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I had no problems with the pacing, I was enjoying it. However, characters are flat and underdeveloped (Impressive, considering theres only 2 characters for most of the season) Carols behaviour in the last episode was unconsistent and in service of the plot. And the plot was quite predictable.
It was an ok show, it entretained me and I really like the premise but the execution was bland.
I enjoy the show, but also agree with the pacing issue. The season is nine episodes long, and we spend one of them following a guy driving up the coast for 20 minutes. No mystery, no conflict, just a guy and a slippery rock.
The cinematography is beautiful, but the show lacked any stakes for 80% of the runtime, and didn’t explore the implications of the scenario with nearly enough gusto. I would give it leeway on this by looking at is as a slow-paced character study, but the only character in the show does not feel developed either.
Overall the show is enjoyable, but I did not feel guilty using the skip button to get through the most egregious scenes
If we get a second season, I’ll watch it. Possibly, by the time the second season arrives, I’ll have forgotten about this show.
I was bothered the whole show about how inconsistent Carol is. She figures out they can’t lie, then learns that she can’t use drugs to force them to tell her what she wants to know, then… falls in love with Zosia? WTF? I suppose that does make some sense, Nightingale effect and all that, maybe, but it derails the progress until Manousos shows up in the last episode.
It’s a little tedious to watch, with so little pay off for the effort. But, it’s still better than anything else I’ve had to watch these past few weeks.
It feels like the producers don’t care about pleasing their audience after they get the contract. They just make whatever pleases them, perhaps expecting that no matter how well the show does, it’s a crap-shoot whether it will be picked up for another season. It’s hard to blame them, if that’s the case.
It has already been renewed for Season 2.
Carol is a deeply flawed protagonist and seemed to have surrendered to the hive like Koumba by the end, except she forgot that they really were still working on converting her.
I like it. I appreciate the pace chosen by the artists.
The last interview with Vince made me a little sad
“Yeah, it’s going to frustrate some folks, just to be honest. We work at the speed we work at, much like glaciers melt at the speed that they melt at. For my own sake, as much as anybody, selfishly, I wish we could get this job done quicker because I don’t know how many years I’ve got left. I still want to do more things, but I go slower than I used to. So it’s going to be a while between seasons; it just is. Unless we invent a time machine or figure out how to stop time, it’s just the nature of the beast.”
Don’t know how anyone can call this show slow and boring. One of the best new sci-fi shows this year, IMO.
When you just factor in just how many people’s brains have been addled by the instant dopamine gratification provided by the likes of Tik Tok, YouRube Shorts and Instagram Reels’ bottomless feeds of inane drivel, and their resulting inability to focus on content for more than 60 seconds at a time - you begin to understand the types of people who complain about the show being slow.
General public is too used to immediate gratification. We need to have answers now, we need the next episode now, we need we need we need…
I’m loving the slower paced story. I love watching Carol listen to the voicemail greeting each time, it helps put us in her shoes. We’re getting spoon-fed morsels of answers as she’s learning the. Really well done
I agree. I was completely enthralled throughout the season.
Half the comments I’ve seen around the show involve the slow pace.
It’s an issue. To the point of immersion-breaking and showing a lack of technical artistry.
No, I don’t need to go watch Fast and the Furious, I can criticize a show I like.
Elsewise, the show was interesting. Very well acted. But I think someone like Carol would be asking a lot more pertinent questions than they did.
Writing needs to tighten up and then some. Particularly with a sci-fi trope that’s been as explored as this one.
Carol, “can you take me to my eggs.”
Zosia, “certainly!”
Carol destroys her eggs when she gets there
IMMEDIATE PROBLEM SOLVEDCarol, "can you set up everything you need to create robots that can pick fruit and give me a simple [YES]/[NO] prompt for them to do so? …?
The show can do more with less while retaining it’s thoughtfulness. The acting is there, the mystery-box is present. It just needs a push.
Carol, “can you take me to my eggs.” Zosia, “certainly!” Carol destroys her eggs when she gets there IMMEDIATE PROBLEM SOLVED
It’s been made pretty damn obvious that they have different tiers of biological imperative, and spreading the virus trumps everything else. So no, they could refuse her.
Carol, "can you set up everything you need to create robots that can pick fruit and give me a simple [YES]/[NO] prompt for them to do so? …?
It was stated that they couldn’t build and program it. They’re not a program you can find a loophole in, they’re an intelligent being holding to the spirit of their limitations.
We’ve watched three episodes so far. I’m really enjoying it. I have so many questions and can’t wait to get some of those answers.
Big disagree from me, but I also stopped watching after episode 6 so maybe it picked up these last few episodes.
Some of my favourite shows have a very slow pace. But so much of this story was frontloaded in the first 2 episodes, it created a stark difference in pacing compared with the rest of the season. I thought it’d likely return to the fast pace in the finale. I imagined Gilligan’s process setting up the premise and having some big twist planned, with the middle episodes mostly serving as a means to get there. But now it seems like he just came up with the premise and once established, now wants to explore it slowly and methodically. That’s totally fine for me, but can totally understand it having less widespread appeal than how it initially seemed
Loved it!
I assumed it would be slow, that’s what he does, and his shows have gotten progressively slower.
SPOILER:
My theory is that the alien is an allegory for artificial intelligence. 🤷
Death of the author and all that, but the script was written a decade ago, way before ChatGPT et al
I kinda got that as well once Carol
Tap for spoiler
was able to have that grocery store to herself and took that painting. Haven’t seen the last episode, but will be interesting once her visitor arrives.
Some people are also comfortable with the fact that their own family are now
AIpart of the hive mind, but still treat them as living relatives.Also I also thought it was interesting that the hive mind can’t create its own food, but feeds off of the attention and creativity of normal people because they appear unable to create anything new. Case in point Zosia being very excited to think that Carol was in the midst of writing a new novel—an act that she apparently can’t do despite having a global collective’s artistic capacity and experience at their disposal.
Definitely lots of ways to interpret the show!
I share that opinion. There’s that, and then some kind of additional emergent mind providing impetus. The thing we’ve not really gotten much into is something like "minus having people to convert, what motivates “you”?
I view people who complain about things being slow and boring the same as Mike from RLM. Doesn’t need to be defended. Go watch Fast and Furious and let me enjoy my show.
No, it’s boring. Like, intentionally boring for most of each episode.
Paid propaganda to like the show
I like the show, Am I lying?
Do you write blog pieces about it to convince the world it’s a good show?
No? So you assume anyone who says it is good, and writes an article on it are paid propagandists?
Anyone? This is a paid piece from Variety, one of Penske Media Corp’s many media outlets
It’s not even a blog post from a random individual expressing their potential genuine desire for the show. It’s bare naked public relations
