shrewd.buddha

This last episode seemed to turn back to a semi-serious tone - no wacky comedic shenanigans or characters. The pre-apocalypse setting and the vault creation conspiracies are the only parts that I found engaging. Is the fact that Fallout doesn't take itself seriously the reason it is considered better than something like Rebel Moon? Both have high production values, but also cliched characters and the usual story tropes. At least Rebel Moon provides second-hand entertainment with all the meme material it generates. Fallout seems to be saying: "Hey look, I'm not even trying." Was that her entire life's mission? Cold fusion energy for everyone? She seemed to have vastly different, ideological goals in previous episodes. Is the LA Observation Center a cold fusion power plant now?!? The electrical grid is still intact? All those light bulbs in those buildings from the early 60's still work? Why am I trying to make sense of all this? This feels like a show I could take more seriously if it were animated.

On a scale from 1 to 10, the level of plot coincidence and contrivance is set to 19. Lucy, Maximus, the Ghoul, Thaddeus and the Dog all happen cross and crisscross paths with one another with perfect timing. With the appearance of radio DJ Fred Armisen, the leader of Vault #4 and the other vault characters, it seems safe to assume that this show wants to be a comedy.. .. which is perfectly fine .. but the wacky tone of the show isn't doing it for me. If the show was more like the pre-Nuclear apocalypse storyline, with a sense of dread, corporate conspiracies, anarchist groups and conflicting ideologies, I would like it much more. I never played the game - so any appeal based on references to that is completely lost on me. I can only judge it for how it appeals to me as a streaming series.

I'm sure the showrunners put time and effort in finding all those ironically used "oldies" music choices .. but it is annoying now. If it were toned down a bit it could work - but there is nothing subtle about this show. The show is a depressing dystopian comedy of errors with characters who aren't very bright, barely managing to stumble from one situation to the next. The return to Lucy's brother and the vault dwelling community is setting the stage for their naive and petty idiocy leading them to slaughter. Like 'The Office' - but with violent murders. How did these people manage to survive this long? The flashbacks to the Ghoul's life before the apocalypse are the only scenes with a sense of normalcy instead of absurd wackiness. But, respect for the set designs and cinematography.. Well done, there. Now I understand why Amazon dumped the entire season online at once. My appetite for more is quickly diminishing. But what do I know? I'm older and not hip to current trends - - this could be just the type of thing the kids crave these days.

Sigh.. the first episode made me optimistic but this one seemed to set the tone for the show: which appears to be apocalyptic wacky shenanigans with sprinkles of gory violence. I can deal with the gore and violence but not sure how long I can tolerate the grizzled hillbilly chicken f**kers and the main characters being dumb and dumber. Quirky can be amusing, but in a savage wasteland, a naive idiot like Lucy wouldn't keep her belongings or survive for more than a day. Maximus also seems to be bumbling from one situation to another, just lucky to survive. I will stick around for a few more episodes, but this may be one of those shows that isn't engaging to me. The shootout in Filly scene and the gory foot attachment device just struck me as silly. Maybe fans of the Fallout game are getting more out of this than me. On the positive side, it appears that a lot of people manage to survive past middle-age in the wasteland.

I also know nothing about the game. But the first episode was compelling: somewhat serious, somewhat campy, some gallows humor, some genuine emotions, impressive sets and good acting. Not sure how the different storylines are going to intersect, but it didn't feel like an impenetrable puzzle and made me want to watch more. (It almost felt as if one storyline was in a different time period but maybe that is because so many shows are doing that these days) Not sure how to interpret AmazonPrime dropping the full season at once (like the old days). I took that as a sign of low confidence so I was braced for mediocrity .. but was happily surprised with this beginning.

Not sure if the source material avoided this problem, but the super-advanced VR headset should allow the AI's - and the San-Ti - to explore/scan the human brain and have real-time communications with a human about their feelings, motivations, etc. @Chicago Redshirt, your detailed list of issues with the show are the kinds of problems the showrunners should have anticipated when viewers start pulling at the threads of the story as told: things don't add up. Evans and Ye made a lot of ridiculous assumptions about what the San-Ti would do when arriving on Earth. If you don't trust your fellow human beings, why would you think an alien entity would have any altruistic plans for any life on Earth?

My three problems with The 3 Body Problem. (based on what has been shown so far) An invasion fleet 400 years away is not the biggest problem: the aliens are already here. The AI (Sophons) and cult-helpers have real-time communication with the aliens. They can manufacture metallic headsets with neural interfaces. They can cause mass hallucinations (blinking stars). They can override electronic communications (Times Square billboards, EV vehicles). Why not create a super virus? Create advanced weapons for the cult-helpers to use? Blind all key scientists with countdown images? Launch some nuclear missiles? Don’t expect me to be devastated by the death of a guy with terminal cancer who didn’t want to pursue further treatments - - especially after you expected me to accept that for the sake of humanity there was a need for a boatload of children to be sliced into deli meat. (90% of the people on that boat were likely clueless spouses or children of the zealots.) If you want to brand yourself as a smart sci-fi show, you had better expect a lot of nit-picking: A water filter that doesn’t need cleaning? Nano fiber tech that goes from prototype to industrial use in a few weeks? Cryo-hibernation tech that appears just when they need it? Saul not being smart enough to realize Yen was giving him some type of clue with the "joke". Etc, etc..

Over the years I have gotten tired of the standard sci-fi narcissistic notion that "only humans matter" - as if it would be perfectly fine if all life on Earth was destroyed but a small group of humans managed to survive. Personally, I don't think life would be worth living without all the other life on Earth. But there are so many issues with (Chinese Mom) Yen Wenjie's way of thinking: Turning "Silent Spring" into a anti-human manifesto is messed up. "All life is connected.": agreed - but that includes human life. Yen has been betrayed, beaten, helped deforest acres of land and has lost faith in humanity .. but her own brutality is making her seem like an evil crazy genius scorned woman. Yen received only one message from the aliens before she invited them to conquer Earth. Why would she assume the aliens were only interested in subjugating humans? They could have plans to terraform the entire planet.

Even with today's technology, human scientists can scan for possible inhabitable planets; why didn't the aliens? Why not live underground or become a space-faring species like in Battlestar Galactica? What does the "restarting civilization" and "re-hydrating" the aliens after a 'chaotic' cycle really mean? Do they lose all intellectual progress? Do they have to evolve from protozoa again? Again: build satellites and spaceships and send them to a safer place during the 'chaotic' periods: your technology and some of your species could survive to return and catch you back up.

I had to think about this, but yeah, things do not add up: a) In episode 1, Yen Wenjie gets a message that basically says "I'm a pacifist who got your message first. Your message could have been intercepted by the others who are invaders. I won't tell anyone about your call. Don't call back. Bye." b) In episode 5, the aliens seem to say "When something is known, everyone also knows," as if they share collective thought - so deception is not possible and is a foreign concept. Both of these things cannot be true - unless there is more than one highly advanced species on the planet. I really don't want to hear the writers come up with some lame "yes, but" excuse for these type of inconsistencies.. As others have said, the video game already demonstrates that the ET's know a lot about human behavior and psychology. And everything the ET-helper cultists have been instructed to do is basically deception and manipulation.

Same here. The last three episodes were mostly talk, exposition, about things that were being done . Just a lot of angst between the Oxford grads. Is this considered a success for Netflix? It seems like too much of a slow burn for typical viewers. How were the video game headsets created? The Sophons (AI) could provide the design, but the device would still need to be physically created - and that would be cutting-edge, super advanced technology. If the Sophons can directly take over EV vehicles and aircraft, they could eliminate anyone they consider a threat. The stuff with Saul and the Wallfacer plan was slightly interesting but also felt like fluff. The entire show feels like 80% talk and 20% action (or less). The concepts are intriguing but the overall result is not satisfying.

I was shocked .. at how little happened in this episode. Why is the unrequited love between cancer-guy and Jin even a plot point? (Had to look up his name: Will.)

The destruction of the Judgement Day ship was a) impressive b) a ridiculously over-engineered plan c) brutal and merciless (lots scenes of innocent, playful children) d) no guarantee that usable data would survive e) a mess that would leave the below-water half of the ship, and fuel, in the Panama Canal channel f) a nice special effect .. so, worth it ??

The stakes have certainly been raised, but common sense and logic have left the building. But we're too far in to stop watching now.. What was the point of the AI telling the humans of their entire plan? The talk of humans advancing faster than the aliens in 400 years makes no sense: the aliens in the spaceships headed to Earth are not being affected by the 3 sun problem anymore .. the spaceship aliens can monitor human tech progress and can improve their own advanced tech .. so dumb..

On a more common sense level, why would the alien helper cult think that Jin would be okay with the murder of her friend Jack? They were not even subtle or mysterious about it. Yen Wenjie (Chinese Mom) is a lot less of a sympathetic character now .. but she also seems a lot more naive (dumb) about trusting an unknown alien intelligence she knows nothing about.

Things have escalated. I wondered if Jack's murder was going to be made to look like a suicide .. but the other suicides seemed genuine. I appreciated when the one character (Augie?) called them crazy for interacting with advanced technology they didn't understand - - not that it stopped them. Three episodes in, and I'm still feeling a bit detached from it all. The flashbacks to 60's, 70's China seem more grounded than the rest.

Liu Cixin also wrote The Wandering Earth. I saw the move, also on Netflix, and reevaluated any expectations of hard science fiction. It was pretty bonkers - more like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas than 2001: A Space Odyssey. I get the impression that his novels have a lot of interesting scientific concepts but things go pretty far off the rails.

Would it have been too on-the-nose if the "Oxford 5" grad guy was dying from lung cancer instead of pancreatic cancer? All the cool kids smoke on this show. (At least the edgy, hard-driven ones do)

The "science" is a bit weak. I have heard the same about the source material. You'd think PHD scientists could not help themselves from investigating how that little head mask could manufacture an immersive VR world - but no.. Young Yen Wenjie (?) seems to have a completely different personality than older Yen Wenjie. Can't blame her for thinking aliens could run things better than the government she was enduring at the time. It continues to be slightly intriguing and slightly slow. The Oxford grads who "love each other like family" is a bit much, but I suppose that was designed to make us care.

That seemed like an odd choice for for a Communist controlled government who killed college professors for being imperialists and spreading knowledge. Interstellar communication and travel require advanced intelligence and science - by humans and aliens: not exactly things that seemed to be valued. Whenever a series ends the first episode with a preview of "things that will happen during this season", it makes me think they are worried that people might not be excited enough to continue. (We skipped the preview spoilers) Our household will continue, but it may have more to do with knowledge of - and hype - of the book. This first episode was well made, but I wouldn't describe it as riveting.

Well, that was not a satisfying ending to the season. Maybe everything ends with zombies: Halo has morphed into a futuristic version of Resident Evil. Kwan, like John-117 and Makee, is now a chosen one with special abilities and divine destiny. Fantastic. It was surprising how casual people were when everyone was turning into homicidal zombies around them. Miranda put Halsey on ice as if nothing else mattered: no exit available and not worried that the entire facility would probably be nuked. No alarms were sounding.. Thank goodness Perez survived the entire season. Without her, there would be so few prominent female characters .. other than Cortana, Halsey, Miranda, Kwan, Makee, Riz, Kai, Admiral Parangosky, Laera and the mystical white-haired woman. At this point, I am not interested in seeing more Halo. .. never played the game, so there is no bias for or against the show for that. For me, it is just not a satisfying viewing experience.

How fortunate that Kwan happened to be there to help Halsey solve the puzzle to discover the Temple of Doom thing. Ackerson getting a pass for letting millions die because he "was just following orders"? I'm not really enjoying having the worst villains of the show be the leadership of the UNSC (is that the name?).

This planet has something for everyone: an artifact cave facility for Halsey, a Spartan child training facility for Soren and a Halo Key safeguard facility for Master Chief (!) What are the odds ..? She just looks so petite for a Spartan trainee.. It doesn't make sense. The writers were determined to keep the character and ignore everything else. And did the showrunners challenge themselves to see how many episodes they could have where Master Chief has no armor? The annoyances for this season are growing...

Good job by Vannak: not starting to rot after a week of being killed and not refrigerated. Maybe that is a Spartan quality. Soren seemed pretty useless in the search for his son. Typical bad writing trope: someone has to be dumb and useless to make another character (Laera) appear resourceful and strong. That area of the planet Aleria did not seem to have any trees - - not sure they could afford to have a bonfire funeral.. And now Riz is out. They seem to be dropping a lot of regular characters this season.

Between this episode and last episode's removal of Soren's pirate gang, the show has off'ed a lot of characters. Why doesn't someone just snap Dr. Halsey's neck? And kill the new guy Ackerson the next time they see him.? It's so annoying the way these type of villainous characters are tolerated by the other characters. (I do understand why the show keeps them around: drama.) I had no twinges of sympathy for Ackerson when he was fretting over his sick father. He basically left millions of people to die without warning of an attack. Why is it such a big deal that Cortana was stolen? They cannot cut off the AI's access to their computer network? Cortanta is not capable of refusing to give information?