Halo TV Show

[Corvinus85]

Curious no one else made a thread. How many people are watching?

I've not played the game other than a bit of multiplayer with the very first one so I don't know anything about the universe. I have no idea if characters like Soren and the girl with the Covenant are in the games.

The show has fairly fast plot pacing. Episode 1 probably satisfied a lot of gamers, while episode 2 gave us much more needed development of both the main character and the universe. I got a strong Farscape vibe from the asteroid station segments.

Spoiler

I did get upset when Kwan Ha dismissed John just when he was about to explain how FTL travel worked. That was an annoying "shut up, nerd" moment.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Corvinus85

[briantw]

I thought the first episode was fine.  Nothing special, but it satisfies that sci-fi itch reasonably well with The Expanse over and done.

[briantw]

Watching episode two.  Nice to see them bring in Murphy from The Expanse, and in basically the exact same role. 

[Werthead]

On 4/1/2022 at 3:20 AM, Corvinus85 said:

Curious no one else made a thread. How many people are watching?

I've not played the game other than a bit of multiplayer with the very first one so I don't know anything about the universe. I have no idea if characters like Soren and the girl with the Covenant are in the games.

The show has fairly fast plot pacing. Episode 1 probably satisfied a lot of gamers, while episode 2 gave us much more needed development of both the main character and the universe. I got a strong Farscape vibe from the asteroid station segments.

  Reveal hidden contents

I did get upset when Kwan Ha dismissed John just when he was about to explain how FTL travel worked. That was an annoying "shut up, nerd" moment.

 

The Halo background lore and storytelling is decent, with some interesting twists, but also a lot of standard military SF cliches.

My understanding is that the TV show is more "inspired" by the games then directly adapting them.

Spoiler

The girl with the Covenant isn't in the games, which I think would be somewhat nonsensical based on the Covenant's unflinching religion.

 

[lacuna]

The games have tons of lore, but are a mile wide and an inch deep. The main protagonist is by design a bit of a cipher, which is quite standard for action-focused games, and the rest of the characters are essentially straight from central casting/cardboard cutouts ETA: Or flat out copies from movies. Sgt Johnson basically is Apone from Aliens.

The exception might be Dr. Halsey, who is as morally grey as they come, but that's arguably her only character trait, aside from her intellect.

Edited April 2, 2022 by lacuna

[Corvinus85]

3 hours ago, briantw said:

Watching episode two.  Nice to see them bring in Murphy from The Expanse, and in basically the exact same role. 

Good one. They also had Padan Fain from WoT in almost the same role and the angry, female elf warrior from season 1 of The Witcher as one of the Spartans, so again, almost the same role.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

9 hours ago, lacuna said:

The games have tons of lore, but are a mile wide and an inch deep. The main protagonist is by design a bit of a cipher, which is quite standard for action-focused games, and the rest of the characters are essentially straight from central casting/cardboard cutouts ETA: Or flat out copies from movies. Sgt Johnson basically is Apone from Aliens.

The exception might be Dr. Halsey, who is as morally grey as they come, but that's arguably her only character trait, aside from her intellect.

Also comics, novels and a handful of TV movies. most of it is canonical as I understand.

It looks like the show is doing its own take. That's good IMO.

[lacuna]

47 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Also comics, novels and a handful of TV movies. most of it is canonical as I understand.

It looks like the show is doing its own take. That's good IMO.

Yeah, I didn't mention those, as I've only listened to the first book in audio form, and not very attentively. And I agree that it's good they're doing their own thing, so long as it's, you know, good.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Episode 2

It's developing nicely but they need to pick up the pace a bit. They are definitely developing their own lore. I can't imagine Halo fans being terribly pleased with the amount of screen time Pablo Shreiber's face is getting.  

Bonus points for Keir Dullea. Bonus points for the first ever appearance of a Honda Grom scooter in a sci fi series.  

[Spockydog]

So the UNSC are basically space Nazis. Are we supposed to be rooting for these cunts?

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Spockydog

[Corvinus85]

3 hours ago, Spockydog said:

So the UNSC are basically space Nazis. Are we supposed to be rooting for these cunts?

 

Wasn't Halo inspired by Starship Troopers? Pick your side, I suppose.

[lacuna]

There is an underlying tone of a future "revelation" of Are we the bad guys? in the games, that I thought would get a look-in after the Covenant war ended, but nope. Militaristic fascism FTW, I guess... Edit: Just after hitting "Post", it struck me that Cortana evolves into an even worse fascist than the current regime, so now they look good by comparison...?

It's weird, too. Halo 3: ODST features Nathan Filion, Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin of Firefly, but now in the role of shock troopers working for the UNSC.

Edited April 3, 2022 by lacuna

[sifth]

Is this show any good? Was thinking of giving it a try, but I'm watching a lot right now as is.

[Corvinus85]

The 3rd episode had a little more nice development for three of the main characters, even though not much else happened. 

Cortana is creepy AF and I hope that any more criticism of seeing Master Chief's face too much will die down now that we got to see his butt, too.

Spoiler

The whole thing with his supposed home planet and what may have happened made me think of Serenity with the planet Miranda.

[briantw]

Are those eel things from the games?  I don't remember ever fighting anything like that.  But I also haven't played a full Halo game since Reach, I think.  That or the third game...whichever came later.

[lacuna]

4 hours ago, briantw said:

Are those eel things from the games?  I don't remember ever fighting anything like that.  But I also haven't played a full Halo game since Reach, I think.  That or the third game...whichever came later.

Those are the Hunters out of their armor. Makes you wonder why they're ever in armor, really.

[IFR]

On 4/3/2022 at 8:38 AM, sifth said:

Is this show any good? Was thinking of giving it a try, but I'm watching a lot right now as is.

I was kind of curious myself. I haven't played any of the games, but I do like sci-fi and it would be nice to find a new show now that The Expanse is over.

Looking at reddit, Halo fans seem to despise this show. And it's getting terrible reviews on imdb. From all appearances, Halo got Witcher'd.

[briantw]

34 minutes ago, IFR said:

I was kind of curious myself. I haven't played any of the games, but I do like sci-fi and it would be nice to find a new show now that The Expanse is over.

Looking at reddit, Halo fans seem to despise this show. And it's getting terrible reviews on imdb. From all appearances, Halo got Witcher'd.

It might depend on how you feel about the Halo property.  I've never really given a shit about it or its lore, so whatever inconsistencies the show is throwing out there literally could not mean less to me.  

The show isn't amazing or anything, but it seems like a reasonably competent sci-fi action show.  

12 hours ago, lacuna said:

Those are the Hunters out of their armor. Makes you wonder why they're ever in armor, really.

Ah, that makes sense.  I was thinking that the concept of the eels was familiar but I didn't remember specifically fighting them, so I guess that's why.  I played a bit of Halo Infinite, but I don't think there were any Hunters in the section I played.  

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

10 hours ago, IFR said:

Looking at reddit, Halo fans seem to despise this show. And it's getting terrible reviews on imdb. From all appearances, Halo got Witcher'd.

That's not a surprise. This is a very loose adaptation of some pretty complex source material. They're also showing his face too much. 

So far I like it. Although I'm not too sure of the political dynamics. The UNSC has to deal with separatist factions and rebellions; fine. Are they at war with the covenant at this point? There doesn't seem to be much happening on that front.  

[Myrddin]

As someone who has really enjoyed the Witcher show, I'm bored with Halo after two episodes. 

To be fair, I don't understand the following the game has either. When I got Xbox Game Pass last year, I loaded up first Halo to see what I've been missing. After getting off the ring and landing on the surface, I realized the game mechanics were pretty old, so I jumped to the (at the time) latest version. It was the same game except new engine, so I stopped. Then Halo Infinite came out. I figured, ok, now's the time to play! Same story (basically). Start off on ring, go to surface, rescue troopers, take down bases, rescue more troopers, repeat. I did finish Infinite, because the gameplay was fun enough and I figured I might as well finish at least one Halo game. But @lacuna is spot on: story is inch deep and mile wide.

Show feels the same.