Everyone is being a tad harsh on this program, there is far worse tripe out there on TV. Seriously, go watch some of it. Or don't actually...
Anyways, whilst I felt this was a competent sci-fi drama with dazzlingly high production values including a rather sumptuous and lovely planet as well as thorough sets for the "Fort Haven", I do feel this is a lot of wasted potential.
Despite a promising premise, the last of Earth's survivors (Fleeing Earth following an unexplained cataclysm) forced to live out on a new world and re-build society and survive the planets harsh hazards, it mostly falls flat. Part of this comes from a bad sense of what to do with the concept...instead of watching the first wave of settlers start to build a settlement and the struggles for power and resources that entails, we come too late, they have a whole town going with electricity, law and order and even a gun ban. It's like we've missed the really good parts, you know, the compelling struggle, fighting and survival.
This further carries into the waste of the first episodes one truly compelling and intriguing character: Mitchell Hoban(Played by an excellent Jamie Bamber), a revolutionary with psychopathic tendencies who wishes to break away from bureaucracy and establish a new settlement free of government. Instead of letting him carry out his coup, establishing a new settlement and providing some much needed conflict for the series, he's killed off. In the first episode. And with his death, the series main point of interest is gone and I can't see it becoming compelling enough to pull in viewers for the rest of it's run.
It's a shame because on paper, a story about pioneering colonists who are torn over politics and resources, struggling to survive on a remote world with a good cast and high production values does indeed seem ripe for viewing. But the potential is wasted, sacrificed for safe tidy plots and a fear of going truly dark and interesting.
Not bad but not memorable or compelling past the first episodes decision to kill it's one genuinely interesting character. Shame. In the hands of someone better, it could have been an absolute classic.
Anyways, whilst I felt this was a competent sci-fi drama with dazzlingly high production values including a rather sumptuous and lovely planet as well as thorough sets for the "Fort Haven", I do feel this is a lot of wasted potential.
Despite a promising premise, the last of Earth's survivors (Fleeing Earth following an unexplained cataclysm) forced to live out on a new world and re-build society and survive the planets harsh hazards, it mostly falls flat. Part of this comes from a bad sense of what to do with the concept...instead of watching the first wave of settlers start to build a settlement and the struggles for power and resources that entails, we come too late, they have a whole town going with electricity, law and order and even a gun ban. It's like we've missed the really good parts, you know, the compelling struggle, fighting and survival.
This further carries into the waste of the first episodes one truly compelling and intriguing character: Mitchell Hoban(Played by an excellent Jamie Bamber), a revolutionary with psychopathic tendencies who wishes to break away from bureaucracy and establish a new settlement free of government. Instead of letting him carry out his coup, establishing a new settlement and providing some much needed conflict for the series, he's killed off. In the first episode. And with his death, the series main point of interest is gone and I can't see it becoming compelling enough to pull in viewers for the rest of it's run.
It's a shame because on paper, a story about pioneering colonists who are torn over politics and resources, struggling to survive on a remote world with a good cast and high production values does indeed seem ripe for viewing. But the potential is wasted, sacrificed for safe tidy plots and a fear of going truly dark and interesting.
Not bad but not memorable or compelling past the first episodes decision to kill it's one genuinely interesting character. Shame. In the hands of someone better, it could have been an absolute classic.