After season two I was wondering how they could top this. Well, they didn't.
And while that in itself didn't surprise me, because bringing back Luke was HUGE, I often felt they didn't even try. This season, while still good overall, felt like an over length movie where they did forget to cut out the unnessessary scenes. My average rating for this season dropped a full two points. And that's a lot. There were few great episodes, some good but also some really weak ones.
Din was a side player a lot of the time (which was later confirmed as being intentional). I expected this season to be about his redemption but that got dealt with very fast. The story centered more around Bo Katan which I'm absolutely fine with. I also like to have more Mandalorians in general. Now, Grogu's arc hit a wall. Aside from the finale he pretty much was there to be cute and eat something. Gideon turned into another Vader wannabe, he was more interesting in season two.
Overall this was an OK season that gets pulled down by a couple of weak episodes and weak moments within episodes. The main question for me, and I'm actually surprised to hear me saying this: do I want another season ?
Well, I still like the characters of Din, Grogu and Bo Katan and would like to see them again. But there has to be a better effort in terms of the overall story because where we stand now it seems there isn't much left to tell.
That's my impression. I have spoken.
Star Trek, for me, is more than just another TV show. I have certain expectations when I watch it. And maybe I'm to blame for that.
I listen to the dialogue carefully, trying to find clues as to what the story will be. Looking for some hidden information that might lead me to what the writers are up to when they throw in some references. I have discussions with my fellow Trek friends and we exchange our ideas, throwing back and forth concepts of what might happen next. Talking about the decissions made by the characters and the issues shown. And even for decade old episodes we still find new ways to look at them despite having talked about it at length.
But this isn't that kind of Star Trek any more. This isn't multi layered and deep story telling. It's blunt and in your face. Many things spoken of in dialogue are just that - things spoken. With no double meaning. It tries to grap attention with shocking revelations instead of delivering a silent message that you need to work out and understand. They throw in a lot of stuff not needed for the main plot just so everyone has something to do. As much as I like some of the characters, given the choice, I would scratch them completely to go on with the important stuff.
There are a couple of minutes in some episodes that I liked but they never really go through with it. Maybe someday someone does an edit removing all the ballast.
Just so we understand each other, I do critisize older Star Trek episode as well if I feel the need to. I have critized a whole show for that matter. So it's not that I dismiss this just because it's new. But I don't feel the writers seem to care or acknowledge the past stories. They are screwing facts around from those early shows to make their new ideas work. They don't think about if it makes sense. And that I don't like.
Now I'm faced with a difficult decision knowing there is another season coming with characters I hold dear. And I'm afraid they will do the same to them, turning them into something they are not.
But I know that ultimately my curiosity will get the best of me.
I gave the first season a "fair" rating and the question now is: was the second season better ?
Yes and no. Interestingly the show runners had no clue how to continue the cliffhanger. And in a way they didn't. But we learn more about the aliens and that things don't always are what they appear to be. That's hardly original but, OK. We also learn more about the charaters as we travel along. There is character developement and I am beginning to have favorites with Maggie being hands down at the top of the list. But there is also lot's of stuff that is too predictable with the writing.
Two things that almost always apply: if things are to good to be true, they usually aren't. And if two characters get too comfortable with each other the writers throw in a curve ball immediately. In one interview the producer credited the show for it's surprising twists. Honestly, I don't see it.
There were a couple of episodes I really liked but in both cases they were followed by ones I didn't. In any case it's still above a level that would make me throw the towel and much better than a lot of other stuff.
I'm still not at a point where I can give a full "7".
This show went from something I wasn't even aware of to one of my favorites fast. And a lot of that is owed to the great cast.
I have to give a lot of credit to Daniel Brühl who, until now, never really convinced me in any of his roles. I don't know the books, therefore I have no idea how Kreizler is described, but he seems to be made for him. Equally convincing Luke Evans, of whom I'd seen a lot before, but I couldn't tell you one movie his was in. And, of course, Dakota Fanning. The trio had chemistry right from the start and they carry it throughout the show.
The story is a well concieved psycho thriller that isn't loud and flashy but tries to get to you with calmness and the right amount of brutality when nessessary. To tell the story and not to attract attention.
The costumes look great, so do the physical sets. Both help sell the era this is based in. Yes, you can identify the CGI but I can easily overlook that in a TV production. On the other hand it doesn't deflect from the plot.
The dialogue ist great, too. It is refreshing to see people in a civilized manner on screen and not yelling and cursing and using foul language like it seems to be chic today.
I have a very short attention span these days and this is one of very few shows I watch without doing something else. That a quality label from my point of view. Since there are more books I hope this will continue.
I said it before and I say it again: Bernthal really deserves an award for his portrayal of Frank Castle. Not that the rest of the cast is bad, even Amber Rose had some good moments and Ben Barnes rose to the next level here. But what Bernthal brings to the table to bring Castle to life is a mayor part why this show is what it is.
Now, on it's own season two was good but compared to the first it's seconds best. There isn't anything major wrong with it, just a lot of little things.
The whole religous fanatics arc with the gay son who should become president. The Russian blackmailers - all that is overused. Amy is pretty much a noisance thoughout the season and even at the end I don't know if I like her or not. And why even bother with Beth if he doesn't go back to her. That was somewhat wasted.
I also didn't like that love story between Russo and Dr. Crazy. You could see this coming from the first time you saw her and I wish that just for once writers could resist writing this stuff. I never felt sympathy for Billy on his path for redemption. He's a bad guy and all I want is see him dead. There is no way in my book where he comes out of this on the good side.
Madani was better here than in the first season and I think it was fitting that, althought Frank was the one ultimately killing Russo, it was actually she who did the job. Makes sense in a way that Frank was at peace with what he did to Russo and would not have come after him again while for Madani there was an open wound. What I didn't get though is that she quits DHS ("I am done with this") only to go to the CIA. Isn't that the same "this" ?
One of the positives was the character of John Pilgrim. Very well played by Josh Stewart. A dark and troubled soul much like Castle. His story arc was really interesting and the outcome was very satisfiying.
Like the first season it's not action all over. There are slow parts and oftentimes you wait eagerly for things to finally happen. But I must say the managed that well. Yes, it was sometimes annoying but never to the point where I became angry.
Well, ups and downs, positives and negatives aside I fear that we won't see another season of The Punisher. There is enough talk on the internet as to why that might be the case. At least we have somewhat closure with the ending of this season.
I've watched each season of any Star Trek show more times than I can remember. The Next Generation was a show I rejected at first but with every time I watch it I embrace it more and more.
Yes, there are a lot of things debatable about the premiere season in terms of quality of the writing, continuity errors, character developement, actors performances to name a few. It is easy to critisize after the fact and with many years now gone. And even I am the first to admit that there are many cringe worthy or eye rolling moments in this first season. But remember, althought they had the original show to base it upon, they literally started with a white sheet of paper. Especially with the characters.
I also like to write a few words about the remastered HD version as I was initially oposed to that. Having now seen it I have to say it really looks great. The special effects are what most benefitted from the overhaul. They look much more crisp and detailed now. In general the picture looks great and I am amazed what they got out of the original source material. A minor negative is that the picture background looks very grainy at times especially if you're sitting close to your screen, whereas the important foreground is almost always amazingly clear. It also gets grainy when there is camera movement whereas static shots are really the best. But that is not really a downside. Brilliant and vibrant colours.
It is now easy to read the screens (which I did ocasionally). At the same time it is also easier to spot minor imperfections on the sets and props plus you sometimes spot the egdes of the make-up on characters. And it becomes really obvious now when a stunt double was used. But those are all not really flaws, nevertheless I thought I share this remarks.
There are so many serious issues with the first season. And I am not talking about the usual ones any first season might have. If you want any chance to enjoy this you need to be ready to accept weak writing, stupid and illogical character decisions (again resulting from weak writing), plot holes the size of a city block (again....see before), sub par acting (with the exception of Victor Garber) and, in general, don't even start with the science because this is pure fantasy-fiction and not science fiction. Oh, and I guess the unnessessary romance comes with the genre. You have to shrug all this off.
Yet, despite all those flaws I managed to go through to the end and I am really considering S2. Why ? Because it was fun and entertaining at times. Because I loved all the references throughout the season. And because the action sometimes wasn't bad. And, last but not least, because I hope that they can improve for S2.
Having said all that I can not give this season more than a six for the season, all things considered. And it would be a low six at that.
Edit December 25th, 2018:
After the events at the beginning of The Flash S3 I decided to drop the whole Arrowverse shows.
For the most part the first season was OK. Neither overwhelmingly exceptional nor brutally awful. Just, well - OK.
I can live with the wacky science because it is a science-fiction superhero show. There has to be some leeway. One major factor I really didn't like is the, as one trakt friend of mine likes to put it, teen-oriented crap, that turns up in all this superhero shows. There always has to be some sort of romance, love interest or the like going on. Because all these awkward moments that result from that are so fun, right ? Wrong, so distractful and also not really character building. Iris was pretty much a nuisance the whole season and I can easily see the whole storyline working without her character in it. Secondly, the villains, from top to bottom were really weak. Most of the time they were only an afterthought in any story, just to be put away by The Flash, or to be killed off later. And the villains they keep aren't even metahumans but morons with techy guns that weren't even developed by themself. The major storyline with Dr. Wells was what drove the season. That was what kept me hanging in until the end.
As it is now I can't say I will see the end of the show. There are a lot of things that need to become better for me to really go with this all the way.
I also wanted to watch the second season in HD, but I did not get past Episode 4. There are not many shows whose quality decreases so much from one season to the next.
As soon as the second season starts, you realize that it's a different show. The design has changed, which is not unusual. But here it was a step back. They just put in more stuff that had more flashing lights, but really did nothing but fill up space. And since the sets were getting smaller anyway due to the limited budget, everything seemed crowded. I really liked the simple and clear design of the first season. And the women now wear skirts - extremely modern and future-oriented (joke) .
Several cast decisions were made. Gone are Paul, Victor and David without a single word of explanation. In comes Tony and again no explanation. And they picked up Maya, played by Catherine Shell, because you need a resident alien and a little more sex appeal for the US audience. And of course there is a romance between these two new characters right away.
They also completely changed the soundtrack and the main title. While the first season included orchestral melodies and a strong main title, there are now synths in the main title and much more tempo that promises more action. And the style in the episodes changes from classic to funky and jazzy which does not fit at all to a sci-fi show.
To say that the quality of the stories worsened would be an understatement, it plumeted. Some ideas had substance, but if you think that the first season was missing in the science part or the dialogues were bad you should stay away from the second one.
The new producer Freiberger had a vision of where the show should go. It was the Americanization of a promising show. I do not think those changes where the show was needed. It backfired while the second season was still produced and in the end it killed the show.
I will always hold the first season in high regard and gladly whatch an episode here and there but I don't think I watch the second ever again.
HD Quality is good, though.
From time to time I revisit Moonbase Alpha because it is still one of my favorites of all time and I associate a lot of memories with it. It was something we watched as a family and something I played as a kid.
There were some really good scripts in this first season and, yes, some bad ones too. Oftentimes though the good ideas were pulled down by cringe-worthy dialogue. It comes with the time and place this show was produced. It wasn't as sophisticated as Star Trek had been but I loved it nonetheless (I actually watched Trek much, much later). The 70s design fit really well and the modells they built looked great (if you know Anderson TV shows you know what I mean). Most people who are watching it today for the first time will put it among the silly 70s scifi show category. But those of us who knew it from back then will always appreciate it.
I have now watched it on BluRay for the first time and can absolutely recommend them. It's amazing how well they remastered this. The details are amazing and I have discovered things I have never noticed before. If you are a fan and haven't watched it in HD do so. You won't be dissapointed.
Season three was very much different but it was so in a good way.
I like the fights in Daredevil but you can only do so much. And just repeating what has worked before can become boring fast. So we get a dark story that puts it's focus clearly more on character than on action. It was the right thing to do at the right time and I loved every minute of it. But when the action comes it always hits like a sledgehammer. Intense fights that are well choreographed.
Acting is, again, top notch. Cox does really well in showing us a struggeling Matt Murdock. D'Onofrio has such a strong presence that pulls you in. As I said before - on both cases they could not have cast a better actor. I don't think Deb Woll deserves the hatred she gets sometimes. I know lot of people don't like Karen but she also has some great scenes this season and Woll shows that she is more than a capable actress herself. And let`s not forget Bethel, another great casting decission. I was a little bit dissapointed by Jay Ali, though, both in terms of the actor and the character.
I am sure next season will have more action as we surely will see more of Bullseye and personally I'd like to see a bit of Fisk, too, if only because of D'Onofrio. After this season this is easily now one of my top 3 shows currently running.
Well, now the elephant has left the room. B & B are finally married. Only it just does not feel that way, everything is as if nothing has changed. But that's my personal opinion and in my view, it's actually a good thing. As long as the constant back and forth stops I'm fine. I just wish Booth would once stand his man and he would tell Bones to shut up. Anyway, the focus is no longer on these two, which creates time and space for the other characters.
In general, the stories are good, the show has long since set and does what it does best. And finally, Pelant is history! Although his mind lingers throughout the season. Which brings me to the Ghost Killer, something I did not like. It leads to an exciting season finale, but the connection to Pelant, who discovered at least the tip of the iceberg, is thin at best. No explanation as to the why. Or did I miss that ?
I feel relieved after this season because I was afraid that I would reach a point where I would stop. If nothing completely stupid happens, I am confident that I will finish this series.
After the revelation of the pregnancy I feared S7 would gonna be bad. When I started watching this show B&B seemed like a natural fit. You know, like opposing sides attracting each other. Brennan's awkward, quirky behavior against Booth's straight forwardness and honesty.
Now that they are together it isn't working. They are more like two cogs in a gearbox that are running tooth on tooth. If they don't find the clutch it will never work. And to be honest, althought I really liked the character of Brennan at the beginning and found her to be quite amuzing, now I cannot comprehend how anyone would want to spent time with a person like that. She has become even more bitchy. It is either that or my perception of her.
The whole show in large parts is drifting towards a soap-op. Mamys talking about their babys, releationship troubles and stuff. Althought this was never a hard crime show to begin with I feel the cases are becomming less and less relevant.
I am determined to close this show out but I can understand the comments not liking the show in its later parts.
I can only rate this a 6 because it was the worst of the show so far. There wasn't much I liked and I was actually glad it only had 13 eps.
For me S6 was much, much better than the previous two. Better written stories, some even creating an arch, resulted in better episodes. For me there was one reason - the main focus was not B&B. As I've written before that whole thing was dragged out for too long and the show was much better without that.
Of course it couldn't last. The last two episodes threw everything around, althought my guess is it was more out of necessity because it felt hasty and rushed. Emily Deschanel was pregnant for real so they had to do it now. They slept one time together and hit the jackpot. I was pi**ed that the trigger was the death of Nigel-Murray. Athought that, too, might not have been intented. Speaking of that death - I hated it. First Zach had to leave, now my favorite intern.
What I really like to see more and more is the story of Jack and Ang which feels much more natural and fluid. It is so much more better written than the other one. And, of course, I always love to see Billy Gibbons.
Everything taking into consideration I had much more fun, and emotional moments, this season so it's a step up to a solid 8.
I've finished S5, and already I am a good way into the sixth, when I realised that the end of S5 was when I stopped the show on its original run. Althought I can't remember why that was. Might be something trivial like just not having the time. But it could have been something else, too.
A large part of this show, well the main part really, is centered around the connection between B&B. The seed, that there is something grewing between them is planted very early. The problem is that they dragged that out for too long maybe because they didn't know how long the show would last and they didn't wanted to jump the gun. When they finally decided for Booth to confide his love to Bones and she rejected him the thing was already a dead horse. It had reached a point were it became annoying for me to watch that constant back and forth.
Another thing that really became annoying, in itself and in relation to a possible romance, is Bones behavior in general. Now, I know she is supposed to be that way but the constant correction of others and her rationalizing everything makes her more and more unlikable. The character hasn't really shown any developement since day one and I have now reached a point where I wouldn't want B&B to end up together.
Luckily there is a lot more to the show once you look past that non-romance so I have ample reason to go on. Still a 7 for the season.
One thing I hate is the imbedded commercials by Toyota were the characters literally cite brochure texts. I know product placement is normal but, please, make it less obvious
For me season 4 was the weakest so far. Not bad or awful just, you know, the weakest.
It started with that badly cobbled together England episode. Then there is that thing with the intern-of-the-week. Hated that. Althought in the long run I began to like them more they are all no replacement for Zach. I hoped they would bring him back at some point, since it was hinted that he did not actually kill someone. Well, didn't happen.
The plot for Angela and Jack was something that felt like if they did not know what to do with the characters. I was alright with the break-up. That was concievable and legit. But throwing her head over heels in another romance with her ex Roxy, who appered out of nowhere, only to drop that also just a couple episodes later was a waste of time. But it was good they did because it wasn't working. And now the Ang and Jack romance is in limbo althought at the end of the season they were talking about starting over. My guess is the show runners don't want another romance to distract from the main one.
What else ? Max Keenan - they wrote him out of jail only to dissapear into nothingness. He has one small showing in one episode (I don't count the dream-episode).
Some episodes I did not particulary enjoy include the circus, the ghost and the steal-the-body-from-the-wake. They had some good parts but were alltogether to cliched and especially the later felt so overdone. Maybe 22 episodes would have been better.
But even with all this negatives I consider Bones still one of the better shows and it still had many good things to go for. I am now maybe more analytical while watching then, say ten years ago, so everything is fine.
A good 7 for season 4.
The third season of Bones was cut short due to the strike and I think it hurt them. More later. Overall it was still a great year but there where things I did not like. The positives first.
They added another character with Dr Lance Sweets, played by John Francis Daley. At first I found him annoying and not really likeable. I would have loved to have Stephen Fry as Dr. Wyatt as a regular but in retrospect I guess that was a pipedream. Anyway, in the long run Dr Sweets complemented the characters of Booth and Bones rather well and he was kind of the missing part to a pair already there. I hope this is comprehensible.
What else ? Of course there was the first kiss between our main protagonists (look for the extended scene of that kiss, it is on the DVD) and seeing Brennan and Baby Andy was another highlight. After those it was hard finding arguments any longer that there is nothing going on.
So what didn't I like? First the way Max Kennan got off scot-free. Just didn't felt right. And now comes the part where I think the strike hurt the show. Maybe I am reaching but it felt pretty rushed towards the end. That psycho-stalker that shot Booth was a good storyline that felt cut short. Could have been an entire episode with maybe Brennan getting kidnapped or something like that. And that whole thing with the funeral - yeah, right. That was a bit lame.
And the elephant in the room - Gormogon. They underlying plot of season 3. That turned out to be a bit dissapointing. Not because they took Zach to be the apprentice. Fun fact: You can clearly identify him when he kills the guy in his closet. Try going frame by frame. Cleary I did not see this when watching it on TV. No, I think they already knew at the start of that story, that one of the main characters was to be the apprentice. But that whole finale of season 3 was anticlimatic. It resolved too fast. Althought at this point I don't know how, or if, there was further developement of that plot - I just can't remember.
All in all I give this season either a really good 8 or a very weak 9. It is somewhere inbewteen. I had my share of laughs and emotinal moments in this season as well.
Second season really builds great upon the first. The character development is really good because this is first and foremost a show about people, the crimes are but the tool to tell their stories.
Their were some changes, some of which I liked and some I don't. Lets start with the character of Dr. Saroyan. I was totally fine with Dr. Goodman. He could have been developed further, plus there wasn't really a need for another female role as we already had Bones and Angela. But one thing Dr Goodman never could have been - an ex-lover to Booth. Interestingly Tamara Taylor was only hired to do six episodes at first and then her character was to die but they decided diffenrently. The producers tried a lot to convince audiences that their is nothing growing between Booth and Bones. Other clues are his short flic with his ex Rebecca and then there is the thing between Bones and Sully, who is really kind of a Booth look alike. Maybe I am reflecting because I already watched most of the show but even when I watched it initially, it never felt convincng.
Some great additions in the secondary with Stephen Fry as Doctor Wyatt, who was absolutely brilliant but unfortunately only did a few episodes, and Paticia Belcher as Caroline Julian.
I was glad they ended Howard Epps because he was to generic, the kind of mad psycho stalker you had in so many movies and shows. The romance between Jack and Angela was something I liked. Yes, it was to be expected that some of the characters would be involved at some point and it seems to be a bit early but I am sure that no one had foreseen a 12 year run of the show.
So, another 9 for season 2, slightly below thefirst, but with lots of laughs and love.
Bones was one of the last shows I really, really loved to watch. Where I would look forward to every new episode. This show was great right out of the gate because it was well crafted and developed. The characters had enough depth from the pilot on, to be interesting, and enough in the background to be developed. It was easy to attach to them and care for them. They were all perfectly cast and everybody gave it their best.
We all know that in the long run their would be the romance on the horizon but personally I think in the early parts of the show it did not stand in the way. It has always been a character driven show so those things are to be expected. But it also felt believable, the affection, the care, the friendships - I totally bought into that.
There are always pros and cons in re-watching a show. You know what will happen so it's fun to look for clues when things started to develope. But because of that, it also takes away a bit, because of what you know.
After now having completed the first season, again, I have to say that I still love this show. Interesting cases, great, snippy humor - there were several attemps to do a character like Bones in similar shows, as is always be the case when something is succesfull. None came close. There is only one Bones.
I give this season a very strong 9, trending towards a 10.
Season 2, in my opinion, was just a little bit too much of everything. Too many twists, too many side storied, too much violence. On the other hand it lacked in mystigue. The implied story of the evolution of an AI into independence degenerates into the old story of the search for immortality. With the upper echelon having the upper hand because of their money. As for the violence in this season: I don't think it was nessessary. In S1 the violence shown by the guests towards the hosts made sense to underline that human thought of them as toys, as a lower form of existence. After all, a host can't die so what do we care. Now it seems violence is just there to be there, everything has to be bloody. And we have a load of muscle packed, stupid security that gets shot down at every instance.
While watching further and further I wondered how this could ever generate into a third season. To be honest I am totally fine if the ending of this season beeing the end of the show. A kind of open ending where you can let your imagination fill in the rest. We know that a third season is already confirmed and the post credit scene of the final episode layed the foundation. But I am not sure it would be a direction that interests me.
It's entertaining and literally starts with a bang. Interesting idea to make into a TV show. Strong start but becomes a little shallow towards the middle with no clear focus on what this is about - politics or action. While it could be both it is not mixing well. A shorter season would have help the pace and kept a lot of unneeded stuff out. Sutherland plays a good and believable part so does most of the cast. But the whole show is at times over dramatized. The score, the fanfares almost every second scene, it drips patriotism which probably not everyone can relate to. And of course the bad guy gets away in the S1 finale.
So either this show ends with the conspirators caught at the end of the second season, because dragging this on through several more seasons would be boring as hell. It was a good way to get the ball roling but after it was discovered that it was national terrorism and not muslim it basically went nowhere but sideways. Or they turn more towards the politics and show the problems in rebuilding but that too might not be enough for x number of seasons. Either way, right now I don`t see how this show can run for many more seasons.
I wouldn´t say this is better than the first season. That would have been a tough thing to achieve. But it sure isn´t a let down. It´s a different plot but still, in my book, by far the best of the Marvel shows by a wide margin. The main characters are so well written and the performances, again, superb. Daredevil is such a deep and rich character and I hope they can do the same with The Punisher in his own show bacause I love what I´ve seen so far from him. It´s always the characters with a dark spot that are the most interesting.
I don´t know where to put Elektra. I´ve hoped for here to come back to screen but so far not sure what to make of her. Is she like that in the comics ? A spoiled, rich little b**** ?
The romance between Matt and Karen never worked for me. It´s that kind of thing you saw coming from day one yet hoping it wouldn´t surface. When it does you know it wouldn´t, couldn´t, work.
With Bernthal as The Punisher they added another strong actor to an already great cast. He really sells Frank Castle. Also, we see D'Onofrio again who ownes every second he´s on screen.
In this show there are very long scenes at times but they never feel long or boring because those actors fill every second of them with life. Even if you just focus on someones face for seconds without any dialogue there is so much going on on their faces. That´s what you get when you have a great cast.
Just finished season two and I am still not feeling it. And right now I am asking myself why I should continue ? Because of the show itself or the MCU tie-ins. Upon further inspection both arguments don´t seem to be compelling right now.
It is not an awful show but it isn´t exceptional either. I wish they would get rid of Hydra once and for all. Like Rayna said - it is so 1945. And all this back and forth twisting makes me wonder if this will be another show where they are writing themselves into a dead end street and then do a ridiculous twist out of that. Production is good thought.
And as far as the MCU tie ins are concerned, how, if anything, does this fit together? Because it seems the show is doing its thing for 98 % of the time and everytime a new movie is about to premiere they are writing in some lines to remind people that, yes, we are in the same universe. You really don´t lose out if you only watch the movies. And if you´d ask me it would be a better fit within the X-men anyway.
I´ll give this season another six while in reality I think of it more of a higher five.
I just recently finished season one. I´ll have to admit had I watched it at the original airdate I probably wouldn´t have made it past episode five. But since so many people said it would become better I continued.
It looks cool, the action is good but althought beeing part of the MCU it felt more like watching Fringe or X-files most episodes. It is missing the real superheroes. Maybe it was never supposed to have them but after watching the movies it feels like that.
From the main characters only Coulson is really great. His story, the mystery surrounding him, is what drives this show so far. I also liked Mae but the rest are weak. Skye is an arrogant I-know-it-better-typ and that kind of wunderkind has been overdone. Ward is the stereotype muscle. I disliked him even before he turned out to be a traitor. And that romantic arc between Skye and Ward was on the wall from episode one And don´t get me started about Fitz/Simmons because they feel more like something from a Disney kids show.
The scripts became better towards the end, more cohesive, but I also must say the villain(s) left a lot to be desired. It´s always the take-over-the-world type with little depth.
That is my assessment after the first season. I haven´t yet watched the rest so please don´t spoil. Maybe some of the things I mentioned will change later on.
Voyager became a different show with season 4. It wasn´t a big overhaul but a lot of little things that finally made this show reaching up to it´s potential.
The addition of Jeri Ryan as Seven was a big plus. Althought she was ment to be the babe and bringing some sexy looks she´s done so much more. Seven brought conflict to the show. She was the sandpaper between the rest of the crew, always questioning their methods and motives. She was the strong opposite to Janeway, the both of them clashing horns at every corner, and I think a lot of time Seven was spot on in her assessment of Janeway. They wrote more interesting stuff for Seven in even half of the season than they ever did for Kes. I liked Jennifer Lien but I felt her character never really went anywhere in terms of developement.
I also liked the B´Elanna/Tom relationship. It was bound to happen to couple two characters and those two seemed to be the only ones believable.
Overall scripts became better, the show alltogether had more and better continuity. I still didn´t like any character particulary which over the whole run of the show never really changed. Personally I would have liked to see more of the Hirogen who, from the introduction, were far more interesting and threatening than the Kazon ever became. But I´ll admit that ultimately the Hirogen were maybe a bit to single minded and since Voyager was bound to move on draging the Hirogen along would have ultimately been the same as with the Kazon.
Just finished season three of Voyager.
Luckily the Kazon are gone. If you´ve read my other reviews you know why I never liked them. That freed up time for other stories and species. In a way they pushed the reset button on certain things which helped the show in the long run. I would say this is the better Season 1. This Season has one of the best episodes up to this point f.e. "Unity", "Real Life", "Distant Origin" which was my favorite of this year. We meet the "Q" again, "Before and After" was really well made and "False Profit" was a fun episode to watch. But this season also contains the infamous "Trilogy of Terror". If you don´t know what this is about google it. For me it felt like a rolercoaster that has some really exicting sections and than some boring ones. They still couldn´t keep it on the same level for a whole year. Since there were more good episodes than in the first two season combined (this is my personal opinion I´m sure other´s feel different) I´d rank this as the best Season so far.
I could never quite figure out why Voyager was my least favorite of all the Star Trek shows. With TNG and especially DS9 I was hooked after Season 1. Voyager was more of an effort to like. Since it was Star Trek I wanted to watch it and like it. Which ultimately I did. For me until the end of this year in general everything was "just-so". Watching it now, almost 20 years later, I wonder if it hadn´t been Trek would I have had the patience to see it through ?
The second season didn´t provide much progress compared to the first. They were still doing what worked best before. I saw little in terms of character developement.
The whole idea of the show was to put a ship literally "where no one has gone before" but we only see glimpses of other cultures. Instead they keep dragging the Kazon along and it became more and more aparent with every Kazon episode that they didn´t work. As the writers and producers agreed later it was unfathomable that you travel a year and a half at high warp and still haven´t left them/their space behind. After all they were a sub-culture that overthrow their supressors just 30 years ago.
I still couldn´t pick a favorite character. Althought I don´t really hate one each of them had a minor flaw or two as far as I saw it. K. Mulgrew does a great job but I never could bring myself to like Janeway. Chakotay is kind of the dog that wants to please his master. The Doctor was still to arrogant but showed promise. Neelix is symply irritating. I can´t really say why I never liked Tuvok. Kes is a non-factor - they just didn´t found a way with her. B´Elana, Tom and poor Harry Kim all had there moments in the show but nothing that got to me. This was unusual because with every other Trek incarnation I had a favorite right from the get-go no later than the end of the premiere season.
But overall it still was on a level back at the time that few shows had so there was reason to go on.
I think the first season was so-so.
They took about everything that worked for Star Trek so far in the past in terms of stories. We had Holo-Adventures, Alien-mind-takes-over, some sorts of time travel, other dimensions, nebular entities and so on. The rare exception, and highlight of the first year, being "Jetrel". Very powerful episode. And some stories just don´t work at that early stage of the show. I mean you build a whole show about the fact that they need 70 years to come back and than you have early episodes that promises to take out huge chunks of that trip. Not going to work.
I never quite had a favorite character from the beginning as I did in TNG or DS9. The Kazon were a race I never liked - I always saw them as a poor mans Klingon. Another general flaw of the show for me was althought they wanted to show that they are one crew, a Starfleet crew, and did everthing possible to create togetherness, you could always identify Marquis from their rank insignia. It might look minor but that shows seperation in my eyes.
Nevertheless, as with most shows, the first season is a building block from which you go on.
