Season 1 Discussion

[shrewd.buddha]

37 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

They established in an earlier episode that they could hear the Resolute's transmissions but the Resolute could not hear them.

That made sense when we found out that the Resolute had lost its giant antenna. But the Jupiter ships could communicate with one another - and those ships had returned to the Resolute. 
All they really needed was one Jupiter ship to make it back to the Resolute to tell the people there not to leave until everyone had evacuated the planet. 
And would all the other Jupiter ships have left the planet when Maureen and Judy were still missing? Are they all assholes? 

Edited April 23, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[Cardie]

I give the show kudos for the brilliant production design and F/X, the reliance on brains and science rather than combat skills to deal with problems, and the touching bond between Will and Robot. I had problems with the characters. The Robinsons spend most of the season in a state of melancholy and/or peril. I found Posey's Dr. Smith portrayal to be extremely lacking. She held her face rigid, made her eyes dead-cold, and talked in a low monotone. Sociopaths are charming and lively as manipulators. I doubt anyone would have bought into her lies for a nanosecond. Don seemed to me the only one of the regulars who had a spark of personality. There are actresses who at 18 wouldn't seem way too young for him; he reads more as 30 than his real age. The problem is that Taylor Russell is very slight and has a baby face. During the pilot I thought she was in the 12 to 14 range.

The show, like Maureen, hoards information for no good reason. We don't find out for three hours that there are many survivors on the planet; it's episode five before we find out which Robinson is Judy's biological parent. I did find interesting (if regressive) the arc for John. He's a Navy Seal who is nevertheless the least useful of a family of geniuses in a situation that depends on smarts rather than combat skills. Even his qualifications as protector get usurped by the Robot. Of course he proves the patriarchal rescuer in the end so that he emerges into S2 as the proper head of the family, rather than brainy Maureen.

Finally as someone who watched the original series as a teenager, this version lacks a sense of humor and adventure. It's sort of like a Supernatural that is all Sam and no Dean.

[benteen]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Good lord!!!  I really liked this episode too for the most part.  Enjoyed the scene of John and Will joking around while working on the ship and I really liked the scene where the family is training John for the space flight.  There's just something very exciting about watching "old-fashioned" space flight.  Those scenes were exciting.  Add Don to the mix, even more so.

But good lord, Dr. Smith, the villain who makes no sense whatsoever.  You were found out, okay...but the choices are still between death on the planet or not getting off the planet at all.  She's resourceful and could very well end up escaping again (I don't know how because she doesn't have a shred of subtlety and the WORST survival instincts).  But still, it's in her best interests for the Robinsons plan to work.  But no, she's EVIL for the sake of being evil and just plain stupid.  Parker Posey is a better actress than that so I'm going to blame the writing.  What this character could be with better writing and some subtlety.

Ah, Will...I understand you don't want your dad to go up into that shuttle alone but think, you little idiot.  If the robot does pilot that ship (depending on whether or not it can be fixed), do you really think the crew of the Resolute won't freak out seeing that think return?  

Not defending Will but this again comes down to John and Maureen concealing information from their kids.  Tell them the truth about Dr. Smith, that she's not who see seems to be, that she probably murdered someone and that she provided Angela with the gun.  Tell your kids that you will beat them with a crowbar if they go near her.  But no, we need to have a character acting stupid and getting tricked by a villain so unsubtle that even an 11-year-old should be able to see it.

Edited April 24, 2018 by benteen

[LilJen]

I prefer Parker Posey in mockumentaries. She was awesome in Waiting for Guffman.

[Daltrey]

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎20 at 7:01 AM, benteen said:

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.

 

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎22 at 5:43 PM, nodorothyparker said:

No, a parent shouldn't disappear halfway around the world on his kids and use work as an excuse when he doesn't have to, but did she ever take even 30 seconds to question why he might choose to do that or how they got to that point? She doesn't want to listen and she continually shuts down John because she can as leader even if it makes them all less safe as a result.  The man followed you across galaxies.  That might be your first clue that he's taking this seriously now.

 

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎22 at 5:43 PM, nodorothyparker said:

 

This was my big take away; I think I told her to shut up at least twice, lol!

Did Anyone else feel like there was an episode missing between #3 & #4? Maybe I missed something but weren't they still surrounded by ice and snow at the end of episode three? Where did all the lush greenery come from? I remember they virtually had no fuel left thanks to the eel creatures, other than what was in the lines, when they broke the ship free...did they have enough to travel that far? That seems as far fetched as anything. I'm enjoying it so far, though.

[Daltrey]

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎22 at 3:02 PM, mxc90 said:

I wondered why Don stopped pulling on the container when it was upright - why not continue so that the container was on it other side and the hole was facing upwards?

That would have been a great solution. My thought was, the tanker will have to righted whether they try to save the guy or not, so they are going to lose fuel regardless; by tipping it back over onto the opposite side they could have still saved a good deal more than they did. 

As for "Dr Smith", when she was with the robot parts she said her name was June something....Miller, I think? As she tried to put him back together, she said something to the affect of "I'm not evil, you are. All the bad things that are going to happen will be because of you, not me." Up till now I had just assumed maybe she was a person who had always made bad life choices, was maybe an addict or something, and had assumed the Dr Smith identity to try and start fresh but was having a hard time shedding her past while maintaining her cover. At the very least I think she's a sociopath but that bit of dialogue makes her sound like more of a psychopath.

[rab01]

8 hours ago, Daltrey said:

Did Anyone else feel like there was an episode missing between #3 & #4? Maybe I missed something but weren't they still surrounded by ice and snow at the end of episode three? Where did all the lush greenery come from? I remember they virtually had no fuel left thanks to the eel creatures, other than what was in the lines, when they broke the ship free...did they have enough to travel that far? That seems as far fetched as anything. I'm enjoying it so far, though.

In the final shot where they've broken into the air, fly for a bit and then crash, they show you that they crashed in a place surrounded by trees. Also, lush greenery was less than a day's walk by an 11-year-old from their original crash site so really not that far away - just a long way down.  

[rab01]

15 hours ago, Cardie said:

I give the show kudos for the brilliant production design and F/X, the reliance on brains and science rather than combat skills to deal with problems, and the touching bond between Will and Robot. I had problems with the characters. The Robinsons spend most of the season in a state of melancholy and/or peril. I found Posey's Dr. Smith portrayal to be extremely lacking. She held her face rigid, made her eyes dead-cold, and talked in a low monotone. Sociopaths are charming and lively as manipulators. I doubt anyone would have bought into her lies for a nanosecond. Don seemed to me the only one of the regulars who had a spark of personality. There are actresses who at 18 wouldn't seem way too young for him; he reads more as 30 than his real age. The problem is that Taylor Russell is very slight and has a baby face. During the pilot I thought she was in the 12 to 14 range.

The show, like Maureen, hoards information for no good reason. We don't find out for three hours that there are many survivors on the planet; it's episode five before we find out which Robinson is Judy's biological parent. I did find interesting (if regressive) the arc for John. He's a Navy Seal who is nevertheless the least useful of a family of geniuses in a situation that depends on smarts rather than combat skills. Even his qualifications as protector get usurped by the Robot. Of course he proves the patriarchal rescuer in the end so that he emerges into S2 as the proper head of the family, rather than brainy Maureen.

Finally as someone who watched the original series as a teenager, this version lacks a sense of humor and adventure. It's sort of like a Supernatural that is all Sam and no Dean.

I agree with everything you said except that I don't think the Dad is in charge at the end. Yes, he gets a last second save of Will but until then he's just the episode's damsel in distress and in earlier episodes (like where they're trapped in the tar), he's fully deferring to Maureen.  An advantage of Judy looking young means that she doesn't read as parental with her sister and, for me, the sibling relationships are a real strong point.  As for the age gap with Don, maybe they aren't going to be romantically linked.  Their scenes so far could read either way.

[Quark]

I liked this series.

Penny is definitely my favourite character, followed by Don. Both have a good sense of humour. Penny also seems far more normal than her siblings, who both seem to be highly intelligent.

Will might be silly sometimes, but he is absolutely adorable.

John grew on me as the season progressed and I only liked Maureen when she was being protective of her kids. I loved her scene when she was battering Robot. 

Dr Smith is horrible and her motivation didn't make sense much of the time. If she is here next season, I hope they make her more sympathetic.

[iMonrey]

I've looked at some YouTube reviews of this series and, along with the comments in this forum, the reactions to Parker Posey's Dr. Smith are really mixed. 

For me, she was the highlight of the show. I didn't really become invested in the pilot until the last five minutes when she was introduced. The more she was woven into the story, the more interested I became in the story.

Admittedly, that's a problem. None of the other characters were really grabbing me in a way that made me want to keep watching until she came along. I also have a tough time seeing where they go from here with this character now that (most of) her secret is out in the open.

I suppose this final episode attempted to redeem her somewhat since she ended up saving John and Don. It's still going to be tough to incorporate her into whatever story they have in mind going forward. 

[AntAnn]

I am old enough at almost 62,  yikes, to kind of remember the original. I do remember it as cheesy, but I do remember liking it. Husband is 60 and he can’t recall it at all. Weird, I know. I was hoping to find the original on Netflix, but can only find it on Hulu. Ugh, I hate to make another subscription. I’m sure I will tho. See what I did there? Almost 62...winks.

[Daltrey]

19 hours ago, rab01 said:

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎23 at 11:31 PM, Daltrey said:

Did Anyone else feel like there was an episode missing between #3 & #4? Maybe I missed something but weren't they still surrounded by ice and snow at the end of episode three? Where did all the lush greenery come from? I remember they virtually had no fuel left thanks to the eel creatures, other than what was in the lines, when they broke the ship free...did they have enough to travel that far? That seems as far fetched as anything. I'm enjoying it so far, though.

In the final shot where they've broken into the air, fly for a bit and then crash, they show you that they crashed in a place surrounded by trees. Also, lush greenery was less than a day's walk by an 11-year-old from their original crash site so really not that far away - just a long way down.  

Yes, thanks, I did a quick check and see it now. I suppose it can be further explained as the series progresses in that 

Spoiler

because of the black hole, the planet has a strange orbit and a short life cycle, thus it is rapidly warming up.

[benteen]

I think this series has picked up steam once again.  Enjoyed this episode.

I'm glad we got an explanation for how humans can travel so far into space.  That definitely works for me because there's no way humanity could do it on its own.

Nice to see the leader not be a dick in this episode.

Of course Will's radio was going to cause the creatures to attack.  Oh, those wacky Robinsons...

[whiporee]

I'm not spoiled beyond this, but I'm betting Dr. Smith's plan was to have Angela destroy the robot, then for Dr. Smith to rebuild the robot and therefore gain its devotion, just like Will did in the pilot. I don't know how she plans to rebuild the robot, nor do I know who she planned to have Angela find the gun. While I am at I, why she'd have thought a gun would hurt the robot. Unless her long con was to find a way to have Will destroy it, which would have played into her previous speech about the robot not being able to trust Will. But that's an awful lot of suppositions to make if it was indeed her plan. 

I like this show a lot, even more than I thought I would. I thought Don's speech to Judy was pretty good -- he's a much more interesting character than the old one or Matt LaBlanc. And I also like the dynamics of the overall colonists instead of just the Robinsons. Got no issues with any of the characters except Dr. Smith, but to be fair, I thought Dr. Smith was extraneous in the original, too. 

I'm also not convinced the Resolute is actually still up there. Seemed like a lot of debris was coming off as everyone was evacuating, and I find it had to believe that an interstellar spacecraft could survive after losing a big ol' hunk of it structure. But it's clear this planet's not long for the plot, and since we've gotten no evidence that the Jupiters are capable of "warp" speed on their own, I'm sure they'll show us something. 

[sacrebleu]

The problem with Posey's Dr. Smith is that she has no value as a member of the team-- she only exists to create chaos. I never watched the original-- but I believe the OG Dr. Smith was actually a doctor and served some kind of purpose.

 

-bear with me now-- one of the reasons Richard Hatch made such a great/ interesting villain/foil on Survivor was because the other contestants needed him because he was the only one who could catch fish. Posey's character needs to be needed in some way to justify them keeping her around.

 

I have a hard time believing that these people, all picked for the mission for their smarts and skills, would be making so many mistakes.  The fuel mission (did they even try to find another way back to camp that wasn't through  explosion valley?) everyone is always running off and not telling people where they're going so when they get in trouble no one can help them out.)

Also, the woman who hated the robot (Angela) -- her husband who was killed played the violin-- they really gave priority to a violinist on this first mission?

If gravity works different on this planet (the reason they had to strip down the ship) why didn't we see any other evidence of it?

[nodorothyparker]

The inevitable Don-Not Dr. Smith meetup has to be the most anticlimactic resolution ever.  It was like she didn't even bother putting in any effort whatsoever to come up with a plausible explanation for why she left them there to die and he just ... shrugged and said whatever.  That's after she spent the entire episode lurking around the work site without making more than the barest pretense to be doing anything, I guess to see who was who and who she could play off each other, and not one of these people seemed to think there was anything odd about it.  I like the observation that she's coming off more as a shit stirring trickster god than an actual human being because that's exactly what sprang to mind for me too in watching her out the kids' robot walkabout to John for ... reasons.  I had a moment of thinking she must also have supernatural timing for the attack on beacon to play out as it did until I remembered we saw her turn off the security fence, also for reasons that weren't clear at the time.

The purple field where Maureen's idiocy with the balloon took place was pretty to look at, but seriously, it coming right after her big brushoff because I Can Do It All By Myself where her kids never would have known what happened to her had that ended badly was working my last nerve.  Your husband LEFT the family for what seems to have been an not insignificant chunk of these kids' lives.  How are you still managing to look like the worse parent and partner in this?  Combined with the flashback of her hemming and hawing about whether they would be disappearing into the far reaches of space forever without Dad and her ridiculously idealistic sell of the new planet where there would be rainbows and no war just makes her look like a petty idiot when she's clearly not supposed to be that.   Idealism is great with the whole no weapons for our new world thing but it nearly led to your estranged husband having to take on the nonhuman cast of Jurassic Park with a pocketknife. 

Seeing as how they're already well beyond the reaches of Earth or the program that got them here, I do wonder how many times we're going to circle Will not being able to pass the necessary tests to be a part of this or how much it's even going matter from here on out.  I also would have accepted the fact that he's 11 as a perfectly plausible reason for him not being completely suited to this new world right out of the gate, Judy's apparent wiz kid prodigy status as a doctor at 18 notwithstanding. 

At least we finally got a quick line from Judy five episodes in explaining that John is not her biological father in response to Don's double take on having seen both Robinson parents and then her. 

[rab01]

12 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

Your husband LEFT the family for what seems to have been an not insignificant chunk of these kids' lives.  How are you still managing to look like the worse parent and partner in this?  Combined with the flashback of her hemming and hawing about whether they would be disappearing into the far reaches of space forever without Dad and her ridiculously idealistic sell of the new planet where there would be rainbows and no war just makes her look like a petty idiot when she's clearly not supposed to be that.   

I dislike her as a parent and spouse but like how fully realized she is as a character, if that makes any sense.  Throughout, she's controlling and convinced that she's always right while also deeply being concerned about her kids but sometimes being terrible at actually helping them. I've known women like that but rarely see them on-screen.  As for John "leaving" the family, I got the sense from the way they talked about it that while his most recent posting was voluntary, that was after they were already having deep marital problems. 

[nodorothyparker]

2 hours ago, rab01 said:

I got the sense from the way they talked about it that while his most recent posting was voluntary, that was after they were already having deep marital problems. 

Yeah, I've gotten that sense too from things that have been said, but every time they discuss it she clearly wants to put ALL the problems on him leaving, as if that happened in a vacuum.  I agree with you that it's an interesting portrayal of a personality you don't see a lot of onscreen even if I still find her beyond aggravating.

[nodorothyparker]

"You're a badass princess?''  "No no, there's a comma."  Hee.  I find it oddly comforting that Van Halen will still be choice road trip music 30 years from now.  I like Don, even when he's doing something inexplicably boneheaded.

The cairn scene was well done with John trying to teach Will that just saying someone has changed doesn't really cut it if without also taking the responsibility for the carnage they may have caused.  Will clearly wasn't getting the rest of the colonists' issues with working along side the robot after its actions killed their cohorts and led to them being stranded there, and John was clearly also working out some issues of his own.  But like everyone else, I'm struggling with the notion that the robot seems to have situational self preservation instincts wholly dependent on Will's say so.  

I'm really going to need Not Dr. Smith's machinations and ridiculous manipulations of everybody to start making sense at some point.  Okay, so she riled up a hurting Angela and pointed her at the robot.  I guess that makes some kind of sense if her end game is to get the robot to react violently and be permanently tossed out of the camp, but she already told us during the trek to the cave that she wished she could take Will's place as its master to protect her when all the shit she's been stirring is inevitably found out and hits the fan.  So are we now to expect that the ne-er do well and petty criminal that she was before all this is going to somehow know how to recover or repair the robot to bring it under her control?  What exactly did she think was going to happen?  Nothing about her makes any sense and the only thing that seems to be saving her is that everybody has bigger fish to fry with the constant peril they've been in since they landed and their petty family drama to really be paying attention.

You're a teenager who's never been kissed and you just overheard that you're probably trapped on a doomed planet that's going to become uninhabitable in the very very near future?  Get it while you can, Penny.  You might as well.

[SayMyName]

It seems like they felt they had to have a Dr. Smith character because the original had one. What they have done with said character makes zero sense. Every scene the the Dr. is tedious.

[SayMyName]

On 4/24/2018 at 12:24 PM, Quark said:

Dr Smith is horrible and her motivation didn't make sense much of the time. If she is here next season, I hope they make her more sympathetic.

If there is a season 2 the writers have backed themselves into a corner with this character haven't they? She needed to be the "hero" or at least have a bad-ass robot bodyguard to exist in the new colony. Well it doesn't look like the colony is going to happen any time soon so now what the heck do you do with her? I guess the can have her steal stuff from the robots that the family can use. Or maybe the robots will need some fake psychotherapy?

[nodorothyparker]

Okay, so far the Robinsons have tried to conceal the presence of the robot, the realization that the planet is dying, or where any of them are going half the time.  How is that working out for them?

I quite enjoyed John and Maureen in this episode, silliness that stranded them in the tar aside, and the actors have really nice chemistry together.  I guess the prospect of being buried alive in hot tar or having to sacrifice one of you to even get a shot for the other to survive tends to cut through all the drama they've dragged out for near seven episodes now and it just doesn't matter anymore.  Interesting that even in their reminiscing story about the air conditioner Maureen couldn't just go for the obvious, and probably fixable, answer when her unwillingness to just be upfront with the whole group of what appear to be highly smart and capable people may be what ends up dooming her family to be left behind to die.  We get it that she's obviously very intelligent and good at what she knows how to do.  But we've already seen her be ruled by her emotions to the point that she can't put them aside to be a good leader even when she's worrying about other people being too emotional, and we can add short-sighted and highly presumptuous to that.

Vic is definitely a jerk but he wasn't wrong in prioritizing saving the only fuel they have over a largely untested 18-year-old glorified medic trying to treat a man with serious internal injuries miles from anything resembling proper facilities, and that was before he understood just how high the stakes really are.  I know from the swelling evil music at the end that we're supposed to see it as a big most terrible to ever terrible thing that he's willing to cut his losses at this point and abandon the rest of the colonists, but after he was overruled by the aforementioned 18-year-old and the wannabe Han Solo of the group while everyone else stood around and shrugged as their fuel gushed out onto the ground, I can see why that would seem to be the preferable option to waiting around to die with these people.

As much as I got a kick out of Not Dr. Smith's consternation when the pieces of the robot didn't magically reassemble, I really just can't with her anymore.  I'm over her terrible onesie and fanny pack and Dynasty-era hair that seems to be getting bigger with every episode.   So we were to take from her James Bond villain monologuing her evil plans that she intends to use the robot to kill everyone why?  And with two Robinson kids at home the whole time and surely at least some other colonists milling about, no one saw her drag all the pieces of the robot that was noticeably larger than she was back into the Jupiter?  Please, just make it stop.

[nodorothyparker]

On 4/23/2018 at 8:34 PM, benteen said:

But good lord, Dr. Smith, the villain who makes no sense whatsoever.  You were found out, okay...but the choices are still between death on the planet or not getting off the planet at all.  She's resourceful and could very well end up escaping again (I don't know how because she doesn't have a shred of subtlety and the WORST survival instincts).  But still, it's in her best interests for the Robinsons plan to work.  But no, she's EVIL for the sake of being evil and just plain stupid.

This is what's killing me too.  I realize that I've pretty much lost track of who knows what or what form of skulking about she was doing during any of the discussions about how they're all doomed in short order if they don't get off this planet, but how exactly does she see this going if they fail to be rescued?  Sure, she's got problems if they're all picked back up by the Resolute and the captain isn't too distracted to say "Oh yes, you.  We still have that unresolved issue of you stealing an identity to get here and murdering a man."  Still, she seems to notice every other damn thing that happens between any of these people.  Has she really completely missed that they're all about to become extra crispy if their efforts fail  and they don't get back?  But no, we've got her tricking and tying up a child and clocking Maureen in the back of the head, again for ... reasons.

My husband, whose biggest complaint is that the character isn't acted well at all, argues that she makes some degree of sense if you can see her as a perennial con man who doesn't know how to do anything else but keep spinning and spinning when stuck with a group of very dumb very smart people.  He also points out that the whole colonist group probably lacks any natural sense of suspicion or skepticism they might normally have about someone who seems a little off because all of these people were supposed to have been thoroughly vetted and approved before they ever got this far.  The entire nature of the group gives them a false sense of security that everyone's who they say they are and everyone's on the up and up.  Notice how even after the discovery that Not Dr. Smith had lied about pretty much everything at every step of the way, Maureen still accepted entirely at face value that she's "Jane Harris the physicist" because she recalls a Jane Harris on the Resolute's manifest.  It didn't even occur to her to double check her entry on the electronic passenger list when they were scrolling through it later to determine that John was the pilot they wanted.

It's aggravating because I also otherwise really liked the family flight simulations and making Don a part of it.  I liked seeing Maureen being smart and capable and actually leading instead of being caught up in tedious personal drama.  I liked seeing the family work together as a team.  I want to cut Will some slack since he is still in fact 11 and his parents didn't explicitly spell out for him WHY he needed to stay out of the garage and away from Crazy Pants, but good god kid, did it even register with you at all that your dad was already in the process of taking off and the robot was just a head in a bag that wouldn't be able to pilot anything?

[nodorothyparker]

I'm betting the casting for most of the colonists was fun.  "Yeah, you're going to get a couple of lines here and there, but mostly what you're going to be doing is moving boxes and parts around in the background for one part of the season and then for the other half, you're going to be scraping faux poop off the walls mostly in scenes too dark to see anyway when you're not running from giant CGI space dinobats."

How on earth did Vic ever get elected to whatever leadership position he's supposed to be holding?  He seems mostly competent enough and he's not wrong in counseling practicality and an eye on the bigger picture over wishful thinking, but holy hell are his people skills terrible saying that to a child who may have just lost both parents.

Long sigh on the robot now magically being Team Not Dr. Smith.  No, you don't get to paint yourself as the hero of the story when you're telling it someone you've kidnapped and tied up.  That should seem to go without saying.  I do appreciate the twist of the robot having gone to retrieve property the humans had stolen vs. just attacking because that's what aliens do in this genre, and I'm inclined to think I really would have enjoyed Maureen and Not Dr. Smith piecing that together had one of the two not been crazy and holding the other hostage.  There are some rather disturbing implications at play if the government or the space agency doing this or whoever knew the meteor would be coming and bringing widespread destruction and they'd already decided to cut their losses to let the rest of the planet die while they evacuated those they deemed worth saving.  At the very least it solves the problem some of us have been asking how technology could have possibly advanced so far in 30 years to make any of this workable.

[nodorothyparker]

Lost In Space producers discuss season 2 as they spill details 'We're ahead of the curve'

The numbers are good and while they avoid directly saying 'yes, we're officially getting a second season' the showrunners are certainly talking about it like it's a foregone conclusion.

Netflix’s Lost in Space Drew 6.3 Million Viewers in First Three Days.  Not Stranger Things numbers, but reportedly very respectable.

Solid 'Lost in Space' Ratings Keep the Robinsons far from Netflix Danger 

More on context of the numbers and a linked story about how even without the official go ahead, showrunners are confident enough they've already started work on the second season.

[Miles]

Mrs. Robinson: "You might have a concussion"

Mr. Robinson: "I've had a lot of concussions"

Me: "That explains a lot"

 

A lot of dumb this episode and I probably forgot some already.

That chariot sank really really slowly and then suddenly in a matter of seconds. Consistency, what's that? I doubt it even could sink in tar, considering it's full of air.

There really wasn't a way around the conveniently timed minefield of pyroclastic explosions? I mean you need to get of this planet, but you have weeks (and the people in charge of that decision didn't even know about it). Wouldn't it be better to take a detour that takes a few days rather than risk it.

Are they really using miles in an international space program? Yeah no, not even NASA uses miles.

Are we really supposed to see it as the humane thing to sacrifice all that fuel to try and save a guy who had a crushed abdomen far away from any proper medical care? There was zero percent chance he was going to survive. That he made it as long as he did was all due to TV magic.

You are concerned about the air in the cariot. Couldn't you use the air supply in the suit for a few hours?

"This suit can withstand space so it can handle a little tar". That's not how that works. Even if it did, how do you propose she gets through the tar. The problem with tar is that you get stuck in it.

How convenient that their little bubble came out at the edge of the tar pit and not in the middle.

How is it a problem that only a few Jupiters can launch? They are massive. You can get all the people in there. Even if you couldn't, you could just fly to the mother ship, refuel and send them back to pick up the rest.

 

On 19.4.2018 at 3:37 AM, Vella said:

I liked Will/Penny bonding, although Will learning to 'fly' looked hella boring and more suited to a 5 year old than a preteen.

Yep. He acts way too childish for his age all the time. It seems like they wrote a 5 year old, but cast a 12 year old for some reason

Edited April 28, 2018 by Miles

[Miles]

So why did they need Don on board to hit a button? Wouldn't he have been better off in the control center with Maureen to tell John when to vent? It also would have given them a bit more of a security buffer for the weight. I guess then it wouldn't have been as easy for Dr. Smith to clock Maureen over the head.

I think everybody else covered all the other dumb this episode already.

[Miles]

Those bats can't hunt with echo location like our bats? Worst apex predator ever.

That must have been the worst anesthetic ever. How long was Dr. Smith out? 20 seconds? I really don't want to be treated by that doctor, if she thinks that is sufficient.

[nodorothyparker]

I ended up liking this series a lot more than I went into it expecting to, goofiness and all.  No, it's not groundbreaking TV, but it's entertaining enough for what it is, I enjoyed most of the visual effects, and it was something I could watch with my kids, so good enough for me. 

Again, I come away from this episode wondering just how Not Dr. Smith saw anything she was trying to do play out.  Had she gotten out in time to seize control of the ship, she admitted she doesn't know how to fly.  Maureen was just fucking done with being threatened and bullied when there was a fair chance they were all going to die anyway.  The Robinsons if nothing else have proved themselves more than capable in a pinch.  So instead of the constant pounding and doing more damage to the ship, wouldn't the smarter thing have been to let it play out?  But no she can't stop just spinning and spinning and spinning and making everything worse across the board.  Which leaves the writers with a huge corner to configure themselves out of if and when they get a second season.  The reveal that Not Dr. Smith at the last possible moment made the second harpoon throw to save John, enabling him to in turn save Will, is probably enough under the circumstances of them being sucked into something new entirely that the goody goody Robinsons will figure they have bigger things to worry about than moving against one seemingly defanged shit stirrer.  It could be interesting to see if those dynamics even matter if they actually were pulled into whatever dimension?? the robots came from as Will seemed to be suggesting at the end.  I don't doubt we'll be seeing them again.

Also again, I find myself realizing if their relationship wasn't one of one of the two continually lying to, kidnapping, or threatening the other's family that I could really like the chemistry and the easy back and forth the two lead actresses have with each other.  Maureen may still not be the easiest character to take at times, but she really grew on me in the back half of the season as she got to be the hero and leader she was obviously styling herself to be with decidedly mixed results in the front half.  Will finally got to come through in the end and I even liked the little touch that less than personable Vic tried to wait the Resolute for them.

[TV Anonymous]

It warms my heart that in the future space explorers equip themselves with the Canadian version of MRE.

[Cardie]

NotDr. Smith will no doubt immediately volunteer to serve as a collaborator, spy and saboteur for the robots and their evil alien overlords (if there are any.) They will task her with getting information from Maureen about the alien tech the Earth scientists stole. In other words, more of the same from her.

[DHDancer]

5 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

It warms my heart that in the future space explorers equip themselves with the Canadian version of MRE.

Not to mention smuggled $100 a bottle Single Malt to wash them down  (Lagavulin 16 year -- my fave! Wonder what that product placement cost)

[MarySNJ]

On 4/18/2018 at 2:48 AM, Kelda Feegle said:

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

It reminds me a bit of LOST. In space, and not as good.

[CarpeFelis]

On 4/22/2018 at 3:01 AM, Netfoot said:

I was thinking about Robby from Forbidden Planet.  After FP, Robby made an appearance in a number of other films and TV shows, including LIS.  For some reason, my memory had placed Robby as the fobot robot from LIS, which was not correct.  Perhaps my memory flashed on a scene of him with the principal actors, from his guest appearance.  Anyhow, for what ever reason, I thought for a while that the LIS robot had been played by Robby.  Now, my memory stands corrected.

 

P.S.:  FP was Robby's debut role.  He was created for the part in 1956.  

Slightly OT but does anyone else remember his appearance in Gremlins?  The dad is calling home from an inventors’ convention and Robby passes by in the background saying lines he said in Forbidden Planet.

[benteen]

I thought it was good and that the last three episodes finished strongly.  I love the place they left them at the end and I'm looking forward to a season 2.

The Dr. Smith character still makes little sense and was the weakest aspect of this show.

[CaptainE]

 Almost gave up  in episode two, but I have a question which I haven’t seen addressed yet.

How the hell does the ‘robot’ know English?  Yeah, the “Danger Will Robinson” was cute, but nonsensical.

If it can say that, why can’t it say anything else?

 

Also mommy said some drivel about being trillions of light years from Earth if I heard that right.  I’m pretty sure that’s not possible either to measure or theorize on, given the age of the universe.

And the Millennium, I mean Jupiter 2 landing would have broken several backs.

 

Meh.   C-

[TV Anonymous]

Does the episode explain how Maureen descend from the altitude? The balloon looks intact without a release valve. Even if it has, I do not see the connection from the balloon that Maureen can pull to release the helium gas.

[ExMathMajor]

Parker Posey is a big reason why I'm even watching this show. That and the fact that Judy is half-black and they waited all the way to episode 5 to explain how that happened. Also there are Asian travelers. God forbid a show actually reflect the real world in all its (gasp) diversity...

As a young girl, I hated the original show, not because everybody was white (I had Star Trek for that) but because only Will ever got to do cool stuff and all Penny ever seemed to do was whine. So really this entire remake is an upgrade for me.

Edited May 3, 2018 by ExMathMajor

[greyhorse]

I loved the original series but I guess I must have missed the very first episodes because as a kid watching the reruns in the summer I didn't really wonder how they ended up on the planet or anything of the sort.   My memory is also foggy as that was several decades ago.  Was Dr. Smith a fake on the original as well?  I don't think so.  This Parker Posey imposter is a twist in the new series, right?

Must be hard being Dr. Smith.  Always on edge, being concerned you'll get found out, etc.  Why would she even stowaway on the ship if she knew she couldn't handle anything and eventually be discovered?  Just a little baffling.

Can't wait for Don West to make his way to Jupiter 2 and see what the confrontation with Smith will be.  I still don't understand why she didn't tell the Robinsons that Don and the injured girl were hiding in a cave.  Because she took the last flare?  Seems like she could have explained it.  "Hey, I'm going to go look for help.  I'll take the flare just in case I see anyone.  OK?"

The robot said a lot more than "Danger Will Robinson" in the original series, no?  

It didn't seem like the spaceship was really buried that deep in ice.  It crashed.  Then seemed to sink about 50 feet.  But when John was piloting it out, he looked like Han Solo piloting the Falcon and dodging all sorts of ice and maneuvering his way through narrow openings for what seems like forever.  What gives?

[greyhorse]

So Judy said she came along after her dad left.  So is she adopted?  Did Maureen have a baby with another man?  Yet John still calls her his daughter?  Can somebody please remind me in the original series if Judy was their biological daughter?  I don't recall that it was any other way.

I can't stand Dr. Smith.  But I also remember not liking him in the original series either, so I guess it's playing out as it should.  So she is a fake psychologist, yet she does seem to be able to talk the psycho babble somewhat convincingly.  So is that a knock on the entire psychiatric field?  "I'm a doctor...but not that kind of doctor...I'm a psychologist."  And everybody just believes that as such.

Judy knows that Smith didn't say that Don and Angela were with her when they rescued her.  Why didn't she ask more questions?  Why didn't she tell her parents about that?

Smith follows the kids to the cave.  And then goes into the cave to talk to the robot.  For what?  To get the robot to be loyal to her?  Is it?  We saw her opening the gate, did she presumably get the robot?  Why would she do that?

[CaptainE]

How did the ‘robot’ learn English? Oh, and only one word at that?

The writers are either on something or seriously dopey regarding Maureen’s balloon flight.  A 5 year old knows balloons don’t land where they take off.  

This does not portend well for good storylines.  Unless the viewer is a simpleton.  Then all is well.

[Sakura12]

5 hours ago, greyhorse said:

So Judy said she came along after her dad left.  So is she adopted?  Did Maureen have a baby with another man?  Yet John still calls her his daughter?  Can somebody please remind me in the original series if Judy was their biological daughter?  I don't recall that it was any other way.

I don't remember which episode it's talked about, but the creators had to explain it in interviews. Judy is Maureen's daughter from her first marriage. John adopted her when he and Maureen got married. 

[Miles]

On 4.5.2018 at 5:12 PM, Sakura12 said:

I don't remember which episode it's talked about, but the creators had to explain it in interviews. Judy is Maureen's daughter from her first marriage. John adopted her when he and Maureen got married. 

Which really is the creators being chicken shits. They wanted a black character in the main cast, for diversity's sake, but the main characters are all a family. The way out for non-cowards would have been to make one of the parents black and all the kids black in the process. But since they are cowards they came up with this workaround.

[TV Anonymous]

On 4/28/2018 at 5:45 PM, Miles said:

Are they really using miles in an international space program? Yeah no, not even NASA uses miles.

Yeah, this surprised me. NASA and U.S. military use SI, and so U.S. scientific community. Funny thing, they are talking in Imperial, but the speedometer is SI. Is that not confusing?

I am a bit confused. John was a Navy SEAL? I thought in the earlier episode it was established that he was on deployment with Delta. There is no way, no way at all that a family member could have mistaken Delta with SEAL. Even if all his activities were secret, those are two different organizations in two different services.

What does Dr. Smith / June Harris want? She keeps on stirring the pot but to what end? There does not seem to be a clear purpose of her evilness.

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 4/28/2018 at 4:45 PM, Miles said:

How convenient that their little bubble came out at the edge of the tar pit and not in the middle.

That made no sense at all -- what caused the balloon to unfurl horizontally let alone be exactly the right length to just reach the shore of the tar lake ?

As for the race across the plain of geysers -- couldn't they drive at slower speeds safely along the edge of the valley ?  Because most of the explosions appeared to occur towards the middle.

[TV Anonymous]

On 4/28/2018 at 2:20 PM, nodorothyparker said:

I'm betting the casting for most of the colonists was fun.  "Yeah, you're going to get a couple of lines here and there, but mostly what you're going to be doing is moving boxes and parts around in the background for one part of the season and then for the other half, you're going to be scraping faux poop off the walls mostly in scenes too dark to see anyway when you're not running from giant CGI space dinobats."

I think the casting of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Kiki Sukezane is a big waste of talents. Tagawa is quite well known and Sukezane is a martial artist. It is such a crime to have Sukezane just standing pretty and say one or two not very important lines.

So the revelation is that Smith/Harris' purpose is to get to Alpha Centauri to get fresh start. So why did she stir the pot so much? Why was she sabotaging things? Would the best thing to do not keeping her head down and get herself back to the Resolute?

[ottoDbusdriver]

Why was Maureen the only person in the J4 control center ?  Where did everyone else go ?  No one was there to back her up in case there were problems -- really ?

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 4/17/2018 at 12:22 AM, dragonsbite said:

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

It's probably going to be some bullshit excuse like FauxDrSmith knew that Judy would inject her with a knock-out drug so she preemptively took the antidote or some such nonsense.

The creatures in the cave looked a lot like the graboids from 'Tremors' that were also sightless (and evolved into flying versions in Tremors 3).

Maureen keeps saying that the planet instability is being caused by the black hole, but no one has mentioned the immense moon in the sky, that also has it's own moon.  I'd guess the tidal forces from those two would likely cause a few geological problems (and crazy high tides, but we haven't seen an ocean yet).

[Miles]

6 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

It's probably going to be some bullshit excuse like FauxDrSmith knew that Judy would inject her with a knock-out drug so she preemptively took the antidote or some such nonsense.

You give this show too much credit. They just don't explain it.

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 4/23/2018 at 9:07 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

It appears they decided to shove logic out of the airlock for the final episode. Because of the illogical silliness, the series felt degraded to 'young-adult sci-fi' - - to me.  I was not really happy with ending on a cliffhanger, either. 

The really bad stuff:

• The Resolute, mother ship, is calling Maureen as she is leaving the planet. Maureen never answers. She doesn't ask for help to find John, who is alive.
• Maureen  doesn't ask the Resolute to wait for them - - are they in immediate danger after they are off the planet?
• Maureen, when in control of the Jupiter, does not warn the Resolute about not-Dr. Smith and the Robot. In fact, they may not have told anyone else about not-Dr. Smith, for plot reasons.
• Where did the alien spaceship go? 
• Will decides the best time to confront his Mom about failing the space test was during a crisis. 
• Will Maureen ever tell anyone what she learned about the stolen alien technology? 
• Don conveniently goes blind for about twenty minutes - - and is cured by having an emotional cry.

There were just too, too many plot contrivances jammed into one episode. Another of those was having Penny and Judy trapped in the chariot while Will and Maureen were not. There was also Will needing to make a spacewalk to the far side of the ship - in order for him to be rescued by his Dad. 

How timely that yet another alien spaceship shows up to rescue the robot ?  Because the ship appeared to be undamaged, so it probably wasn't the crashed ship from the planet, and contained another robot all ready to go in combat mode.  Was it drawn by the module under the chariot ?

Did Maureen/Judy know that the robot attached the module to the bottom of the chariot ? How could they not know ? 
And why would this piece of alien tech induce artificial gravity, but only in the plot-convenient direction (down in J2 ship's terms) ?

Is the Resolute crew freaking out by the presence of the new alien ship ?  We can safely assume that the Resolute is powered by a similar alien engine as well, and will continue to attract alien ships like a moth to a flame.

Did Debbie the chicken have it's own spacesuit ?  Otherwise how did the chicken survive the hard vacuum of space.

It would have been helpful for them to show how Don and John survived the destruction of the J4, with more than 24 hours of suit air. 
And how come the Resolute didn't bother to investigate a ship exploding as it tried to entered orbit from the previous episode ?

As for getting Don to cry, all John had to say was that Don was never going to see Debbie again. Or that they had to convert all his smuggled whiskey to fuel.  Or both.  He would have cried in about 2 minutes.

Could someone get some space polysporin and some space band-aids for the injuries on Maureen and John's faces ?