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Dark Matter and Killjoys: the beginnings of SyFy's attempt to get their spaceship on again


Maester Llama

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So SyFy's scripted summer programming starts up this Friday [June 12th.]. And, along with the new seasons of Defiance and the pleasantly and amusingly horrendous Dominion [the latter of which is being held back until July], this programming includes two new space dramas:



Dark Matter: Apparently this is about six people who wake up on a heavily-armed ship with no memories of why they're there. Takes place in some sort of hyper-corporatized interstellar future. Run by the showrunner who did Stargate Universe. Based on a comic said writer put together a while ago, but he admits straight up in interviews that the comic was basically done as a pitch document for the show and that tv was always the plan, so it's half-way to being a tv original. Early Rotten Tomatoes reviews are not promising, but there are only a couple so far so it could yet turn out okay I guess. Starts June 12th.



Killjoys: Show about fun-loving crew of space bounty hunters killing the shit out of people. Appears to be receiving almost no press. Co-production between SyFy and Temple Hill, which I believe is the company that produces Orphan Black, but none of the people who actually run Orphan Black are involved in any way so qualitatively this is unlikely to matter unfortunately. Starts June 19th.



I'd love for one or both of these to be good. I am fatalistic about this actually happening. Will be interesting to see responses, and how this plays out for SyFy -- which has The Expanse waiting in the wings; if both these summer things and the [by all appearances] much more expensive and serious Expanse tank I imagine it'll be a long, long time before SyFy goes to space again. Oh please, tv gods, let at least one of these two be good. I want a new space show.


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No mention of Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!? http://www.syfy.com/sharknado3



Unfortunately, I'm never too optimistic about new SyFy programs. The quality tanked when the name changed from Sci-Fi to SyFy. I may DVR and watch Killjoys, but will probably pass on Dark Matter unless I read good things about it. The Expanse is the only series I am anticipating from SyFy.


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So SyFy's scripted summer programming starts up this Friday [June 12th.]. And, along with the new seasons of Defiance and the pleasantly and amusingly horrendous Dominion [the latter of which is being held back until July], this programming includes two new space dramas:

Dark Matter: Apparently this is about six people who wake up on a heavily-armed ship with no memories of why they're there. Takes place in some sort of hyper-corporatized interstellar future. Run by the showrunner who did Stargate Universe. Based on a comic said writer put together a while ago, but he admits straight up in interviews that the comic was basically done as a pitch document for the show and that tv was always the plan, so it's half-way to being a tv original. Early Rotten Tomatoes reviews are not promising, but there are only a couple so far so it could yet turn out okay I guess. Starts June 12th.

Killjoys: Show about fun-loving crew of space bounty hunters killing the shit out of people. Appears to be receiving almost no press. Co-production between SyFy and Temple Hill, which I believe is the company that produces Orphan Black, but none of the people who actually run Orphan Black are involved in any way so qualitatively this is unlikely to matter unfortunately. Starts June 19th.

I'd love for one or both of these to be good. I am fatalistic about this actually happening. Will be interesting to see responses, and how this plays out for SyFy -- which has The Expanse waiting in the wings; if both these summer things and the [by all appearances] much more expensive and serious Expanse tank I imagine it'll be a long, long time before SyFy goes to space again. Oh please, tv gods, let at least one of these two be good. I want a new space show.

I've not seen a single good shows from them, let alone a great one, since BSG.

It's all drab.

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I really enjoyed Stargate: Universe. It was not like the "Planet of the week" past Stargates.

Me too. I thought they cancelled it just as the show was really getting into its stride.

I love that show. Still watch it occasionally. And now SyFy just made a similar show, probably with lower production values.

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I hate to be a pedant* but SyFy's attempt to get their spaceship on again started in December, with Ascension (it was pretty good as far as I watched it and I do intend to finish it but it wasn't, like, awesome).

It is good to see them going back to their roots, and also basically trying out loads of different types of sci-fi rather than just trying to recreate BSG. There will obviously be some failures but I'm confident at least some will be hits (The Expanse and Childhood's End being the big-budget, big-promotion obvious candidates).


Having looked up a couple of promos for Killjoys, it looks like a show not unafraid of its own ridiculousness, which could be an asset. It's curious because for a show that doesn't appear to be running on any shock twists it's giving fucking nothing away in the trailers. They're a group of sexy bounty hunters who are very pleased with themselves. That's pretty much it.

Of course, that might be because there's nothing more to it. But come on, it looks kind of...

I dunno.


Dark Matter, on the other hand, has an interesting (if not exactly new) premise but, even in the trailer, some quite painfully
dialogue.


*ETA: No I don't.
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Those ideas actually don't look bad but the problem with this network is if they have to sacrifice a quality idea for more Ghost Hunters/Sharknado well then that is exactly what they are going to do.



But to be fair that is my problem with most TV in general shows that are interesting or at least fun don't last long and shows based on awful ideas just seem to go on and on and on.


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It's nice that at least someone is trying to make some space-based SF on TV again, although I've probably got higher hopes for The Expanse than the two new shows. Killjoys looks very silly, although it might be fun. Dark Matter's premise has potential although it's hard to really judge much from the trailer.



I did watch Ascension, it wasn't terrible but I felt every plot twist seemed to make the plot less interesting than it had originally appeared and most of the characters were annoying.


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Oh yes, right, there was Ascension, sorry. Well, at least these are the first two efforts at returning SyFY to space that are being launched as ongoing series -- Ascension was one of those weaselly miniseries that would have become an ongoing series in success [bSG did this and that was awesome, but it's often kkind of annoying I find.]



I played the reviews game with Ascension and never got around to actually watching it, since response was lukewarm, but I agree that almost every twist I heard about made the initially cool premise sound less interesting. The final revelation



which as I understand it suggests that the whole spaceship is fake, a simulation sitting in a warehouse back on Earth



I found particularly baffling as a way to try to up interest. Maybe they had some cool direction, but we'll never know now.



Dark Matter tomorrow. Glanced at a very negative review from the Hollywood Reporter and an at least moderately positive one from Variety. Otherwise press still seems limited. I am unclear on whether it has aliens in -- I initially thought it didn't, but a note in one review suggests that it might, though they are not on screen in the pilot. Killjoys definitely does not. Not a qualitative note at all -- that would be silly; it's just interesting to look at which tools of a genre shows choose to use and not use.



I'm still rooting for these but it's starting to look like SyFy may have made a mess again. Come on, SyFy; why can't you do this? At least there's The Expanse; that I too have high hopes for. But let's not give up on these just yet. I'll be watching people's reactions to Dark Matter with interest if anybody checks it out -- I probably won't be able to watch it myself for a week or so, unfortunately.


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I played the reviews game with Ascension and never got around to actually watching it, since response was lukewarm, but I agree that almost every twist I heard about made the initially cool premise sound less interesting. The final revelation

which as I understand it suggests that the whole spaceship is fake, a simulation sitting in a warehouse back on Earth

I found particularly baffling as a way to try to up interest. Maybe they had some cool direction, but we'll never know now.

Actually, they revealed that twist relatively early in the first episode (and it was heavily implied even before being revealed), I suppose it's better than revealing it at the end of the miniseries.

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So I just watched the pilot of Dark Matter and I really liked it.

It's getting good reviews.

Hadn't heard of killjoys but the idea of it not taking itself seriously could help. I like the idea of Sons of Anarchy in space (as long as they are intentionally being silly which sadly wasn't the case with SoA)

I think nows a good time to quielt mention that I think "Defiance" is perfectly acceptable Syfy. I think BSG and the quality of TV in general maybe has people expecting too much these days. I'm all for excellet Syfy but when I think back to the type of shows we used to get eg the Stargates, Star treks and dozens of "superpowerful ship with a crew" - shows like Defiance are on a similar level. I'd certainly like the car to be raised and I'm hoping Dark Matter is one of those given the creators were finally on teh right track when they came up with SGU

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I watched the pilot of Dark Matter, as well, and I did not like it one bit. SGU was cancelled for this. :crying:

I can remember people saying similar for SGU when they felt SG-1 and Atlantis were cancelled for it. It's all MGM's fault for going bust - I'm pretty sure SGU would have stuck around otherwise and we may have got the Atlantis film. Although the sales for those straight to home release movies were pretty poor.

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