It is a story set in the shared universe of Parasyte. It is not exactly a retelling or adaptation. You can call it a spin-off if you like. The series actually hinted that right from E01.
Think of it this way, the Parasyte universe clearly explained that the parasytes landed in various locations around the world. This story, set in Korea, is simply one of those locations. For the first time, we are seeing the situation in Korea not told before.
That's what a shared universe is. So it isn't proper to compare it to the story set in Japan because that is just another story in the shared universe of Parasyte.
Have you ever wondered what it was like in the other locations where the Parasytes landed? They can make a spin-off for those locations.
Review by viewlin
D&D have done it again! (created a disappointment)
While the Tencent adaptation had some flaws, notably very poor pacing and some downright bizarre acting and editing, I think it was an overall better experience. Netflix cut the runtime significantly, which could have been an improvement, but they did it to the point of skipping several important developments in the story. Yet, they found ways to waste precious minutes on scenes that dragged on longer than they should have, some of which didn't add anything to the story. It's only because I watched the Tencent adaptation that I was able to appreciate some of the ideas in the Netflix adaptation, since I knew what they were covering in spite of the skipped story beats. If I hadn't, I'd either feel like I was just watching a series of spoilers, or be confused about the point of it all.
Many positive reviews are downplaying negative ones for being pedantic and expecting a direct adaptation from the books, but this is feels reductionist and disingenuous. I think it's fine to diverge from the source material, but it should be done thoughtfully. In my opinion, the Netflix adaptation fails on its own merits. Some of the changes seem to be done in the interest of simplification, but this introduces plot holes, some of which must have been done against the recommendation of scientific advisors on staff. For example, I don't think the sophon was capable of unfolding itself (Trisolaris spent an unfathomable amount of time and energy building them), yet in this adaptation the sophon does it on a whim just to create a menacing eye in the sky? Why not just starve the planet of sunlight then and finish the story right there? Originally, the eye was observed during a failed Trisolaran unfolding attempt, alluding to a sentient threat gaining access to our universe from another dimension.
Tencent gave the viewer many episodes to theory-craft why "physics doesn't exist", what the motive could be for targeting scientists, who or what could be behind it, the purpose behind the game and so forth. The characters slowly whittled down the possibilities and eventually unveiled the truth. The show drip fed information to the viewer through the eyes of the characters which often became relevant much later, such as the flying blade. It went into philosophical thought experiments that conveyed the existential dread of the situation, like the turkey scientist and the farmer. It also covered several interesting physics concepts in a way that was easy to process and yet showed respect to the viewer.
Netflix? Nah, it's aliens bro, it's right there in the trailer on YouTube. There's no respect for the viewer, so there's no attempt made to even cover concepts like cosmic background radiation. It did cover a few at least, like FTL communication with entangled sophon pairs, the staircase project, etc. Netflix did also foreshadow some concepts that do come later in the books, sometimes with just novel covers shown on screen, some in dialogue, such as the Fermi Paradox and the Wallfacer project.
I believe the Oxford Five were created to be more relatable to the viewer than Wang Miao, but I think this again shows little respect for the viewer. They achieved this in part in the laziest way possible, such as having many of them just curse in every scene. I don't think it's necessary to relate to every character, and it can certainly be done in ways beyond superficial means like gender and race like what was attempted here. The story is about the science of it all, the universe, and this extends beyond the lifespan of a single person who likes to go drinking at a bar with friends. Most of us aren't top-tier scientists, we're not going to think like Oppenheimer or Feynman, this is fine. I found my immersion broken at several points when I saw the protagonists succumbing to irrational ways of thinking. To be a successful academic at such a high level would likely entail some core beliefs about the world and ways of thinking that wouldn't come off as people reading emotional lines off a script.
Is this D&D adaptation as bad as GoT S8? Definitely not. It's several points better, but the bar is pretty low. There were some redeeming moments, a few funny lines in almost every episode, I particularly liked some parts of the last one.
I do think it can still be worth a watch. However, I highly recommend starting with the Tencent adaptation, or reading the books first. Those are more of a journey, whereas this comes off more as a poorly written fan wiki with spoilers. I think this version can really rob you of the awe inspiring ideas in the source material and Chinese adaptation. My hope is that some people will find this version interesting enough to delve into the source material.
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@viewlin I was disappointed with the pacing of the Chinese adaptation, although it covered much ground which accounted for a lot of that slow pace... coming from that to this Western adaptation I feel let down. The pacing seems better, but at the same time it loses you very fast by crunching into 1 episode what would have been 5 episodes of the Chinese version. If I abstract myself from the source material, then I'm at loss on much of the key events. Hopefully the 2nd season will be better at filling those gaps, which I doubt.
Out of all the fan theories that circulated over the years, you would be hard pressed to find one that was dumber and more disappointing than what the actual final season turned out to be. You would be better off watching Cats the movie in its place, because then you would at least be able to laugh and cringe rather than feel immeasurable disappointment and emptiness.
If you can stop yourself from watching the entire show, you might do well watching seasons one through seven and picking your favourite fan theory to close out the series. Truthfully, even seasons five, six and seven were weaker than the first half of the show, but at the time it seemed forgivable because of the show's strong beginning and the expectation that everything would tie together nicely at the end.
Those foolish enough to watch to the end will be faced with an experience similar to the five stages of grief and loss as they make their way through the final episodes. Denial that this episode is actually part of the series and not an out of season April Fool's joke. Anger that you let yourself get so invested in this show after refusing to get on the bandwagon for so many years. Bargaining, that these were fake episodes to "subvert your expectations", or that the season could be remade. Depression, that this is actually the real thing and it somehow turned out so poorly. Finally, acceptance. Just an empty feeling, no anger or sadness over increasingly stupid and illogical scenes and outcomes. Just coming to terms with this really being the end of the show and this somehow managing to get released.
It comes together about as well as a project finished in the last hour of the last day before a deadline, despite having had vast resources to pull from over the two preceding years. The only remotely redeemable aspect of the final season is the endless amount of hilarious critical reviews and memes that come at its expense.
As for the rating, it would be unfair to give a give a 1 the entire series as a whole because of the incompetence of the writers in the final season. The series did start strong and everyone involved in the project aside from the writers obviously invested a lot of time and quality work into the show. The acting, music composition, cinematography, editing, visual effects, etc. all ranged from great to amazing.
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@archm This pretty much perfectly sums it up. That is exactly how I felt and still feel.
Shout by Yohan Yuki Xieㆍ사요한・謝雪矢
I can't wait for this. I want to see this Western adaptation of the novel and compare it with the 2023 adaptation made by Tencent (China).
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@c8d6e665-1c43-473f-bb8c-c1b1d548b3d9 Same! My hopes started to go down after they revealed there will be 8 episodes only! It is not easy to pack a novel in an 8-episode series. There are very few who tried that and succeeded.
Shout by Yohan Yuki Xieㆍ사요한・謝雪矢
I can't wait for this. I want to see this Western adaptation of the novel and compare it with the 2023 adaptation made by Tencent (China).
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@youronlyone Mhm, it's Netflix. I wouldn't be surprised if they'll ruined it. We'll see.
No. I am sorry. No.
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@svetliomitev How insightful. Very helpful
Shout by TV Watcher
This is a great show if you want to watch hypocrite actors who drive gas guzzling cars, fly private jets and sail yachts all over the world tell you how important it is to save the planet by not doing the very things they love doing. A rule for me and a rule for thee. It has all the big names flocking to it so they can spread their message that they are constantly preaching, yet doing something counter to it.
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So you’re rating the behavior of the actors here and not the show? Keep that shit on Twitter!
Fun show, but it's annoying how they keep doing replays of the same moment like 4 times in a row.
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@rkjjhv I think that's just a very Korean thing to do, when it comes to reality tv type shows. To "build suspense" for the audience.
weak ass movie. just wasted 90 mins of my life. zero action. not what I was expecting. who cares about some dumb pig?? poor story line , and zero action. that's a zero star rating from me. all these superb reviews just seem suspicious? are you guys bots? did we see the same movie?
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I find it a bit ironic that caring about emotional substance more than action makes us bots.
Terrible show you want so badly to be good. The writing is so lazy and cheap. Cliffhanger tactics to keep people watching.
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@xz3r0 Boy were you wrong, holy shit this didn't age well.
The story and art style definitely seem cool and interesting, but the long, dull, uninspired battle scenes drag on too much, and the sound effects just don’t make sense. Swords whooshing sound like transformers, and it’s all so exagerated, it’s off-putting. Don’t waste your time, this show isn’t worth it.
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@gekey No, not at all.
Season 1 of The Mandalorian started out reasonably well, had a weak middle and finished off reasonably well again.
The show is probably best watched with the understanding that it's part of the Star Wars franchise, and thus is going to be somewhat simple, fun and have predictable outcomes. The show is not going to impress you with complex character development or shocking plot twists, and might even crumble a bit if you look too closely at some parts.
Still, it's enjoyable for what it is, especially if you like the Star Wars universe. You can certainly do worse with other shows and movies within the franchise.
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@archm that's quite considerate of you; I guess I just don't have enough patience (or maybe just disappointed) seeing how this show ended up to be. Especially considering the franchise had some amazing works created before all of this mess. It's very unlikely the show will have twists like the ones you mentioned.
If you want to see Star Wars at its peak, try seeing Tartakovsky's Clone Wars (2003). If you're okay with cartoon. It's made by the same team behind Samurai Jack. For the best storytelling go for Thrawn trilogy (novels) and/or Knights of the Old Republic (games).
