I was prepared to give this a chance. The first episode was pretty lame, but I said to myself "It can only get better, right?"
Wrong. The writing here is just atrocious and whomever was responsible for the dialogue needs to be fired. I mean, "We can't give you approval to launch a mission through the portal to find out where it goes until we know where it goes." is perhaps the stupidest line I've heard since Star Trek Hidden Frontiers spoiled me with "Can we establish two-way communication?" followed by "No we can only send and receive..."
No one in this show acts remotely like normal people. No one seems to be capable of organizing anything. They bumble about, generally doing little to improve their situation, instead seemingly intent on waiting for someone to rescue them. In other words, a recipe for disaster.
And a disaster is what this show is. Poor quality writing and dialogue also can't mask the bad acting and even worse accents on display. The whole thing looks like it was shot in an urban park.
Despite a sinkhole covering several blocks (at least) of LA opening up, there is little of the buildings and the earth they stood on to be found in the prehistoric world the characters find themselves in. Where is the rubble of the multi-storey buildings? What happened to the thousands of other people that went into the hole? Where are the countless corpses? Why does none of this make sense?
That last, of course, is answered simply by pointing at the budget nature of the production and the bad writing involved. The lack of a budget also is the culprit behind the video-game grade CGI. I mean, the sabre-tooth tiger looks like a reject from Far Cry Primal.
Perhaps I've been spoiled by streaming services, with their bigger budgets and desire to, I don't know, make something worthwhile, but NBC should be embarrassed to put out something like this. It's like a show straight out of the 80's, complete with all the usual cliches and tropes. In fact, the sole nods to modern production values seems to be a slightly more diverse cast and the fact that one character has a vape pen.
Nope, this kind of low-rent production won't fly in the current market. I doubt it will last long. But, if you want to laugh at what is supposed to be a serious drama then go ahead and give it a try. It's unintentionally hilarious.
EDIT: I caved and watched episode 4. Wow! Now we have people wading across streams after throwing away a stick they could have used to test the depth. And the final guffaw... some doctor in the real world who has somehow managed to either steal, or build, an advanced VTOL aircraft in her barn! A barn which has a handprint recognition entry system, no less! Honestly this is like a really, really bad roleplaying game scenario thought up by little kids.
SUMMARY: Low budget, badly written, poorly acted. Badly generic characters doing badly generic things. CGI more prehistoric than than the creatures it is trying to portray. Unintentionally funny, but not in a good way. Well... not unless you've had a lot of beer, anyway. Not recommended.
Wrong. The writing here is just atrocious and whomever was responsible for the dialogue needs to be fired. I mean, "We can't give you approval to launch a mission through the portal to find out where it goes until we know where it goes." is perhaps the stupidest line I've heard since Star Trek Hidden Frontiers spoiled me with "Can we establish two-way communication?" followed by "No we can only send and receive..."
No one in this show acts remotely like normal people. No one seems to be capable of organizing anything. They bumble about, generally doing little to improve their situation, instead seemingly intent on waiting for someone to rescue them. In other words, a recipe for disaster.
And a disaster is what this show is. Poor quality writing and dialogue also can't mask the bad acting and even worse accents on display. The whole thing looks like it was shot in an urban park.
Despite a sinkhole covering several blocks (at least) of LA opening up, there is little of the buildings and the earth they stood on to be found in the prehistoric world the characters find themselves in. Where is the rubble of the multi-storey buildings? What happened to the thousands of other people that went into the hole? Where are the countless corpses? Why does none of this make sense?
That last, of course, is answered simply by pointing at the budget nature of the production and the bad writing involved. The lack of a budget also is the culprit behind the video-game grade CGI. I mean, the sabre-tooth tiger looks like a reject from Far Cry Primal.
Perhaps I've been spoiled by streaming services, with their bigger budgets and desire to, I don't know, make something worthwhile, but NBC should be embarrassed to put out something like this. It's like a show straight out of the 80's, complete with all the usual cliches and tropes. In fact, the sole nods to modern production values seems to be a slightly more diverse cast and the fact that one character has a vape pen.
Nope, this kind of low-rent production won't fly in the current market. I doubt it will last long. But, if you want to laugh at what is supposed to be a serious drama then go ahead and give it a try. It's unintentionally hilarious.
EDIT: I caved and watched episode 4. Wow! Now we have people wading across streams after throwing away a stick they could have used to test the depth. And the final guffaw... some doctor in the real world who has somehow managed to either steal, or build, an advanced VTOL aircraft in her barn! A barn which has a handprint recognition entry system, no less! Honestly this is like a really, really bad roleplaying game scenario thought up by little kids.
SUMMARY: Low budget, badly written, poorly acted. Badly generic characters doing badly generic things. CGI more prehistoric than than the creatures it is trying to portray. Unintentionally funny, but not in a good way. Well... not unless you've had a lot of beer, anyway. Not recommended.