The War of the Worlds - General Discussion

[BetterButter]

[Raja]

Oh there's another one. Did Colonel Ironhorse and his generation forget about this one like they did 1953 and 1938?

[Raja]

And FOX has a different adaptation of the war also due soon. 

Same name, same inspiration different show. The wiki says it is supposed to be modern like the Tom Cruise movie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series)

[rove4]

It's Demelza Poldark!  I had no idea anyone was doing a new adaption of this but I'll definitely check it out. 

[arjumand]

Anyone watched this? Hello?

I was really enjoying the first episode - it's set in Edwardian England, and though there are a couple of slip-ups, it's mostly accurate - until I realised the following, which I'm putting in spoiler space:

Spoiler

This is a doubled narrative, with the intro and attack timeline presented side by side with a timeline about 8 years later, judging by the age of a character who's a spoiler. And that puts me off even bothering with the second episode. Crap.

I'm going to try the other War of the Worlds, now.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎10‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 6:12 PM, Raja said:

Oh there's another one. Did Colonel Ironhorse and his generation forget about this one like they did 1953 and 1938?

Heros and Icons channel has started to play the 1980's version on Sunday evenings. wasn't that show somewhat controversial at the time?

[Raja]

25 minutes ago, Ubiquitous said:

Heros and Icons channel has started to play the 1980's version on Sunday evenings. wasn't that show somewhat controversial at the time?

Pre internet I don't remember a controversy, like a lot of genre shows of that time War of the Worlds had soft reboots after every season so besides the breakout actor the last episode rarely looked like world of the pilot. By the end with Colonel Ironhorse killed off, maybe a black doctor, a show becoming more white would mark it today.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2020 at 1:38 PM, Raja said:

Pre internet I don't remember a controversy, like a lot of genre shows of that time War of the Worlds had soft reboots after every season so besides the breakout actor the last episode rarely looked like world of the pilot. By the end with Colonel Ironhorse killed off, maybe a black doctor, a show becoming more white would mark it today.

If memory serves, the violence and them showing the aliens dissolving into goo when they died was a big thing. In last night's ep, for example, a threesome possessed members of a prison hockey team and one of them tore a man's arm off while practicing for a match and threw it across the rink. Funny enough, the producer who changed the show in the second season also produced the Friday the 13th TV series, which also had a lot of gore and violence.

[OldButHappy]

Anyone watching the Epic reboot? I'm really liking it, so far....

[Raja]

I gave it an hour and it seemed like it was just spreading what two movies were able to tell in 2 hours into something too long since I already know the story 

[Anela]

On 4/9/2020 at 9:02 AM, OldButHappy said:

Anyone watching the Epic reboot? I'm really liking it, so far....

I've watched four episodes. 

[ctlady]

On 4/9/2020 at 9:02 AM, OldButHappy said:

Anyone watching the Epic reboot? I'm really liking it, so far....

We watched all 8 episodes.  The premise is pretty interesting, but the French-with-English subtitles drove us crazy.  I literally had to get off the couch, put my glasses on and sit in front of the tv and read them out to hub (whose eyesight isn't too great).  It wouldn't have been so bad if they kept the subtitles up a bit longer and they weren't miniscule white font.  They had these long sentences up for no more than a blink of an eye. 

On a more shallow note - Elizabeth McGovern did not age well

[OldButHappy]

I thought it was scary and I liked the atmospheric feel, but the finale was such a let-down - mostly b/c I thought this was a one-season show and I expected something huge to happen.  But, in retrospect, it seems, well, kind of s-l-o-w... 

[AnimeMania]

Video: EPIX Debuts Full Length Trailer for Season Two of "War of the Worlds" Premiering June 6th, 2021

War of the Worlds, written and created by BAFTA Award-winner Howard Overman (Misfits, Crazyhead, Merlin) of Urban Myth Films will premiere its eight-episode second season on EPIX on June 6 at 9pm.

Set in France and the UK, the critically-acclaimed, modern-day retelling of H.G. Wells' classic novel has an ensemble cast, including Golden Globe winner and EMMY and Tony award nominated actor Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment), and Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award winner, Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People), along with returning cast members, Léa Drucker, Natasha Little, Stéphane Caillard, Adel Bencherif, Ty Tennant, Stephen Campbell Moore, Bayo Gbadamosi, Aaron Heffernan and Emilie de Preissac.

In the first season of War of the Worlds, an alien attack all but wiped out mankind, with just a handful of humans fighting to survive. And no one felt more rocked by the invasion than Emily (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who discovered she may have her own strange personal connection to the aliens. Season two of War of the Worlds sees our characters left reeling by the possibility that the invaders could be human. A tense fight to take back the planet awaits them. For some, the sheer desperation to survive will lead them to contemplate sacrificing one of their own...

[Pearson80]

On 3/2/2020 at 4:02 AM, Ubiquitous said:

If memory serves, the violence and them showing the aliens dissolving into goo when they died was a big thing. In last night's ep, for example, a threesome possessed members of a prison hockey team and one of them tore a man's arm off while practicing for a match and threw it across the rink. Funny enough, the producer who changed the show in the second season also produced the Friday the 13th TV series, which also had a lot of gore and violence.

I absolutely adored the first season even with the violence. I remember watching it as a kid and loving it. I loved the  show with the aliens trying desperately to find immunity from the virus and bacteria that do not hurt humans since we are from here but hurts them.  I loved our heroes thwarting them.  I wished the show had continued with the same theme in season 2 with the whole cast intact.  Season 2 was trash and it was not a shock when the show got cancelled. 

[snickers]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:44 PM, ctlady said:

We watched all 8 episodes.  The premise is pretty interesting, but the French-with-English subtitles drove us crazy.  I literally had to get off the couch, put my glasses on and sit in front of the tv and read them out to hub (whose eyesight isn't too great).  It wouldn't have been so bad if they kept the subtitles up a bit longer and they weren't miniscule white font.  They had these long sentences up for no more than a blink of an eye. 

On a more shallow note - Elizabeth McGovern did not age well

Yes, i hate it especially when translating languages how they have the subtitle up for half a second!

And I concur, Elizabeth McGovern did not age well...at all

I had never heard of this show until i started seeing non-stop commercials on Hulu Live....and I have a ROKU device and was browsing last week when i was bored and i happened to see that Epix had all 8 of the first season for free to stream....i quite liked this a lot....but, i'm not gonna be signing up for Epix anytime soon....my Mom cut down her cable channels so she does not have epix anymore so I'll just wait until season 2 is eventually free to stream as well....or, i might wait until all 8 are available and do the 7 day free trail lol

I would say if someone wants total action and alien invasion, this is not the show for them, but if they want a good character study...this is the show for them

[ichbin]

On 6/13/2021 at 9:18 PM, snickers said:

I would say if someone wants total action and alien invasion, this is not the show for them, but if they want a good character study...this is the show for them

Also if they are into everything being grim and depressing.  Do these characters every catch much of a break?  

On 4/16/2020 at 1:44 PM, ctlady said:

, but the French-with-English subtitles drove us crazy.

That bothers me too because I usually multi-task while watching and can't always have my eyes glued to the screen.  Unfortunately my bilingualism doesn't include any of the Romance languages and it's usually one of those requiring subtitles in a lot of shows lately.

 

I really dislike the Emily character pretty much since the beginning but I can't determine if that is just me or because the writers intended that to be the case.  I think there are too many side stories going on also. It seems like all the main characters will be getting together at some point so hopefully there will be more focus on the main story after that happens.

[Kelda Feegle]

My biggest issue is with the apparent age disparity between Emily and Sasha, makes me uncomfortable. Apart from that it's a bit grim and slow but I'm continuing to watch.

[AnimeMania]

Season Three of "War of the Worlds" is currently in production.

[lidarose9]

After the first couple episodes of Season 1, this settled into being the usual dystopian post-apocalyptic whatever. It's pretty much all by the numbers, weighted heavily by way too much interpersonal drama. Just warmed over soap opera shit. We've seen it and seen it and seen it. I just do not need to watch yet another show about people skirmishing with mysterious aliens ("why do they want to kill us?") and scavenging in empty drug stores. Very little action. I really liked the set-up, especially the Alpine scientists in their mountain fastness. I love Gabriel Byrne and would watch him read the phone book, but this is just a big yawn. 

I read War of the Worlds for the first time a few years ago and really loved it. Earth is so vulnerable in those pre-tech days, with our puny weapons and no mass communication, not even radio. So far nobody has made a movie or TV version of this story that does it justice AT ALL. 

[caracas1914]

The EPIC series:   I would consider it more a reimagining because the HG Welles vision doesn't quite come through here  However some of the elements such as the mechanical doglike killing machines have  a chilling effect and the survival mode of the remaining humans has an appeal.   There are enough hints that the aliens are also trying to somehow survive as opposed to conquest, which is why it's not exactly HG Welles.   So for me there is enough in it to intrigue and it does have  some good actors, 

Spoiler

Though I'm bummed Elizabeth McGovern gets killed off at the end of Season 1.

Plus as a Francophile I love how it's "bilingual" (though I hearya on the subtitles fleeting by). 

Warning: it is dark and depressing and I can't recall any other recent series where children are killed on & off screen almost casually.  

My biggest issue are the characters with the most questions about, the alien-like Emily and Sascha, for different reasons they are just infuriating characters.   I get that for drama they don't have to be necessarily "good", but interesting, whereas for me both characters to varying degrees just come across as nonappealing.   

Watching the 2nd season now, and goodness know I don't want slang bang action all the time but the this series is slow, it takes it's time.

The problem is IMO they are taking  way too long to get to why the Aliens are all in for planetary genocide of our species.    It seems to be in self defense over something we have done first to them, (in the future?) but still it's hard to have to wait forever because now that we've seen them and they are not just some abstract evil, coloring in their side would make things much more fascinating.  

[ichbin]

This production has dragged along for two seasons.  I've played along and suspended belief plenty, but the second season, particularly the finale, takes it to a new level.  

Spoiler

I've watched as two sets of characters somehow make it across the Channel and the 75 miles up to London by foot, no worse for the wear, with no explanation as to how that was accomplished. Yeah, I know they probably were supposed to have walked through the tunnel, but what about the aliens along the way? Aliens were on the French side, but not on the British side until London?  And where is all the ammunition coming from? Then Bill's trip through time  (with no real preparation) drops him off outside the hospital... along with the aliens too apparently?  How was Bill identified as Emily's killer considering he didn't seem to be a hunted man when he was in his office talking to his son and then later talking Helen. Most puzzling of all is how did this show get a third season pickup?  Can't say I was sorry about Emily's fate considering I have found that character to be increasingly unlikeable and annoying since the first season.

 

[cleo]

I'm watching this now. The Epic one. Just partway through season 1.

It is very bleak and very slow. I normally avoid shows like this- but I'm really into it. I think the world seems shitty and bleak right now so I'm just leaning into it lol.

Agree Emily seems really bitchy and awful at times. Sacha also eh not sure.

[xaxat]

On 7/6/2021 at 3:21 PM, AnimeMania said:

Season Three of "War of the Worlds" is currently in production.

So, based on the end of season two, they are going to 

Spoiler

reset the reset?

Not that interesting when you can always change the rules.

[cleo]

Season 2 episode 3 or so. I still hate these teens. If the writers are trying to make some grey story they're failing imo.

The aliens put a bomb in a young girl's stomach. I wish Bill had said that to Emily and her parents and her psycho boyfriend.

It's not particularly that I think what Bill did qas right. But Emily all along has been pretty unmoved by people dying around her. Like the two teens come across like sociopaths and I'm not sure that's the intent.

[AnimeMania]

Set in present-day France and the U.K., Season Three picks up as the war between the survivors and aliens reaches a new turning point and a terrifying phenomenon grips countless people across the globe. With stakes at an all-time high, one survivor sets out to investigate, forming a tentative partnership with another unlikely hero along the way. The pair will need to use every resource they have available to face an opposition more dangerous than ever in their fight, once again, for the survival of all humanity.

[MichaelaRae]

Late to the party but finally started binging this weekend and evenings. Halfway through season 2 and came here to say that I’m ambivalent about Emily but JESUS CHRIST ON A CRACKER, SASCHA IS JUST THE WORST. I need him to get punched in all of his many smirky faces, many times.

Edited September 13, 2022 by MichaelaRae

[cleo]

I'm DVRing season 3 but it will take me ages to get to it lol.

I hate both Sasha and Emily.

[ichbin]

So that's got to be it now, right?  I've been hate watching this since about half way through the first series.  The best thing about season three was 

Spoiler

No Emily.  No Sasha.  

Quote

[snickers]

hahaha i concur with the above

I get Epix for 2 months as part of a black friday promotion, so I binged Season 3 pretty quickly, but I was little let down with the end, though I guess it ended in a way that if it is not renewed, there is some closure...

Bill and Catherine continue to make choices that make me want to choke them though...him with the "going outside for coffee" and her not being more careful

Is it me or did Lukas Hass not age well?

[cleo]

I DVRed it so I just started episode 1. If Sasha and Emily don't appear on my screen this season I will consider it a success.

Making sense of the time travel makes my head hurt so I just ignore it.

I do like this show always takes a different tack from what I expect. So it was interesting/different they had people on earth kind of remembering bc normally in a time travel scenario that doesn't happen.

Also liked how they kept the characters kind of true to who they were- the sister is a mess, Zoey as an agent- eehhhh ok. 

Wouldn't hurt for that soldier to come back, the one the scientist slept with.

Sorry I am just terrible remembering character names.

ETA this show continues to have to most sudden, brutal deaths.

Edited December 2, 2022 by cleo