dabirdman Reviews

Ascension (2014)

Syfy makes yet another a huge blunder...

[2/10 · 15 December 2014]

This isn't sci-fi...

Not even close.

If you're looking for interesting characters, look elsewhere. There is nothing new here, nothing even remotely resembling what a show these days could or should be tackling. There is no fun, no humor, no spark or a moment levity. No character is a view port for the audience, no one even cracks a smile for you to believe they are anything other then an unemotional Vulcan.

Firefly had heart, BSG had drama and adventure, Star Trek had exploration and politics. This show has literally nothing.

There is little to no real science involved. There is no adventure, there is no real danger, there is no exploration, no aliens, no invention, nothing innovative at all really. We are on a ship of banality heading for a blackhole of infinite cringe worthy acting.

To call it acting is unfair. It's boring and there is no 'act'ion at all. There is one dry sex scene in the pilot that has almost zero sex appeal. The internal politics of the ship are also completely without surprise or importance. The laughingly described "plot" centers around a murder of a character that is also... you guessed it, not interesting. It's spends the better part of two hours trying to solve a mystery with vague conversations about how scary it is, and how it's a big deal, but never once do you worry about what will happen to these vague human analogs.

The show also has the worst premise of any 'sci-fi' genre show of the last 30 years. Some of Gene Roddenberry's unfinished scripts have better writing and pacing then this over-produced, over-hyped, underwritten mess.

This is about as stale and boring as a 30 day piece of white bread. Syfy was right to cancel this stinker. Everyone involved from the producer, to the writers, to the actors should be embarrassed.

In short... Syfy wasted a ton of money for a boring, do nothing, uninteresting soap opera with little to no "sci" and almost zero "fi".

I want the last 2 hours of my life back.

Tyrant (2014–2016)

An Excellent Show About the Tightrope of Power

[9/10 · 25 June 2014]

With a stunning and fascinating portrayal of a middle-eastern power structure, FX has outdone themselves yet again.

What does it mean to have true power, and can you ignore power when you are born into it? The central conflict of this show thrusts it's main characters back into the fray of just such a situation. It portrays power as both freedom and a prison. The Al-Fayeed family, rulers of a fictional middle-eastern country are no different from any other modern Monarchy except that it is still in defacto power and uses brutal tactics to stay there.

Assad, Khadaffi, Saddam, Bush...

These names conjure Dynasty's and dictatorships, and for thousands of years the power struggles within their individual kingdoms were largely ignored by western powers, or swept quietly under a convenient media rug. But for Barry Al-Fayeed, the violence and politics of his family have been left behind. He has no desire to rule anything then his pediatric practice.

As the younger son of a brutal dictator, Barry took advantage of his families wealth to leave the country behind, and hasn't seen home in twenty years. His wife and children are somewhat ignorant of their husbands and fathers old world, knowing only that they are 'sort of' royalty and that grandad is rich. Their ignorance is typical of the average American family, not stupid, but simply devoid of the truth of the day to day in tyrannical regimes in many parts of the world. When his brothers son is due to be married, Barry is called home, and the cycle begins again.

But the truth is, Barry's legacy is one of bullets and blood, of violence and ruthlessness, of intimidation and manipulation. What makes a tyrant? This show promises to show just how far one man will go to secure his family, his country, and his power.