With a free year of D+ I wanted to catch up on the few new/semi-new things that are streaming on that channel. I decided to catch up on the Tron universe. For such an interesting and immersive universe, it's a shame that there's only a handful vessels that tell or expand on this story. While there may be a slew of books and comics that I'm not aware of, off the top of my head I can only think of the two movies, this show, and a video game. With that point in mind, Uprising really should've given us more world building IMHO.
The characters are ok for the most part, but outside of only three, none of them appear in Legacy... strange for a prequel series. Surprisingly enough, Paige, a main antagonist, has the most character development, and is easily the most interesting to me. Beck on the other hand didn't have much of an arc, if any. He's really just Tron 2.0, but is the only other likable new character in this series that actually does something, which still turns out to be not much. The point of Uprising, at least as far as I understand it, is to recruit programs to oppose Clu's occupying force. Other than of course the one-man-army that is Beck, Tron is only able to convince one other person to play an active role.
Now for the really nitpicky stuff. The first Tron movie asks its viewers (figuratively) to suspend their disbelief regarding programs sharing the likeness and even real world duties of their user within a single company, Encom. Uprising stretches that disbelief beyond its breaking point with massive, expansive cities that programs travel to like a person going to work. Why is there snow, rain, and oceans in "the grid" now? What is that suppose to represent? Also, what use are mechanics in a computer system? Wouldn't engineers be more appropriate, or do TPTB think kids wouldn't understand the term?
Having said all that, I still enjoyed being back in the Tron world. I don't know if 18 episodes was their intended series run, but either way I wish the show did more to set up Legacy (Evolution did a better job I think), and I also wish there was more Tron in general.
The characters are ok for the most part, but outside of only three, none of them appear in Legacy... strange for a prequel series. Surprisingly enough, Paige, a main antagonist, has the most character development, and is easily the most interesting to me. Beck on the other hand didn't have much of an arc, if any. He's really just Tron 2.0, but is the only other likable new character in this series that actually does something, which still turns out to be not much. The point of Uprising, at least as far as I understand it, is to recruit programs to oppose Clu's occupying force. Other than of course the one-man-army that is Beck, Tron is only able to convince one other person to play an active role.
Now for the really nitpicky stuff. The first Tron movie asks its viewers (figuratively) to suspend their disbelief regarding programs sharing the likeness and even real world duties of their user within a single company, Encom. Uprising stretches that disbelief beyond its breaking point with massive, expansive cities that programs travel to like a person going to work. Why is there snow, rain, and oceans in "the grid" now? What is that suppose to represent? Also, what use are mechanics in a computer system? Wouldn't engineers be more appropriate, or do TPTB think kids wouldn't understand the term?
Having said all that, I still enjoyed being back in the Tron world. I don't know if 18 episodes was their intended series run, but either way I wish the show did more to set up Legacy (Evolution did a better job I think), and I also wish there was more Tron in general.