![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cancel-a-poolza continues at Netflix. 1899 was been cancelled. Time to finally look up the plot summary.
"Maura tells them they are in a simulation orchestrated by her father, but all except Eyk distrust her and leave. Maura takes Eyk through the shaft in Daniel's room to his memories of their family. Maura and Eyk break down a wall and enter a series of portals. Henry injects Elliot with a white substance, unlocking a memory in which Maura injects Elliot with a black substance despite Daniel telling her to "let him go". Daniel hacks into the simulation, changing code and causing many disruptions. The rest of the survivors escape from the rapidly expanding black substance in the ship, teleporting into each other's backgrounds before ending back on the ship.
...Maura wakes up alone in a starship called Prometheus, surrounded by many others that were on the Kerberos, placed under suspended animation. On a computer terminal, she sees the date is October 19, 2099, and receives a message from Ciaran welcoming her to reality."
Yeah, I was pretty sure from the first episode that this was the case, which is one of the things that killed my interest. It was all a dream / simulation / time loop that we'll erase... Yeah, get the audience invested in stuff that turns out to not be real and then be all Surprised Pikachu when the audience is gets disengaged.
I called it in episode one, but also the tone of the buzz (and annoyance) at the show pretty much confirmed it for me.
Pulling that almost never works even for an episode of a TV show, for a whole season? No wonder...
The trailers looked so good! I was so looking forward to it! Glad I did not waste my time.
"Maura tells them they are in a simulation orchestrated by her father, but all except Eyk distrust her and leave. Maura takes Eyk through the shaft in Daniel's room to his memories of their family. Maura and Eyk break down a wall and enter a series of portals. Henry injects Elliot with a white substance, unlocking a memory in which Maura injects Elliot with a black substance despite Daniel telling her to "let him go". Daniel hacks into the simulation, changing code and causing many disruptions. The rest of the survivors escape from the rapidly expanding black substance in the ship, teleporting into each other's backgrounds before ending back on the ship.
...Maura wakes up alone in a starship called Prometheus, surrounded by many others that were on the Kerberos, placed under suspended animation. On a computer terminal, she sees the date is October 19, 2099, and receives a message from Ciaran welcoming her to reality."
Yeah, I was pretty sure from the first episode that this was the case, which is one of the things that killed my interest. It was all a dream / simulation / time loop that we'll erase... Yeah, get the audience invested in stuff that turns out to not be real and then be all Surprised Pikachu when the audience is gets disengaged.
I called it in episode one, but also the tone of the buzz (and annoyance) at the show pretty much confirmed it for me.
Pulling that almost never works even for an episode of a TV show, for a whole season? No wonder...
The trailers looked so good! I was so looking forward to it! Glad I did not waste my time.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 04:23 am (UTC)From:"It was a dream/it was a simulation/we fixed it so it never happened" almost never ends well, for exactly the reasons you said.
I don't understand WHY creators don't understand that audiences don't LIKE putting in the emotional engagement into the story, caring about the story they have been given, only to be told ultimately that it wasn't real or doesn't matter.
Like, sometimes a "this was ultimately futile" ending suits the theme... but not when it's a garbage "the thing you engaged with NEVER HAPPENED" thing.
And I'm sure there's plenty that could be said in a smug douchebag voice about how "duh it's not real, you know you're watching a TV show" but come on.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 04:59 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-05 04:30 am (UTC)From:There are very few times that sort of "twist" is done well. There are a few that I can think of, but those almost always lean more toward "there is something external controlling the narrative and trapping the characters within it" in a way that makes the stakes HIGHER, not moot.
And I hate it, because things like that (the "these events are being controlled externally and it has fundamentally changed the story and the characters' understanding of it" thing, and some applications of time loops) are among my favorite tropes... but so often people claim they're doing the cool thing I love when they're actually doing garbage ~it was all a dream~.