Season 1 Discussion

[dragonsbite]

Why the heck didn't the mom and Judy take each of the chariots? That way, they wouldn't have given the doctor a chariot AND at least one of them would have escaped. Stupid people.  

Also, how did the doctor wake up so quickly? is Judy that incompetent?

[whiporee]

Tough crowd. 

I thought it was solid, and the characters all made sense to me. While the actual climate of the planet doesn't make a lot of sense with glaciers up against an old-wood forest, I can forgive that. I do wonder how they are going to integrate Don into the group after PP's duplicity to him is established. I thought the kids were pretty well developed, and their characterizations rang true -- Judy's punch drunk, Penny's trying to do what she can but doesn't want to lose anything else and Will's just a kid with a new and scary toy. John and Maureen worled, too -- he's been active military and gone most of the time, she's been running the family and apparently is pretty awesome at what she's done in the interim. The only one who doesn't make sense to me is "dr. Smith," but I can even attribute that to panic. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.  

When we saw the shots of the Resolute, it looked like there were dozens of Jupiters there, and it seemed as though they had plenty of time to evacuate, so I'm wondering if there are more colonists out there. So far it's got a different and more sustainable vibe than the original, especially if they end up with more people to interact with. 

[millennium]

On 4/15/2018 at 10:04 PM, Linderhill said:

 

Speaking of Parker, her character is one of those that I find irredeemable and have a hard time even being patient with anytime they appear.  I just want to fast forward past the scheming and dastardly plans.  Just ugh.  I really cant wait for Don to punch her in the face.  Soon.

 

Dr. Smith has already become tiresome.  Like you, I've had my fill of irredeemable characters who create havoc but never truly suffer any consequences (Negan).   At what point was June the petty criminal turned murderer endowed with an innate understanding of all behavior, both human and alien?   She pretends to be a psychologist, then suddenly is?  Bullshit.   Plus her face is unattractive and annoying, so I don't like it when she appears either.   The show has enough material to turn out interesting episodes each week without the Snidely Whiplash character.   

[benteen]

I enjoyed it too although I think again it had a pacing problem.  Agreed about how unlikeable Maureen and Judy are being, letting pettiness get in the way of survival.  But I like the dangers they are facing on this planet and really enjoyed the scene where they found the map.

I like the actor playing Don West.

Will concealing what he saw the robot doing?  I can't justify that either although they certainly need the robot.

I guess they found a way to work in some product placement.  Though Oreo's are not my idea of a treat.  I like them but they make my thirsty very quickly.

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 8:22 AM, Netfoot said:

Nice to see that they have gun control on the alien-riddled, frontier planet.  Also nice to know that in the future, the man still does the driving!  (Move over honey!  I'll take over, now!)

 

 

LOL on the gun control.  I don't see a problem with John being the driver.  Your options are Penny, who managed to do a good job but is not an experienced driver, especially when you're trying to outrace a storm, Maureen who has a bad leg or Will, who is a child.  John should be the driver.

Edited April 17, 2018 by benteen

[shrewd.buddha]

1 hour ago, benteen said:

  I don't see a problem with John being the driver. 

Penny actually wanted John to take over driving - she was overwhelmed. She also wanted Judy to "get back to being yourself so I can get back to being myself." 

As I said earlier - I like the complicated family dynamics - - but right now there seem to be issues at every turn. And when you are in life-or-death situations, it is time to put your personal drama on the back burner...

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, benteen said:

I don't see a problem with John being the driver....

Under the circumstances, I'd have thought the newcomers would have piled in any old how, while Penny hauled ass out of the area of immediate danger.  Dad could take over when they'd reached comparative safety.  

Very surprised no "Danger, Will Robinson!" utterance from Robbie.  I thought that would be a staple of every interaction with it.  We got one in E1, but apparently the script won't be sprinkled with them after all.

[Adira]

On 4/16/2018 at 8:18 AM, Lokiberry said:

Well, I binged  ten episodes over two days, so I guess that means I liked it. I liked that they've resolved everything with The Resolute. Everybody not on the Jupiter 2 (and poor Evan) made it back, and I assume they'll all now go to Alpha Centauri. I like the introduction of the alien technology, which I assume they won't be quite able to control and will take them all over and will allow them to be truly lost in space.

I don't think they'll ever be able to get to Alpha Centauri.  One of the first episodes showed a warm hole (or similar?) opening up and sucking the Resolute and the Jupiters into it - that's how they ended up on that planet in the first place.  Now that the Jupiter 2 has jumped away, the Resolute will be trapped in that area of space, which is possibly in another galaxy entirely, according to Maureen (based on that space chart she saw in the alien ship).

I actually thought the kid who played Will was a pretty good actor!  He really made me feel for his relationship with the Robot!  I was heart broken for both of them when he told Robot to walk off that cliff.  Considering the Robot barely talked and had no real facial expression, the Will actor really had to do all the work making those scenes moving, and he DID.  I thought he did a great job!

Similar to others, I thought Dr. Smith was an interesting character and the actor did a great job with what she got, but her motivations were totally all over the place.  For someone who just wants to survive, she was sure doing a bang-up job trying to screw things up for herself!

[JBC344]

To me Parker's Dr. Smith just comes off as just generally smart.  I mean truth be told this family isn't a mystery.  Five minutes with them and you can observe the apparent dysfunction.  Her analysis of them is pretty basic but spot on.  To me, Parker Posey is the most interesting character, but to each their own.

[Tabasco Cat]

I didn't like this at all. I turned it off about 3/4 of the way through. Just awful.

[nodorothyparker]

This felt like a solid enough second episode where they were all trying to deal with the fallout of everything that happened in the first episode while pretending that none of it had affected them.  I like all the kids well enough and think they're each doing the best they can in what their roles within the family are, although it might be good for them to calm down and pace themselves a bit.  I get it though.  Explosion, flare, freaky monster storm.  No time to rest and leisurely regroup.  Mom Robinson, on the other hand, is I guess supposed to be the actual leader and maybe part of the problem is being immediately hampered by her leg, but she seems to be better at pulling rank and contradicting for the sake of contradicting than actually leading.  Maybe it's because I like Toby Stephens so much and am more willing to give his characterization the benefit of the doubt, but I'm more easily buying John as someone who's been out of the family picture for awhile and is trying to force fit himself back in but isn't having the easiest time figuring out how to do that.

I'm going to need "Dr. Smith" to give us a clue at some point what her motivation is for anything beyond crazy eyes EVIL.  Taking her shot to get a seat in an escape Jupiter, I get.  But why abandon the two other survivors, one of whom saved her life, and maybe leave them to die?  They didn't know her from before.  They can't out her to any other survivors.  EVIL, I guess.  Throughout all of that, I was mostly invested in the chicken surviving.

Noteworthy that "Dr. Smith" and the alien/robot seemed to recognize each other, as well as its not answering Will's question about whether it was the same robot/had anything to do with the attack on the mother ship.

[Runningwild]

Was I the only one almost in tears worried about Robot? I like that he still doesn’t have a name other than Robot. I guess we’re still going with the Don/Judy romance. 

I loved the original as a kid. Enjoying this one now even if the family is a bunch of intelligent morons. 

[Enero]

On 4/16/2018 at 8:55 AM, Sakura12 said:

This show was...okay, I guess.  I binged it 3 days but it just seemed really simple is the word I'm looking for. It seems like they had a decent budget they should've spent some of that on getting better writers. 

I agree. I thought they had a really great cast but had no idea what to do with them. As a result, the show was barely passable as entertaining. IMO. I muscled through it because I liked the cast, specifically Toby Stephens, and because I thought the story would eventually get interesting. It didn’t. 

I never saw the original. It was before my time. Therefore, I had no idea what the premise of the show was supposed to be. However, I did assume that with a title of “Lost In Space” that the story would actually take place amongst the stars. I was disappointed to find that it didn’t. They were basically on “Earth” which had a few quirky differences from the original carnation. 

I did enjoy the rapport between John and Judy. Wonderful father/daughter chemistry. I also enjoyed all of the flashbacks to the family’s life back on true Earth. 

Lastly, it was cool to see Toby Stephens and Sibongile Mlambo (Angela).  Both of whom were on Black Sails. I was waiting for them to share a scene but no such luck. 

If the show gets renewed I’ll likely not watch. There was nothing in the finale that was curious enough to bring me back for another season.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Enero

[Vella]

Don is such a freaking moron. He's the one pointing out how the more fuel they take, the lighter the east side of the ship will be and the more likely the ship will fall over the edge. We're then told it will take 3 hours to get all the fuel. So what does Don do? Wait until the VERY END before going to get the proof. When it's the MOST dangerous, and taking his sweet ass time while doing it. And the CONSTANT joke cracking and smarming is getting to be WAY too much.

I don't actually mind the characters overall although the pace is excruciatingly slow. Smith is a delight, she's so calculating and cold. There are times where it seems like she genuinely wants to help out and get along and be semi-decent and then she pulls a giant NOPE! and is horrible. I love it.

I find it disappointing that the only thing they could think to do with Penny, a snarky, smart kid with a rebellious streak is to have her fixate on a boy. Ugh. And Will sending his robot off a cliff while crying his eyes out over the 'best friend' he's had for like, 5 days? WTF?  I don't get how this world is dangerous and yet Penny and Will can just wander off for HOURS without telling anyone anything and everyone sort of acts like they just went to the playground or something.  I mean, it's not like their camp was just attacked by 2 enormous creatures that could have killed many people were it not for the robot.  It seems like there's a genuine arch for the 10 episodes, but within each episode, there's a boatload of meandering, it feels like time just gets wasted. I wonder if the writing would be more on point if we just followed the Robinsons, Don and Smith and saved all the other survivors for Season 2. If there's a Season 2.

[Kelda Feegle]

This episode is a mash up of Jurassic Park and Up! and not as good as either of them.

[Adira]

10 hours ago, Enero said:

Lastly, it was cool to see Toby Stephens and Sibongile Mlambo (Angela).  Both of whom were on Black Sails. I was waiting for them to share a scene but no such luck. 

They did share one brief scene - when Angela showed up on the Jupiter with a gun to take down the Robot.  John tries to talk her out of it and then stands aside as she starts firing.

[shrewd.buddha]

So this Dr. Smith is  like a desperate, wild animal. For a villain, that is interesting.  For an ongoing character, I don't think that is sustainable - - and at some point will become unbearable. 
I did like that officials on the mother ship know she is an impostor and sort-of-murderer. I'm guessing it is not exactly premeditated murder if you don't stop the airlock from opening - she didn't kill the guy, but she did't save him when she could have. I did, however, think that 'Dr. Smith' had killed her sister until they showed the sister tied up later.
Now 'Dr. Smith' is in a precarious position of not being sure that being rescued by the mother ship is a good thing for her. 

This episode moved along pretty well for me. I was annoyed that all the Robinson family are heavy sleepers and no one closes the door to their quarters, allowing 'Dr. Smith' to do her lurking. The robot is a bit too conveniently dumbed down - it cannot reveal any information to Will about Smith's activities and cannot help in a crisis unless Will can direct it. But, I did like the idea that the robot was reacting to Will's inner, uncontrolled desires.

Now I am ready for an episode that is not centered around the immediate danger to the ship and family members. Everyone could use a break from that. 

Edited April 18, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[RedHackle]

Quote

I'm embarrassed to admit that I actually squealed when I realized that the actor playing the real Dr. Smith in this episode was the original Will Robinson from the 60s TV series - and sure enough, there was Bill Mumy's name in the credits!

I totally missed that! And I should have been expecting it - not even the first time that Bill Mumy has sorta but not quite reprised a role (Twilight Zone, anyone?) Thanks for that - I'll have to go back and rewatch that part now.

I'm in heaven to have Molly Parker back on my TV.

[benteen]

Good lord, Maureen in infuriating in the beginning of this episode and proves to be a bad leader as well.  She lets her constant issues with John interfere with their survival and her whole no-gun thing is stupid in the environment they are in. 

That being said, I enjoyed this episode and the challenges that the family faces.  I think the show is doing a good job here and in building a new dynamic for Will, Smith and the robot.

I'm glad that Smith was found out on the ship because it would have been ridiculous if she had been able to pull that off without a hitch.

It's hard to believe that there wouldn't be at least an extra bunk on the ship and Smith was indeed lurking way too much for at least one of the family members not to have noticed her.

[RedHackle]

I'm actually rather liking this. Even as a child, I though the original series was stupid and cheesy (with apologies to the fans out there - just my opinion, you understand) - so that leaves me free to like this series better.  Things this series has going for it, IMO - Molly Parker and Parker Posey, the new Don West being way less of a tool than the original. And of course, the new Robot  - don't get me started. Growing up in my house, if anyone stepped too far out of line or said something someone didn't like, one of us  would inevitably flop our arms around in front and say "Danger , Will Robinson!" In fact, think most families in the 60s did that, although I've never polled anyone.

[piequinn35]

Well it was okay, yes I bloody hope robot was hanging on the Jupiter, the characters were all annoying except Don and John lol

Was it revealed or did I miss it, what Maureen gave for Will to pass the test?

And is Debbie in Jupiter 2? :))

[Miles]

So the star isn't turning into a black hole, there is just a black hole around? That still wouldn't explain why the sun rises sooner. How in the hell would complex life ever have evolved on this planet, if life constantly gets destroyed? This makes all kinds of no sense.

Dr. Smith is the worst psychologist ever. I mean even if you only ever heard about psyhology from a hobo shouting at you in the street, you should have a better grasp of it than she does. She seriously gives the wort advise. If she hadn't been found out this episode anyway, people would have become sceptical rather soon.

What was the point of the rock pile? I may have not payed enough attention, but can you blame me?

Man, the robot is inconsistent. He nearly lets himself get torn apart by wild beasts, but 1-2 bullets and he gets into rage mode? Also that ending was dumb. Are we supposed to believe he's really dead? First of all, there is way too much show left for that to happen, second of all, he's put himself back together before.

[millennium]

On 4/15/2018 at 10:56 PM, DEM said:

 She's more like a trickster god than an actual human being. 

An excellent observation. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

Dr. Smith is the worst psychologist ever. I mean even if you only ever heard about psyhology from a hobo shouting at you in the street, you should have a better grasp of it than she does. She seriously gives the wort advise. If she hadn't been found out this episode anyway, people would have become sceptical rather soon.

Yeah, as soon as she started telling Maureen the way to keep her secrets is to put them into a little box and never let them out she lost credibility as a therapist. That's just not something a qualified mental health professional would ever tell someone and I say that as someone who's never had an ounce of therapy myself. 

[ramble]

I got through this.. barely. I FF’d through a lot of the last 3-4 episodes. Dr. Not Smith was simply horrible. She wasn’t a clever or crafty enough villain to enjoy her evilness. She was just mean and not nearly as smart as she thought she was. The fact that she was a straight up murderer meant, in my opinion, she needed to be finished by the end of the season. The character ruined what might have been a blandly enjoyable show. 

The sisters were fine, not as bad as they might have been. Will was decent. The mom continually struck me as someone I would not be friend with. Ever. The dad was fine enough. At least he seemed to have a growth plot. The robot was okay but by the end I was kind of hoping he’d space them all. It’s apparent, as I type this, that this show was just okay to me. Okay, decent, fine - those aren’t words of endorsement. If there is a season two I doubt I’ll be watching. 

Edited April 19, 2018 by ramble

[Vella]

Okay, I laughed when Maureen and John finally got out of the tar pit and they sounded like the Chipmunks. I knew it was coming but I still laughed. I'm also liking their interactions more and more, the actors have great chemistry and putting a little light snarky banter works really well. The bit about Maureen not thinking of the tunnel to begin with and John dryly remarking that it was so obvious? They need more of that.  I liked Will/Penny bonding, although Will learning to 'fly' looked hella boring and more suited to a 5 year old than a preteen.

Smith being frustrated that laying the parts of the robot together and the robot not magically fixing itself was fun.  My guess is that ultimately she'll fix the robot and like in the original series, it'll follow her commands only, giving her the leverage and protection she's been looking for.

And of COURSE Vijay immediately blabs about what Penny told him, because of COURSE Penny blabbed to him for no reason because of COURSE she overheard her parents discussing it because of COURSE they were talking about this HUGE problem out in the open instead of in a closed room.  These lazy tropes are tiresome.

[Nefercat]

10 hours ago, Miles said:

What was the point of the rock pile? I may have not payed enough attention, but can you blame me?

The rock pile was a cairn, which can have different uses or meanings. The cairn they built was a memorial to the humans killed by the Space Robot back when he had a red face. Each rock represented one dead human, and Dad Robinson had Will bring the biggest rocks he could carry to teach him a lesson about responsibility since the Space Robot now belonged to Will. It was symbolic, but struggling to survive on a distant planet seems like a pretty bad time for a parent to insist on creating a teachable moment.

[Vella]

Overall, I enjoyed this, moreso because of the actors working extremely well together and individually. The stories were often dull 'Robinson in peril' tropes and there were far too many of them. With only 10 episodes, they should have focused on character development, but if the show gets a second season, maybe that'll happen. The show badly needs re-directing and better writing.

One of the things I absolutely loved was the dynamic of Maureen/Smith.  Women who are in control of themselves and of their destiny.  The last two episodes in particular highlight that Maureen and Smith are the focus, John does not even appear in episode 9. He's missing for a bulk of episode 10 and his story is definitely the B one.  So often, when the chips are down in shows/movies, women are relegated to the back seat, while men play heroes but not here. Maureen and Smith are front and center, their back and forth and battle for control is such a refreshing thing to see.  Molly Parker and Parker Posey played so well opposite each other and once Maureen knew who Smith really was, their dynamic became so much more interesting.  I liked the girls, I'm so glad they weren't fighting over a stupid boy and that by and large, they were good to each other and had a strong bond. Will was fine although he really did one stupid thing after another in the last few episodes.  Don was a nice comic relief and they seemed to dial it back just a titch, which was a relief. Toby Stephens is fantastic, I can completely get what Black Sails fans have been raving about with him and I certainly hope he gets more to do if there's a second season.

[rab01]

On 4/18/2018 at 2:46 AM, Vella said:

I don't get how this world is dangerous and yet Penny and Will can just wander off for HOURS without telling anyone anything and everyone sort of acts like they just went to the playground or something.  I mean, it's not like their camp was just attacked by 2 enormous creatures that could have killed many people were it not for the robot.  

This! It takes me right out of the show every time. They are on a huge freaking alien planet and not required to let everyone else know where they are at ALL times?  Absolutely insane.  Each episode seems to have at least one completely insane moment where I have to pause it to say "what the fuck?" so I can stop obsessing over the silliness. Even so, I like the show. 

I like the relationships between the Robinson kids, The parents are growing on me a little bit. I find Dr. Smith a little too eeeeeevil without real benefit to herself but I'll let that slide.  (I'm fine with her giving terrible psychiatric advice because I assume she's trying to harm everyone she's pretending to treat.)  I like the look of the show, its general approach, and that the mom is a badass and everyone recognizes it.

[rab01]

16 hours ago, Vella said:

And of COURSE Vijay immediately blabs about what Penny told him, because of COURSE Penny blabbed to him for no reason because of COURSE she overheard her parents discussing it because of COURSE they were talking about this HUGE problem out in the open instead of in a closed room.  These lazy tropes are tiresome.

You're right about the Three's Company level of plotting.  The final link in that chain, however, was fine with me.   Vijay was right to blab. 

It was unfair to ask him to keep a matter of life and death secret from his father who is also something close to being the head of the colony.  The mom made the wrong choice in not telling Victor before he went to get the fuel. I liked it because I think it makes her character more interesting but I do think it was dumb and arrogant on several levels.

[Morrigan2575]

Is it wrong that I'm more interested in a John/Don bromance than John/Maureen romance? Seriously, Don is a fun character, I look forward to seeing Don/Penny interact, the snark will be off the charts.

I seriously love Penny, she's my favorite. I also loved the sibling relationship. Normally, I hate kids on these types of shows and they always tend to go over board on the family/teen drama but, so far they've handled the kids well.

I like that there's more survivors and were getting a colony vibe instead of 1 family trolling around the galaxy.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Morrigan2575

[Morrigan2575]

I get that this was Judy's episode but, I hated that the Medical Doctor got the technical save. 

If you're going to give them specialties (even if all kids are really smart) then stick with Judy/Doctor, Penny/Engineer/Mechanic, Will/Whatever.

In other news I kind of like the role reversal where the Military Dad is the one thinking about the kids emotional well being, while the mom is distant/cold/focused "leader".

I'm not digging Dr Smith, don't really like the setup for the character.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Morrigan2575

[millennium]

Parker Posey and her smug RBF character are ruining this show for me.   It's never going to get any momentum if she's there at every five minute interval to magically manipulate people, magically learn their secrets, magically make them do her bidding, and magically escape notice.   Her fuckery doesn't even seem to have an endgame other than to pass the time.  Gaius Baltar she ain't.

On the good side, I like Don West a lot (which is refreshing, since I never cared for the Mark Goddard character -- he always seemed too angry).  The Van Halen was totally unexpected and made me smile a mile wide.   Penny's a real prize too.   I wish Will weren't so young but what can you do.  The two parents seem credible and thankfully not helicopter types (or would that be jet-pack types in this instance?)

Judy seems to be getting special attention which is unfortunate because the character is pretty bland.   The only thing that makes her stand out is the fact that doesn't have the same parentage as Will and Penny -- that, and her Canadian accent.   IMO, Judy being black feels less like diversity to me and more like tokenism.   If the show were truly diverse, the producers would have made one of the Robinson parents black.  Instead they did the craven thing and wrote some by-the-way backstory about Judy being from a previous marriage.   Furthermore, the only other black person I've seen on the show so far is Angela, the psychologically-damaged person who tries to kill the Robot.    If I were a diversity wonk, I'd be irked that the show has not only marooned a lone black girl in an otherwise all-white nuclear family, but the only other prominent black character is a would-be killer.  

I know other racial groups are represented -- Indian, Asian, Hispanic -- but for the most part the rest are supporting cast and have had little or no impact on the story or the other characters, let alone tried to kill them. 

Edited April 20, 2018 by millennium

[Philbert]

On 4/16/2018 at 9:17 PM, Linderhill said:

I completely agree with this.  Dr. Smith definitely devoured the original show.  Between him and Will (with an occasional Penny) you wouldn't know that anyone else was on the show.

As much as I thought the late, great Jonathan Harris really rocked that part, I am forced to agree with this sentiment. By the end of the original series it had really become the "Robot and Dr. Smith" show. What happened to Smith is one of the earlier cases of what is now called "Flanderization"-where one aspect of a character introduced early on-in this case Smith's cowardice and pompousness becomes the defining characteristic over time. Not Harris' fault-he did what he was supposed to do but I don't think we'll see that here.

[immortalfrieza]

On 4/16/2018 at 2:43 PM, Happy Harpy said:

Parker Posey was great acting-wise (when isn't she) now my problem with Smith is her sustainability as a villain. The manipulative type works only until they reveal their true colors. Now that everyone knows, she can't worm her way back in without every other character looking like an idiot for trusting her or allowing her in. Or it will need too convoluted plots.

 

Smith reminds me Marvel's Loki. Like him, Smith this is manipulative bastard that keeps constantly screwing everybody over, yet the rest of the cast doesn't kill her despite many opportunities to do so, many many reasons to do so, and then keep constantly listening to her and doing what she says. On top of all that, her schemes just keep making everything worse for everybody including herself, yet somehow she shouldn't have any reason to believe would work (like the robot being repaired and working for her once it was). Yep, maybe those two should date.

Quote

My other big issue is that the Robinsons worked much, much better for me when they interacted with the characters of the Resolute. I loved the Watanabes, Angela, Vijay and even Victor. It helped that the latter was played by Raza Jaffrey (he was one of my reasons to watch) but I found him a more sustainable foil for the Robinsons, as a deeply flawed character with some qualities, too. I knew why he acted like he did, it made for believable conflicts and real tension, which were character and not disaster-driven for once. John/Don was nice, so I would have loved to see more of Judy and Aiko, or Maureen and Naoko's friendship etc. I really loved the acceptance of Robot storyline, as well as the fuel recuperation. It showed other facets of everyone, and it made for the best character moments. The show hit its stride for me  once the family reunited with the other survivors, from episode 5 on. So I'm not sure I'd enjoy S2 as much if the show is only about the Robinsons and the AOTW.

I agree, I think shows with a minimalist cast like the original only really worked back then. The Robinsons work a lot better with characters other than just the main family to bounce off of. Besides, if the Resolute didn't end up coming with somehow or some other people aren't already where they're going there's not going to be anyone around to kill off instead of the main group, which means no tension anymore since we all know they're not going to kill off anyone in the main group.

Don't know how, but I'm sure the robot is going to come back, Lost In Space just wouldn't work without a robot. Though I suspect it won't be until a few episodes in so they can save money.

My verdict? Pretty good season, too much plot induced stupidity involved for my tastes, but I like the characters well enough. I like the robot of course, thought everybody was generally competent except for Will who would have been dead a hundred times over if it weren't for that robot (and he was stupid enough to have it destroyed for no real reason.) At least unlike some other child characters I could name Will had something to contribute rather than just getting in the way constantly though, so I'll give him props for that, but he was still a stupid kid (letting Smith out for instance) far too often for my tastes.

Edited April 20, 2018 by immortalfrieza

[strikeThePose]

The good: The art direction is beautiful! There were some scenes that made me feel like I did when I saw Avatar for the first time.

The bad: The story telling could stand some improvement. The episode drags. Did they really need to use as many flashbacks, instead of just more of a straight forward narrative? How where we supposed to know how the pieces of the robot fit together? Or even that the the robot was stuck? Would it have been so hard for Will to say, "What's the matter boy, are you stuck in the tree?". 

The final resting spot of the ship was far more unrealistic than it needed to be, but whatever, it's LIS...

If they couldn't get back in the ship after getting out, how did all that equipment get out?

One minor nitpick: During the descent, the altimeter clearly displays meters, but audibly reports in feet.

Highpoint: Seeing Bill Mummy as Smith, although I would have totally missed that, if it wasn't for the eagle-eyed forum posters here. Thanks!

[strikeThePose]

On 4/15/2018 at 12:55 PM, CarpeFelis said:

That whole thing about Will failing the test was a stupid plot hole IMO. They’re colonists, not space Marines! It ought to be sufficient that the parents passed testing and the children come along because the family is a unit. Who would really go along with leaving a minor behind?

Emphatically agree! 

Age appropriate Psych/Med screening might be ok.

[shrewd.buddha]

So, Maureen, the wife, is a taskmaster who has a talent for making everyone around her feel like a lazy burden on her schedule, children included. I can see why John wanted to get away from that. But there are no excuses for John abandoning his children for someone else to raise when it was in his power to choose where to work. I never sympathize with adults who blame their career choices for not being able to take care of their children.  \end rant 

I am glad that Judy and Penny have some other colonists around to have some sort of normal society. In the original Lost In Space, the idea of children on a mission where they were facing an adult life of celibacy or a creepy alternative seemed inhumane. But as Don the pilot  said : People bring their own problems wherever they go.
And Don has turned out to be Han Solo (!) - a pilot and a smuggler. 

I don't like scheming Smith - but in the good way: that her character is getting a reaction out of me. The character has not begun to eclipse everyone else on the show. 
..But I do not want to see Smith in every episode. If Don can sit out an episode, so can Smith. In fact, I would prefer that the show not be obligated to have any individual character appear in every single episode. 

Edited April 20, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[Clanstarling]

9 hours ago, Philbert said:

As much as I thought the late, great Jonathan Harris really rocked that part, I am forced to agree with this sentiment. By the end of the original series it had really become the "Robot and Dr. Smith" show. What happened to Smith is one of the earlier cases of what is now called "Flanderization"-where one aspect of a character introduced early on-in this case Smith's cowardice and pompousness becomes the defining characteristic over time. Not Harris' fault-he did what he was supposed to do but I don't think we'll see that here.

I think of it as "The Fonz" effect myself. He was a great side character on Happy Days who became a main character to the detriment of the show, imo.

[benteen]

Are we supposed to sympathize with Maureen?  I agree there's no excuse for John abandoning his kids but despite that revelation, he STILL comes across as more sympathetic than she does.  Maureen is a terrible leader who is allowing her issues with John to jeopardize them all.

I'm also finding Dr. Smith to be ridiculous and illogical.  She really thinks Will is not going to notice that the gun is missing?  Her plans with the robot also seems unconvincing. 

That being said, I really did enjoy this episode.  I agree the kids (Will particularly) are not being smart with the robot (Judy knows how many people died on The Resolute) but I loved their exploration of the planet and I think they're doing a great job bringing it to life.  This is the show embracing the roots of the original series.  The actors are good too, which helps.  Really do like the Don character on this show...he adds a lot of fun to it.

I recognized Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa from The Man in the High Castle as the father on the Jupiter 11.

I feel like the more human colonists are going to be an unwelcome presence on this show story wise.  It's definitely working much better with the Robinsons and the very small circle of characters around them.

Edited April 20, 2018 by benteen

[Philbert]

So, I went through the show all this week and as somebody who grew up watching the original in rerun in the 70's (as so many of us Gen-Xers did) and who forced himself to sit through that god-awful late 90's film (seriously, how do William Hurt and Gary Oldman manage to suck that badly?) I wasn't sure how much I was going to like this show. Of course then I found out that Molly Parker and Toby Stephens were in it ("Deadwood" and "Black Sails" are two of my favorite shows) and I was committed to at least give it a shot. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this show, despite the obvious writing flaws. I'll leave the science mistakes to people that understand science. I know on the Netflix comments the geeks are tearing it apart, and as a history major I can sympathize with that point of view. I can't watch "The Tudors" without wanting to throw something at the tv...but I digress.

This episode, while not perfect at least got me interested. I think it was a clever idea to step back a little bit and give us something that resembled the original plotline but had a few twists on it. I didn't find the sisters all that annoying but maybe that's because I'm used to listening to my nieces quarrel all the time. They actually have a good dynamic there, and to be honest, I like all of the cast here, even Parker Posey, who I generally DON'T like.

Yes, the 800 lb. gorilla in the room is how the writers make people who are very smart act stupidly when it's convenient for the plot mechanics. This isn't unique to this show of course. This is a common problem with most tv shows and while you can overlook it up to a certain point (acting in the heat of passion, panic, etc.) eventually it starts ruining the state of suspended disbelief. We're not there yet with this show but they're going to need to work to overcome it during the next couple of seasons...or it will get as silly as the original.

Obviously, the best part of the show is the set design and special effects. The whole look of "Lost in Space" is amazing and the monsters are completely believable. That in itself is a giant leap forward from the original, which was often hampered by its technical limitations (understandable given the time period.)

So yeah, pretty good, provided you don't put too much thought in it. The character changes, which are driving some of the neanderthals on Netflix crazy are not as earth shattering as is being made out. I think the decision to make John Robinson a soldier rather than a scientist isn't a bad idea if you're going to make this a more action oriented show, and we know that Toby Stephens can rock the "thinking man of action" part in his sleep given his amazing performance as Captain Flint recently. Judy and Penny, and Maureen herself to some extent were largely non-entities in the original. Will, Dr. Smith, and the Robot increasingly became the focus of the show so making the women more capable and important to the storyline makes a lot of sense.

7/10 for this episode.

[Morrigan2575]

1 hour ago, benteen said:

recognized Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa from The Man in the High Castle as the father on the Jupiter 11

I've loved him since Rising Sun, it's nice to see that he's still working.

[rab01]

I just figured that (1) the test he he failed was an age-appropriate one, and (2) with an entire planet full of people who want to leave Earth, they can afford to be really picky about who they take and only ship whole families if everyone passes their tests.  For example, if the adults are both really capable but not specially-needed-exceptional and one of their teenage kids is a drug addict, they might say he can't go.  When you're only selecting a few thousand each year out of billions of people ...

[benteen]

One other thing, I still can't take seriously the idea that in less than 40 years from now the human race will be able to travel 26 trillion miles across space.  We'll be lucky if we've even landed on Mars at that point.  That's why it's a mistake setting this series in the 21st century.  Unless we find a way to bend space, we probably won't be able to travel outside of our solar system for centuries and that's be extremely generous.  But it would be less ridiculous if this show took place at the end of the 21st century or in the 22nd century.

It reminds me of a pilot I saw on Amazon about a year ago, Oasis.  It was a decent pilot but the premise had humans settling another world in 2032, 15 years from now.  Even more unbelievable than Lost in Space.

Edited April 20, 2018 by benteen

[LakeGal]

I am not sure what I thought of the season.  At times I liked it.  But I did find a lot of boring parts.  I found they often jumped over parts I wanted to see.  They just showed us the aftermath.  I felt cheated out of those conversations.  Instead we spent a lot of time on long boring conversations that I didn't really care for.  

Dr. Smith needs to stop the constant evil.  I hated her but not in a fun to hate way.  I just felt resigned to knowing she was never going to be killed off so I was stuck with her.  What family would keep her around?

I did enjoy Penny and Don.  They had the best lines and lightened the mood at times.  

I don't know if it was my TV or what.  But I really thought it was too dark at times.  The cave scenes just got boring because I couldn't see what was happening.  

I did laugh that the radios in the chariots were like CB radios with the cords.  Is that really the future?

[Txmomof2]

So I have never seen the original beyond clips here or there, and didn't watch the remake movie either. So I can't compare it to the old beyond the little snippets I saw. 

Overall I liked it, good start. But the one character I just can't see how they will keep it going is Dr. Smith. She is just not likable or redeemble in any way right now. I agree with others - What will keep them from ditching her or leaving her to the robots? I feel like it was just over the top malicious for no clear reason other than that character was supposed to be. I don't know if its just the way Parker Posey portrays her or if she is just written that way. But she truly comes across as psychotic to me and I would cringe when her scenes were on. 

Don was probably my favorite character, he has flaws but is redeemable unlike Smith. Penny's snark reminds me of my son so I have to like her as well.

I'll watch a new season if/when it comes out.  

[stan4]

I really enjoyed it.

 

However, given how much you have to stretch your imagination to buy all the fantastical stuff going on, the most unbelievable is that they let "Dr Smith" run around willy nilly (or even to be alive) given that she has proven herself to be a total psycho and liability.

 

It's that kind of totally  inconsistent nonsense that just ruins things for me.

[Netfoot]

On 4/18/2018 at 11:22 AM, benteen said:

It's hard to believe that there wouldn't be at least an extra bunk on the ship

Can't imagine that each family of colonists gets a custom-designed ship.  So it's bound to be a general design.

It would have to accommodate reasonable sized family groups.  So what is a reasonable family group? Parents. Two point four kids.   Grandparents? Uncle/Aunt & spouse?  Albert the butler?

I'd guess each room would be designed to accommodate two, and there would be an even number of rooms.  I'd say four rooms/eight people sounds about right.  The ship is positively palatial!  large, airy spaces everywhere.  I can't see there would be any difficulty with that much accommodation.

[Anela]

I've never seen the show before, although I'm old enough to remember reruns (Gen-X'er here, too). I haven't seen the movie, either. I'm liking this so far, for something I started in the middle of the night, just to see what it was like.

[Melewen]

It says a lot about the lack of male/female friendships on TV when so many folks are worried about Don and Penny hooking up. My brothers are significantly older than me, and we have a similar dynamic. Their relationship has been nothing but platonic, and I think it's refreshing that the show is allowing them to just be friends.

[benteen]

Good lord, I'm over Dr. Smith.  All see does is scheme, scheme, scheme and she does it badly and without any subtly.  How can anyone else on the show not notice this?  Don buying her excuse was stupid as hell.  Just bad writing.

Look, I admit not knowing the science but just what the hell was Maureen even doing and is that even possible?!

Maureen continues to be a terrible leader who is more interested in grinding her axe with John.  Despite hearing that John decided to abandon his family last episode, he STILL comes across as the most sympathetic member of the family.

Oh, and Maureen, those two creatures who attacked the camp at the end is EXACTLY the reason you needed to bring guns with you on this trip.  Or at least create one.

Quote

The mechanic has been said to have been to Alpha Centauri and back to earth multiple times. How?! Alpha Centauri is 4,34 light years away from earth. It doesn't look like they have anything approaching light speed travel. If we are very generous, with accellerating and breaking one way would take at least 10 years. Dude is 35, not 200.

Something I brought up in the last episode thread.  It's unbelievable that in 30 years time the human race will be able to travel 26 trillion miles (stated in the last episode) into space.  If we're lucky, we will have landed a ship on Mars during that time.  That's why this show should have been set in the 22nd century, not that the human race will be able to travel that far even then.  But it's easier to hand wave away.

Also, if Alpha Centauri is a one-way trip, how has Don been there and back multiple times?

Don continues to be one of the best things on this show but setting up Don and Judy is creepy (I know Don had a thing for her on the original series).  They should have casted an older actress if they wanted to go down that route.

Now I'll criticize John...buddy, if you want to ask Will about the killer robot, don't do it around a group of other survivors.