Season 1 Discussion

[Clanstarling]

I know a couple of families like that (not mine).

I also like that I'm unhampered by any expectations, since I never saw an actual episode of the first show (I'm old enough, but didn't see it). So I can take (or leave) it on its own merits.

[Joimiaroxeu]

At first I thought Molly Parker was Carrie Coon and that she was sort of playing another leftover.

Wonder why they're having Toby Stephens do an American accent?

Holy moley, trying not to sacrifice one kid to save another. Way to up the stakes right out of the gate.

That was amazing the way they introduced the "Danger, Will Robinson!" line.

Off to a good start. I like it. I didn't see the original series except a few rerun episodes in syndication decades later so I'm not going to be much bothered by possible unfavorable comparisons.

Quote

half of them would have died the first night on their new planet had the alien not conveniently showed up with all the right powers in the nick of time.

Heh, the robot was a literal deus ex machina. But given what we saw of the attack on the mother ship, maybe the robot isn't really benevolent?

[Colorado David]

2 hours ago, Happywatcher said:

I know they established that Maureen wanted a divorce, but that doesn't excuse her jerkass with a side of bitch act. 

The middle girl being a snot could get tiring. 

The oreo commercial wasn't as bad as it could have been

Agreed, the mother is extremely dis likable.  Both of the daughters are annoying. The son and the robot are alright.

[nodorothyparker]

49 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Holy moley, trying not to sacrifice one kid to save another. Way to up the stakes right out of the gate

Right?  As contrived as it may have been, all of that LOTR level trekking back and forth with both kids in mortal peril at separate ends was worth it for the "are you seriously shitting me with this?" look Mr. Robinson was giving Mrs. Robinson when she immediately started in on him for returning sans one kid after he'd been running hither and yon over a freaking uncharted planet trying to make these rescues happen.  Maybe that's one of those things you have to have been married awhile to fully appreciate.

I wondered too after seeing the attack on the mother ship if that was a clue that maybe we shouldn't be so quick to take the benevolence of Will's new bestie at face value and assume that's all there is to it.  Again, not having seen the original, I have no frame of reference on this.  Right now, my kids just think the robot/alien whatever is cool.

[CarpeFelis]

Lost in Space was my favorite show as a little girl and I gotta confess it actually made me cry when the robot saved Will (predictable though it was) and again when it said “Danger, Will Robinson” for the first time.

I was amused that the Jupiter II of the original series looked like your stereotypical UFO but these all looked more like the Millennium Falcon.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

I thought Molly Parker was Carrie Coon

Me too! Watching on a very small screen, I kept thinking: Is it? Or isn't it?
ETA: I wish it was Carrie Coon.
And I'm still not clear about how sawing off the branch saved the robot; and weren't there 2 of them?

How convenient that Will stumbled into an ice chute that landed him on Vancouver Island.

I know it's necessary to see actors' faces, but no hats and scarves in the snow?

Edited April 14, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Me too! Watching on a very small screen, I kept thinking: Is it? Or isn't it? And I'm still not clear about how sawing off the branch saved the robot; and weren't there 2 of them?

I know it's necessary to see actors' faces, but no hats and scarves in the snow?

There were two halves of one - the upper half was on the branch. Though why it didn't use its arms to drop, I don't know.

No head coverings was really bothering me, especially since the younger girl's ears were so red from the actual cold.

[shapeshifter]

Thanks, @Clanstarling!
And I too saw the cold red ears—more than once!

So why did Will think dropping the top half of the robot to the ground was going to save its life?

Edited April 14, 2018 by shapeshifter

[JBC344]

20 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Thanks, @Clanstarling!
And I too saw the cold red ears—more than once!

So why did Will think dropping the top half of the robot to the ground was going to save its life?

It seemed like he put two and two together that the two halves seemed to be losing energy/dying by being separated.

 

6 hours ago, FlowerofCarnage said:

One of the reviews I read stated that Judy is Maureen's child from her first marriage. 

Really?  Oh, I was just giving the show praise for doing "color blind casting", I thought we the audience were supposed to just see them as a family and not pay attention to the ethnicity of the actress.  I've actually seen other shows do this, it actually is really interesting because at the end you often have to ask yourself why is it so "noticeable/strange/different" especially when we are talking about a fantasy premise.  Interesting to think about.

Good solid start to the show.

[wayne67]

I gave up on this show after this episode. House mate is still watching because there's a chicken in it. 

[shapeshifter]

I thought maybe the darker complected daughter was some sort of genetic engineering to ensure healthy diversity (sort of an artificially larger gene pool) for the future generations.

[Colorado David]

For a spaceship, they certainly leave a lot of heavy objects unsecured.

[zibnchy]

IMO the cast is excellent. I love Parker Posey as the villain. (Well, I just love PP.)

The only problem I have is with the parents. (Can't remember names.) Mom Robinson is supposedly the leader but she sucks at it. Seriously when she said to Will "Since when do you not do as I ask?" she lost me. Ask? Really? And Dad Robinson? Ultra alpha male bullshit. I hope he either changes or goes into a coma.

I don't hate the kid, Will, and that's amazing.

I like the writing so far but I'm just not sure where we are going plot wise. I'll keep watching. It's a nice distraction.

[Joimiaroxeu]

What is it about this planet that no one can make a controlled landing on it?

No chicken left behind. ?

30 years from now Malibu will still be a thing? I figured the coast of CA would be well eroded eastward by then, particularly the southern part.

Seems like Robot riding on the hatchback would've slowed the chariot down. Its body must be constructed with very lightweight materials.

Dr. Smith is accumulating some very bad karma. And it looks like Robot might have an inkling why. Let the games begin.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Joimiaroxeu

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Judy is Maureen's child from her first marriage. 

They should get Mahershala Ali do a guest shot as Judy's dad.

[Netfoot]

Wholly ghodd, that was crap!  This show is just going to bring the stupid, right?

Why is everyone wearing Bondage Trousers?

It was a bold move to release this two days after The Expanse.  Bold and dumb.

(Pssst!  John!  I think Maureen "stepped out" on you, buddy!)

[North of Eden]

9 hours ago, FlowerofCarnage said:

One of the reviews I read stated that Judy is Maureen's child from her first marriage. 

Ah, okay thanks. So if he's the step father its iteresting because he seemed really tight with her in the Christmas flashback but somehow became estranged later. Watching episode 2 tonight...maybe more light will be shed on this.

[zibnchy]

That have that big giant ship for one family? So Dr. Smith has to sleep in a store room and "We don't have any extra bunks." WTF show?

That opening scene with Dr. Smith and her sister was deeply satisfying for some reason only my therapist will understand.

[ichbin]

20 hours ago, giovannif7 said:

As someone who was glued to the TV watching the original series as a kid, I'm really enjoying this take on the story so far.

Me too!  It was my favorite show in the 60's.  I still remember how sad I felt when Will returned to earth but was unable to get Alpha Control to believe him and send help to his family. That episode was on around the holidays too which made it seem more sad. 

So far so good with this version.  I expect a lot of changes, but I like that the original is still being honored.  

11 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I totally missed Bill Mumy - and I knew him primarily from Babylon 5, so I should have been able to recognize him.

I just read an article about that!  The hair should have been a clue but I missed it too.  I hope the robot makes an appearance at some point.  Even better if they could throw in Robby the Robot again too like they did once on the original.  

6 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

Lost in Space was my favorite show as a little girl and I gotta confess it actually made me cry when the robot saved Will (predictable though it was) and again when it said “Danger, Will Robinson” for the first time.

It was the theme music for me.  I was surprised when my son said he spotted John Williams name during the credits.  After all these years I just now learned that Williams wrote the original theme back in the 60's.   

I'm not entirely on board with the gender switch coming to Doctor Who, but having Parker Posey as Smith doesn't bother me at all.  If the character is going to be similar to the original I think she can play it really well.  

I wonder if they expected a lot of baby boomers to be interested in the new version.  I have a feeling that quite a few of us will be watching. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by ichbin
Last paragraph.

[Deskisamess]

Quote

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

They should get Mahershala Ali do a guest shot as Judy's dad.

Remy! Yes!

[Joimiaroxeu]

John wrestling the gigantic eel was laughable.

So Robot printed a gun for Will. Did he print bullets too?

I still like how the family works together and each one has their own specialty or aptitude. Seems like there's always one person who's pretty much out of commission each episode though. Guess it'll be John's turn next.

[JBC344]

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 1:37 PM, SmithW6079 said:

Ugh. More PC gender swapping just because.

It's a gender swap, but not exactly PC, those that are watching the show know what I mean.  I've always loved Molly Parker, but Parker Posey is the best thing about the show.

[Snorfbat]

My favorite moment: That little wave that Smith gave her poisoned sister, encouraging her to fall unconscious already. So funny.

[Pachengala]

11 hours ago, Colorado David said:

Not liking the kids, tolerating the parents. I know zero families that play go fish, much less 30 years from now.

Bro, I want your life—I have a three year old and play Go Fish seven thousand times a day. 

 

On 4/13/2018 at 7:17 PM, North of Eden said:

Overall a good start and I'm in. I have a rule of thumb that anything Molly Parker is cast in gets props because I love me some Molly Parker...I even liked THE WICKER MAN!

Me too—Alma, I’m here for it! I hate Will and wish they would have killed his annoying failure ass but am generally intrigued and willing to keep watching. I have an unfortunate affection for the Matt LeBlanc/Lacey Chabert iteration and am prepared to love this one even more just due to the Parker Confluence: Posey and Molly. 

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

No chicken left behind. ?
…
Dr. Smith is accumulating some very bad karma

I hope the Bones squintern from Cuba and the injured person have wonderful omelettes, and Fake Dr. Smith gets coals in her stockings. That was never her St. Christopher medal, was it?

[ramble]

Three episodes in and I’m ready for mom to take a solo exploratory trip away for a long, long while. I don’t like her and don’t like the way she treats her kids. I feel like this show assumed we’d care for these characters immediately. I need some back story or build up to do that and with mom being a butt from the get go any story since then explaining her buttness is lost on me. 

I’m not enjoying Dr. Not a Real Psychologist’s storyline either. Be out for yourself and a liar, okay, I can accept that story, but a murderer and possible multi-murderer just doesn’t work for me. She lied about there being no one else knowing that chicken man and injured girl had a high risk of death. She spaced that dude with very little hesitation. Even though I knew she lived through the attack I was hoping the boss guy would space her. 

Will is kind of neutral for me and I think the robot is okay. The sisters work at times and annoy at times, for teenagers that seems about right. I like dad well enough. At this point I want the doc to get caught and to see if the chicken makes it so I guess I’ll contine. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by ramble
Apparently I can’t spell well this late at night

[stan4]

Can someone tell me what Will said when he cut the branch off?

[BellyLaughter]

So in the original series were they all in need of a Dr Phil family counselling session because OMG..... the dysfunction is almost cartoon like it’s so ridiculous and the mother’s a total bitch! 

Edited April 15, 2018 by BellyLaughter

[Colorado David]

Original: strong fatherly role model. siblings got along mostly. robot was grating. Dr Smith scheming, but generally harmless.

reboot: father gets mothered by Maureen like an older child. Robot is more interesting. Dr Smith, now a female, is far more conniving and gives off evil vibes. So my opinion is the show is very female-centric - which isn't a negative, it's just a striking difference from the original.

[Happywatcher]

Driving the plot tension by having the family be mind numbingly stupid made this a long episode

[Happywatcher]

Not normally in favor of parents spanking kids. All three honestly need one, and Will is literally risking their lives constantly and needs a legendary one

[Colorado David]

ok episode i guess. this lack of self-preservation on the robot's part is a major character flaw - will saved it so now it does WHATEVER he says, period? I can buy a lot from a scifi premise, but that one is too much for me.

You're on a strange planet you know nothing about, but nobody thinks SOMEONE should have a weapon besides a knife.  Correction - looks like the robot thought ahead they might need a gun. So the robot is the smartest one there.

[Netfoot]

No point in you dying too.

[Colorado David]

11 hours ago, Pachengala said:

Bro, I want your life—I have a three year old and play Go Fish seven thousand times a day. 

 

Me too—Alma, I’m here for it! I hate Will and wish they would have killed his annoying failure ass but am generally intrigued and willing to keep watching. I have an unfortunate affection for the Matt LeBlanc/Lacey Chabert iteration and am prepared to love this one even more just due to the Parker Confluence: Posey and Molly. 

I'm happy that kids still play cards - and NOT on their phones.

The movie gets trashed but it's a guilty pleasure for me too - I could've done without the robot (or at least toned down his importance in the movie), but that's just my two cents.

[iMonrey]

I had to go back and re-watch this before diving into the next few episodes. I still think the first episode was slow and a little clunky. The first time I saw it I could have sworn it was about an hour and a half long. That's what it felt like. There is also some very confusing camera work, like a shot of Penny approaching camp after trying to get a signal from the Resolute or other Jupiters. There wasn't any dialogue explaining she was going to do that or any shot of her walking away. So when there's suddenly a shot of someone approaching camp it makes it look like some stranger is approaching them. I was also confused about the 2 robots - I don't think they did a good job of showing it was 2 halves of one. 

The best part of the episode was really the last few minutes aboard the Resolute. And I'm happy to say, the next few episodes are much better.

[iMonrey]

Now that the show is starting to focus more on Dr. Smith I think it has vastly improved. Which is ironic, because I absolutely detested Dr. Smith on the original show, and now that's the most interesting character they've got. Maybe I'm just easy to fool but I totally didn't see that flare gun theft coming. Man, Karma is going to bite this woman in the ass the next time she runs into Don - and you know she'll have to eventually. 

[iMonrey]

I'm really enjoying the Dr. Smith flashbacks and I'm glad they didn't make us wait to explain who she really is and what her real backstory is. And fancy getting Selma Blair as a guest star! Loving it. I also thought the scene of John wrestling with the giant eel was done surprisingly well. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by iMonrey

[iMonrey]

This is as far as I've gotten so far. I really didn't think I was going to like this show after the first episode but now I'm totally into it. 

I do, however, think the kids are being enormously foolish when it comes to the robot. I know it has helped them in many important ways but there's no way of knowing what's going to flip the switch on that thing and turn it back into a killing machine. It's kind of dumb and frustrating that it can't really communicate with them. And yet . . . I felt genuinely sorry for it when they the poor thing all alone in a cave!! What's wrong with me?

I totally don't get what Dr. Smith wants from that robot either. Does she expect it to protect her from the Robinsons and the other survivors when the shit hits the fan? One thing I liked about the original show was that, in the very beginning, Dr. Smith was the only one who knew how to program the robot so he was the only one it would obey. I think it would be interesting if it turned out this Dr. Smith was somehow involved with the plot to attack the colonists and understands how the robots work.

[Token]

So, the ship was full of ice and water, yet now it just looks pristine and perfect?  The only effect is some waterlogged filters that you're swapping out for bone-dry, completely clean new ones?  Nothing else managed to get ruined?  Miraculous!

This has got to be one of the worst shows I've seen in a long time.  And I watch The Bachelor.

[Miles]

Why would you ditch shelter when in a storm, except to be eeeeeeeevvvvvviiiiiiiillll? I guess there was no other reason than to be eeeeeeeeeevvvvvvviiiiillllll... I actually thought, when she obviously lost her necklace on purpose, she would use the opportunity to kill the black woman, so that she wouldn't drag them down anymore. Grabbing the flare gun and running out into the storm didn't make much sense.

The most interesting part so far is the robot, but I doubt we'll get much about him or his origins this season. Other than that there doesn't seem much interesting to be going on at the moment.

[2727]

4 hours ago, BellyLaughter said:

So in the original series were they all in need of a Dr Phil family counselling session ...

 

Yeah, that's new. The original parents were Ward and June Cleaver in space stranded on an unknown planet. If they ever had an argument I don't remember it. The original focused much more on the comedic shenanigans of Dr. Smith vs Will and the robot and was similar to Gilligan's Island in tone.

Mostly I'm annoyed that the original series was set in 1997 and we still don't have stay-puft marshmallow robots!

Edited April 15, 2018 by 2727

[Colorado David]

I think she'll try to finagle a way to get it to obey her....like creating a situation where she 'saves' it, like Will did. Or she'll keep working her mind voodoo on Will. 

I did love seeing Selma Blair too, it's a shame she's not a regular.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Glad to see Don West and the chicken got rescued. Countdown to when he reunites with Dr Smith and blows her cover. Not smart of her to doublecross him and leave two witnesses behind for dead.

[Miles]

There isn't an override button inside the airlock? Worst... design... ever.......

[CarpeFelis]

Now this may come as a big shock to all the new viewers... brace yourselves... There was no chicken in the original series!

Original: Jupiter II took off from Earth, alone, no other colonists or mothership. Don West was its pilot. Parents were not on the verge of divorce. Judy was not a doctor (they pulled that from the movie). Dr. Smith was a saboteur and became an accidental stowaway.

Just finished watching the new series and realized that although we heard “Danger, Will Robinson” a number of times, we never did get the iconic “Never fear, Smith is here”, much less the Smith-to-Robot “You pusillanimous pipsqueak!”

Agreed that nobody can replace Guy Williams. But I did like this version of John and Maureen much better than William Hurt and Mimi Rogers.

[zibnchy]

I may have been wrong about this show. I'm not interested in young love. I'm not interested in asshole men being assholes. WTF was Mom Robinson even doing? We're halfway thru and we still don't actually know anything. Is there a narrative thread?

[Colorado David]

UGH can Judy not be involved in everything??? SO annoying. Judy is the doctor, Judy gets to drive the chariot, Judy gets to give Don a hard time but get crazy when she thinks she lost him.  This is an 18 year old, stop making this the Hunger Games where kids are geniuses and adults dimwits. She is very judgmental for a kid.

And nice, it's completely ok for a child Will's age to force an alien life form into suicide. I'd hate to be one of Will's sisters if he gets upset at something THEY do. I liked the robot far more than the siblings. Boo.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Colorado David

[Miles]

So are these teleporting eels or what? I could buy that they somhow got into the Robinson's fuel tank, because that ship was submerged in a lake for a while, but how would they get into the other jupiter's tanks? That is a very flimsy explaination for why they can't just fly off in their big colony ships.

[DesiJF]

1 hour ago, Miles said:

There isn't an override button inside the airlock? Worst... design... ever.......

OMG, I was thinking the exact same thing!  Is that airlock designed for spacing people?  That's the only reason I can think of to not have an override button inside the airlock. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

How old is Judy supposed to be? Is she old enough for her and Don to have a romantic thing? She doesn't look it, even if she is a doctor.

Dr Smith is diabolical. She spins lies so easily. Her act is getting old to me though. I think she needs to suffer a bit and not talk her way out of everything.

So if a family wanted to go to Alpha Centauri but not all of them passed the tests was that it for the whole family or did Maureen just chose not to tell Will after he blew the practice test? Why in the first episode was Will afraid that the rest of the family would go without him?

Doncha hate when you're having a nice bonfire party and all of a sudden it turns into Jurassic Park?

Edited April 15, 2018 by Joimiaroxeu