, drops into the earth, followed by Annihilation-type crystal mountain, followed by NO WAY TO WORK OUT WTF. Enter: while trying to commjunicate, also send ship to alien planet (or where signalis coming from?) to try to talk there? Whatever.

There's earth sequences and space sequences. To say I give no shit whatsoever about the earth sequences is an overstatement. I give one shit. One. That's it. The space stuff is incredible. IT's what I didn't realize how badly I wanted. They're spacefaring but new at it; they're not really yet at full-scale exploration; this is middle-near future, so there's no Federation, just lots of separate nations like now (and Korea's united!); they have no idea what they don't know yet and are learning as they go.

All the tropes that you spend half the time wondering how people who can invent transporters don't know 'x'? Nope: all the tropes are new again and work gangbusters. They don't have to make up exotic weirdness because they already did regular weirdness; all of the weirdness is new. And if you're a sci-fi fan, this works even better, because yes, you saw that coming and God, they are fucked.

The ship is shiny and pretty and technical and dirty as any ship at this level of tech should be; it hits the sweet spot of 'I could almost see this ship happening in my lifetime' and 'so future tech'. They're smart, professional, but twenty-to-thirty-somethings; they make stupid mistakes and unavoidable mistakes and there's consequences (deathish ones).

Because demographics are important:

(Note: I double checked IMDB to make sure I was right but please correct me if I made any mistakes. This is fast and dirty before I forget to post.)

For the first ep, the cast is about half/half white and Hispanic with one black character, William (Samuel Anderson), a hologram (who like half the cast on this show is incredibly attractive and has a British accent because fuck my life), and one Filipinx character, Dr. Zayn Petrossian (see more below). A second Black character, Cas Isakovic (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow), is added I think ep 2 (a pilot, ungodly hot, super interesting backstory). At least one character speaks Spanish (maybe two?); I'd have to go back to watch but the most recent is Bernie Martinez, their botanist (xenobotanist?).

There's also the first non-binary character I've seen on TV in Dr. Zayn Petrossian, the medical officer, played by JayR Tinaco, who is of Filipinx descent. I have closed captioning on but haven't seem them refer to hir by pronoun yet (or missed it), but Zayn goes by ze/hir from what I read so far. (Source). If it's been changed or updated, please correct me (and also tell me if I fuck up hir pronouns if you see it, I added it to spellcheck so I can blame nothing on autocorrect).

On earth--honestly, I paid less attention, but main white male character is Niko's husband. His coworker/subordinate/something in understanding aliens, Dr. Nani Singh, is an Indian (or Indian-American) woman. Other women (both white) include General Dubois and the reporter Harper Glass played by Selma Blair. Most of the rest are kind of background but again, earth was I so don't care so I kind of glazed over a lot.

Source: IMDB




Spoilery:

...there's character death from the first ep. Yeah, even characters that get screentime and personalities. I'm on ep six so I have no idea how much more we're going to get but we're at four so far, but as the show kind of made that clear, I know not to get too attached.

The show is not gruesome in general, but as of episode 6:

1.) one character gets electrocuted in the first ep. It's fairly standard and probably network-safe but it's still some burning and eww.

2.) BIG ONE RIGHT HERE AND WHY I DECIDED TO MAKE THIS SECTION. SERIOUSLY.

There is a scene where someone's entire nervous system crawls out of a boil on their neck and leaps to the floor to try and crawl away. That is not a sentence I ever imagined it was possible to write, but now I know what my nervous system looks like--while crawling desperately away--so there's a nightmare I apparently need to have at some point before I die and the show provided fodder. Thanks.

The entire sequence lasts about a minute and trust me, you will have about a minute to realize it and go 'nope' and fast forward. It starts when everything seems over near the 2/3 point (of course).

That was pretty much the biggie.

3.) A later exotic matter death (something like mummification before the camera cuts) is much less horrifying in all its implications and nothing inside the body makes a desperate effort to be free and crawl away.

Yeah.


The one and only mistake I cannot forgive is casting Tyler Hoechlin for the captain, Ian Yerxa, that first mutinies against Niko (Katee Sackhoff) and then (maybe?) tries to kill her (and so she kills him, exit Tyler).

This isn't just because I love Tyler, or even mostly.

If you watched Teen Wolf, you know Tyler managed maybe--MAYBE--fifteen seconds of almost-genuine menace all the seasons he was there and this includes when in werewolf form. Out of those fifteen, I would only swear to seven seconds. He plays Superboy with brightest, most adorable smile that suddenly made me super interested in Superman again (I didn't know this was possible). For those reasons, I cannot buy him doing literally anything he did, and it didn't help at all they gave me literally half an ep of development (and directly after being playful and adorable with his former crew)(the addition of Cas being his lover and partner just made it worse).

So--when I say 'maybe' above, I mean, yeah, he was probably going to kill her (he was coming at her back with a knife with the intent of using it without much ambiguity) but--my brain just won't. Do. It. It says shit like "BUT MAYBE SHE HAD A SPIDER ON HER NECK HE NEEDED TO SLASH TO DEATH". Which is stupid but I honestly buy that more than attempted murder no matter what logic because TYLER HOECHLIN. I mean, the only less likely candidate for this part is Mr. Rogers and not because he's dead (though yeah, that's a reason).

(Tyler, I'm sorry, but you can't play a villain. You radiate sweetness and goodwill while murdering and eating people while a werewolf. This is the hand you were dealt. Go be Superman! I WANT TO LOVE SUPERMAN)

That was, by the way, all in ep 1.

Also:

I'm going to admit that Cas and Zayn are probably my favorites here and not just because they're super attractive and Cas is an angsty pilot (as that is basically my batsignal). Cas is pretty much exactly what you'd want in a hotshot pilot (not usually see, however): calm, controlled, very contained, very obviously a thinker, and very obviously feels very deeply. Cas's backstory just came out and--I am even more fascinated how she got from there to here. I'm hoping--like a lot--that more about Zayn is coming up soon (especially if ze and Bernie are going where Bernie obviously--with some seriously seductive use of plant-testing--wants this to go. Which is another sentence that exist now: seductive plant testing).


I'm not willing to promise anything--The Magicians broke me of that shit--but it's definitely interesting sci-fi and I'm liking the characters. If you're jonesing for some spaceship disaster, this is for you. And you know, the earth stuff might get interesting? It could happen.

Comments

[timespirt]

I haven't ventured to watch that yet. The little summery they had didn't make much sense?

[seperis]

Yeah, it's--not useful, no. But if you like scifi? I totally recommend to try it out.

[timespirt]

I do like Sci-Fi. Thank you for the rec.

[mecurtin]

The comments I've seen so far are all "WTF Tyler H, we love you but your niceness just shines through too hard, this is super unconvincing."

[seperis]

That's pretty much the entire problem. I mean, anyone playing this character would have had a problem considering they had no time to build up much but--yeah, no.

[out_there]

I'm up to episode... hmm 8? It both an interesting show and weirdly slow at times -- especially when we visit Earth. Oh, man, the Earth stuff *drags*.

It's a great show for "hey, it's that guy". We have Kara from Battlestar (who I would watch do... absolutely anything, honestly. I love her as a leader who is damn good at what she does but also not the nicest / most popular person at any table). I love William (even if I keep looking at him and going, "Hey, Danny Pink!" because I loved him on Doctor Who). And we have the duplicitous husband from The Blacklist as Scientist Hubby on Earth (he seems lovely and sweet and ethical now... so far at least).

There's also the first non-binary character I've seen on TV in Dr. Zayn Petrossian, the medical officer

Yes, and in a way that is so low-key and accepted, which I love. I missed some of the first episode, but I doubt they spent much time on personal backgrounds there either -- it's just a "hey, here are these people" and we work out how they work together as we go. But I love that Zayn is such a cool character and the pronoun / gender / non-binary thing is so accepted it's not even commented on.

but now I know what my nervous system looks like--while crawling desperately away--so there's a nightmare I apparently need to have at some point before I die and the show provided fodder. Thanks.

That moment was amazingly creepy. And it's a visual I'm trying not to remember because, oh, ewwww. Mind you, by the time we got to the exotic matter death, I'd figured out that this is a show where it's good to look away from the potentially grisly deaths. I don't actually need to see that.

So--when I say 'maybe' above, I mean, yeah, he was probably going to kill her (he was coming at her back with a knife with the intent of using it without much ambiguity) but--my brain just won't.

I bought it, but I don't watch Teen Wolf. And I liked that he genuinely believed he was right, believed he was the one who cared about the crew, and I could absolutely believe he was the crew's popular choice. If Niko had killed someone where it was a clear "they were a terribly threatening person and such a baddie" it wouldn't have worked as well for me as Niko killing someone who really seemed like he'd be an awesome friend and wingman at a bar and suddenly Niko's rationale of self-defense really doesn't seem all that believable. (Even though it was. It was unfortunate, but I don't blame Niko for it.)

And you know, the earth stuff might get interesting? It could happen.

Hee. By ep 8, it's getting better but honestly? More William, please. I will happily ignore Earth if we can have more William.

[seperis]

I bought it, but I don't watch Teen Wolf.

I watched basically until Tyler left so that heavily influenced me. That show...ugh. But he made it worth it.

And I liked that he genuinely believed he was right, believed he was the one who cared about the crew, and I could absolutely believe he was the crew's popular choice.

Oh yeah, that, definitely.

If Niko had killed someone where it was a clear "they were a terribly threatening person and such a baddie" it wouldn't have worked as well for me as Niko killing someone who really seemed like he'd be an awesome friend and wingman at a bar and suddenly Niko's rationale of self-defense really doesn't seem all that believable. (Even though it was. It was unfortunate, but I don't blame Niko for it.)

See, I buy the mutiny, but not going for her back with a knife right after a disaster he kind of caused. The mutiny--to the mutineers--had at least some justification in that they thought she was showing bad leadership and too much caution, by their standards. Taking her down them involved trying to immobilize her, drugs ,and soma sleep.

Straight up attempted cold blooded murder--premeditated, going for her back without provocation--under the circumstances (during repairs of the ship, not a major-decision-moment) is where it falls down. There's no way for an ethical character to justify doing that at that moment, unless he genuinely had reason to think she was only keeping him alive to dispose of him 'accidentally' or something later so as to keep crew loyalty. (His line "I would't be so forgiving" maybe indicated something like that in retrospect?) This I genuinely thought was a paranoid dream sequence or we'd find out alien spores, it was that wtf. And i just can't believe it. I can work around that watching--it's a good show--but literally anything but that attempted murder would have been better. And way more effective because again, I simply didn't believe this character as presented would do this for literally no reason.

(YMMV, obviously)

Real life, people can have that kind of dichotomy in behavior, but TV, you can't.

[out_there]

There's no way for an ethical character to justify doing that at that moment, unless he genuinely had reason to think she was only keeping him alive to dispose of him 'accidentally' or something later so as to keep crew loyalty. (His line "I would't be so forgiving" maybe indicated something like that in retrospect?)

That was my take on it. I think he assumed that them working together in an out of the way place might be her planning to kill him, and tried to act on it first. Whereas Niko genuinely just wanted whatever bit of ship fixed and deal with this stuff later.

He didn't know Niko well enough to realise she wouldn't go after other crew members in revenge -- like, yes, she was pissed about the mutiny but she genuinely is here to get the mission done; she's not going to risk it on a petty feud -- and I think at that stage the Soma whatever was out of use, and he assumed there was vengence coming his way.

...and at the same time, he didn't know Niko well enough to realise that she reacts fast and physically. Maybe he should have realised from how hard she fought the mutiny at first, but Niko definitely reacts to threats fast.

[seperis]

That was my take on it. I think he assumed that them working together in an out of the way place might be her planning to kill him, and tried to act on it first. Whereas Niko genuinely just wanted whatever bit of ship fixed and deal with this stuff later.

That's pretty much what I use to handwave through the eps. If that was the impression we were supposed to have? I really wish they'd gotten that across better.

(I also thought she trained him so they knew each other?)

[out_there]

If that was the impression we were supposed to have? I really wish they'd gotten that across better

Valid point, but as far as pilot episodes go, it's not too bad.

[seperis]

That was--other than that part--a surprisingly good pilot, yes. I'm looking forward to rewatching it when I finish it to see how it holds up, but yeah.

[out_there]

I finished it last night.

There was disco dancing, Jenn. Disco dancing. For that alone, I may forgive this show everything. (Even Earth.)

[seperis]

Now the rest, as I agree with everything.

It's a great show for "hey, it's that guy". We have Kara from Battlestar (who I would watch do... absolutely anything, honestly. I love her as a leader who is damn good at what she does but also not the nicest / most popular person at any table).

Oooh yeah. YES.

I love William (even if I keep looking at him and going, "Hey, Danny Pink!" because I loved him on Doctor Who). And we have the duplicitous husband from The Blacklist as Scientist Hubby on Earth (he seems lovely and sweet and ethical now... so far at least).

William is interesting as hell, especially as he chose his physical form specifically based on what Niko would like. Literally.

Yes, and in a way that is so low-key and accepted, which I love. I missed some of the first episode, but I doubt they spent much time on personal backgrounds there either -- it's just a "hey, here are these people" and we work out how they work together as we go. But I love that Zayn is such a cool character and the pronoun / gender / non-binary thing is so accepted it's not even commented on.

Zayn, and I only realized this about three-four eps in--is also extremely polished, unlike the rest of the crew. Ze is beautiful, sure, but hir hair, clothing, very elegant make-up...not dressed up, exactly, but very precise in how ze presents hirself compared to teh rest of the crew. And yeah, part of it is probably training; ze is a doctor, who wants a doctor poking their parts who looks like they don't do more than basic hygiene and picked their clothes up off the floor, they have an image to maintain, cool, unruffled, together, confident, but--I kind of wonder if it's also a personality trait as well. As literally no one else seems to care about that (which I also like!).

That moment was amazingly creepy. And it's a visual I'm trying not to remember because, oh, ewwww. Mind you, by the time we got to the exotic matter death, I'd figured out that this is a show where it's good to look away from the potentially grisly deaths. I don't actually need to see that.

That was a moment no one will forget.

And yes, more William please.

[out_there]

William is interesting as hell, especially as he chose his physical form specifically based on what Niko would like. Literally.

Giving me yet another reason to like Niko: she has good taste.

Ze is beautiful, sure, but hir hair, clothing, very elegant make-up...not dressed up, exactly, but very precise in how ze presents hirself compared to the rest of the crew.

Zayn is very polished. In fact, we never seem to see hir without hair and makeup done -- whether it's a mission on world or snacks late at night. It's an interesting choice. The only other person who seems close to that level of polish is the senator -- so I wonder if it's also supposed to signal a more civilian background, less time spent on weird space outposts.

[seperis]

Zayn is very polished. In fact, we never seem to see hir without hair and makeup done -- whether it's a mission on world or snacks late at night. It's an interesting choice. The only other person who seems close to that level of polish is the senator -- so I wonder if it's also supposed to signal a more civilian background, less time spent on weird space outposts.

I didn't think of a purely civilian background (aka Too Much Star Trek), but yeah, that makes sense.

[nic]

Thank you for this comprehensive (review? Info dump? rec?) I have now added it to my watch list and mentally categorised it as DON'T GET ATTACHED! So I will hopefully enjoy it for SPACE.

[seperis]

THIS. DO NOT GET ATTACHED!

But using 1-6 as baseline, it's interesting scifi and not only gives us our favorite scifi tropes but also makes our least favorite more palatable or even interesting by using them with people who genuinely could not know how very fucked up the universe can be. It's like watching the origin story for all the space tropes; we finally get to see how people reacted the very first time something happened and not wonder why on earth by now these people arent' taught this in the goddamn academy already, this has happened like a lot to you people in your timeline, Star Trek All of Them.

[kore]

I was in Magicians, MCU AND GoT (peripherally) fandom. SEE ME GET ATTACHED TO ANY NEW SHOW EVER.

(So of course I loved Good Omens and we're watching The Rook, lol. But GO was really special.)

[nic]

Good Omens was such a delight in the midst of so much dark tv!

[kore]

Good Omens was like a lovely technicoloured rainbow-flavoured message of L O V E right when I really fucking needed it. I have watched the final ep something like five or six times. (Did you see Michael Sheen's playlist for it on Spotify??)

[out_there]

(Did you see Michael Sheen's playlist for it on Spotify??)

I did not know that existed. Hmmm. I may need to go find that...

[kore]

Argle, this is the right one off his Twitter.

https://twitter.com/michaelsheen/status/1136759029202653184?lang=en

Also, official soundtrack!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ducsTdfU2gJcLgoedUnqs?bid=359&rfr=igr

[out_there]

Ooh, thank you!

[hypertwink]

I was gonna watch and then I learned that the reason I was gonna watch (TyHo!) like exited during the 1st episode lol And I read some of the reviews were bad.

[kore]

An NB lead AND Katee Sackhoff? Good scifi In Space?? Hmmm def will check it out.

(Totally agree about Hoechlin, he's so sunny and with a great smile. Villain, NOPE.)

[cathexys]

I don't want to be that gal but...even TH and KS couldn't save this for me. You're explaining their errors as being young, but I kept on thinking, if this is the best and brightest that Earth could produce they deserve to die... And the idiotic behavior on Earth was even worse! (Like you, I found the Earth scenes superfluous, much unlike Expanse, for example, where the contrasts work for me!)

I did like the final episode and the diverse characters were interesting, but I felt I knew way too little about any of them except for KS's character, which was sad given how much space the series had to give us background and context...

[seperis]

You're explaining their errors as being young, but I kept on thinking, if this is the best and brightest that Earth could produce they deserve to die...

That's actually--at least for now--is part of the draw. Not them being young ,but what a crew all under thirty means.

Bear with me: where are the older captains, crew? Think about Star Trek, Farscape, Babylon 5, Andromeda, etc; fighter pilots may have a short shelf life but captains, commanders, those will generally minimum at thirty-five (there's a reason Kirk was so special in Star Trek when he got his first command) and preferably around forty. There aren't many people we see over forty, why?

I'll tell you.

Because earth is so new to space that you either die before you get old in brand new never before experienced wtf are you kidding me space accidents or retire fairly young to frantically teach the next generation all the ways they leanred not to die and probably also due to the toll space is taking on the human body in first, second, third, fourth gen spaceships. You also can't have a family in space, or even apparently a relationship very easily; hit thirty-five-ish, that's when you pause and decide if you want a family, a home, kids. Sure,you can freeze eggs and sperm and put off the child part, but you kind of also want to survive to do it (and maybe pick up a partner).

How many ships died in solar flares for the first time? Ran into dark moons or asteroids or comets? Hit a black hole and vanished? This is all relatively brand new; they're at the crawling stage of intergalactic space travel; they have no idea what they don't know.

Using the general age and what seems to be considerable time in command, Ian possibly made captain as early as twenty goddamn three and possibly even younger. They're young not just because a scarcity of over-thirty-five, but their shelf life is longer; younger bodies adapt faster and while they assume the ships will get better at sustaining human life, they can't count on that so assume ten-fifteen years max before bone density/inadequate nutrition/recycled air/tech not yet at Trek levels means health problems and back to earth to teach the next gen (instead of dying badly). They have the ships, all they need is people in them and space is right there. Waiting.

Think about it: their reaction to Niko. They weren't just being assholes there (though they were definitely assholes); that was genuine surprise to see someone over forty in command on a spaceship.

I mean, yeah, they're arrogant and dumb and impulse driven and dramatic and unprofessional but that's the trade Earth made as they race for the stars; they threw kids up there before they were grown up, in a service so new the rules are treated as vague suggestions, and only have each other as navigation points. I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen a still in the engine room; they're already pausing work for threesomes, so really not a surprise.

I mean, I get if it's not your jam because yeah, but for me--this is the origin story for sci-fi. Most of it with spaceships we're already in media res with battleships and alien enemies and Federations and alliances but here--this right here is how it began. It's like we're standing at the cusp of the Big Bang when the universe began; we're watching Earth take its first baby steps into exploring the universe itself. They don't know what they don't know, but they do know they want to find out.

All the answers are straight ahead, so hit the gas until we pass the speed of light and don't stop until we're in the stars.

[lillian13]

Part of the reason that the crew doesn't initially trust Nico, IMHO, is because she's made the Tough Decisions (as told in flashback in the dream sequence episode). If you've never had to make them, they (and those who make them) will seem cold and calculating. Later, they are fiercely loyal to her BECAUSE of that--they've seen the consequences when you don't make the tough call.

Poor Tyler--he has a great Resting Bitch Face, but he's so full of sunshine and rainbows that as soon as he changes expression, you know he's a marshmallow.