Extant

Has anybody watched the pilot? I feared the worst due to the hackneyed sounding premise, but I rather liked it. It felt well constructed and realized - not too over the top with the futuristic touches.

The child/bot actor was suitably creepy in some scenes, as if to demonstrate that the Uncanny Valley has not been totally crossed – nice. Solid acting all around.

And I absolutely cheered when Goran smacked down the ‘soul’ woman during his on-stage presentation! Kudos. More shows should have the guts not to pander to fantasy belief systems, IMO.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next ep...

 

Not getting good reviews...

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/07/09/extant-review-halle-berry-space-tv-show_n_5559249.html

http://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/extant-cbs-tv-review-halle-berry-1201253284/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/extant-tv-review-717157

Several critics noted some vague plot similarities to other Spielberg productions, particularly A.I. (with the robotic little boy), but the main complaint seems to be they're just dragging the show out too slowly. I see this happen a lot these days, where the producers and writers give you barely a spoonful of plot in every episode, then plod along with a lot of padding designed to waste time in-between the commercials. I think it's a lot harder to come up with complicated plot-twists and real content. 24 is an example of a show that almost has too much plot in every episode, but I'd rather have that than dullness.

 

I liked the show and I rarely like dramas. I liked the slow pace; it made the shiw seem more like a good movie than a bad CBS show.

 

Yes, that similarity was obvious, but I'm willing to go with it, given what I've seen so far in ep 1.

I also hate that sort of thing, but seeing how only one episode has so far been released, I cannot make that judgment just yet. As I said, so far so good.

Ugh! I gave the new 24 a go, but had to drop it after three eps as it was clear that it would be the same old shtick all over again. No thanks!

 

I really wish U.S. TV would adopt the British concept of a series and allow for both short and long running shows. Some shows would be much better if they planned on a limited run from the start. The writing could be more concise and they wouldn't need to throw in unnecessary plot twists or suddenly add characters just to drag things along. I'm thinking of Lost where we suddenly find out the "deserted" island is hardly deserted at all. If the show or characters prove popular you can always create additional series and go on for as long as the viewers and advertisers can stand it but they wouldn't have to take a thin plot and try and stretch to over 22 weeks or worse yet, multiple seasons.

I watched the show this week and thought it was pretty good for a network drama. I did wonder how much space tech we'll see going forward (I suspect this show will become earthbound fairly quickly) and how long they can keep it going. Even with a big star you have to keep people interested or next commercial, they're gone. I think Extant would have made a good six to twelve episode series. If it goes beyond this season, I suspect it will drag. It's probably not going to be an issue if the numbers aren't good.

 

84% Fresh on Rotton Tomatoes. That's a very good rating. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/extant/

 

I kinda enjoyed it and will check it out again next week but not sure I'll stay with it. Didn't care for the actor playing her husband and think he was miscast.

 

Doesn't look too exciting. On the other hand, if it's popular enough to help prevent people from confusing "extant" with "extinct", it might be real societal boon.

 

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I did. However, I feel that that it will end up being treated just like "Defying Gravity". The first thing I thought was "If they do an Omen remake, this kid has got a lock on the part of Damien"...

 

They showed scenes from upcoming episodes at the end. Seems like the same0-sameo plot lines & characters. Nothing new here. Spielberg has kinda lost his touch lately with TV series.

 

I don't think it's as simple as that. TV shows, after all, were designed to make money, and for the last 50 years, the idea was to crank out as many shows as possible to maximize the profit. Only recently -- particularly in the advent of cable, where shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men have done well -- has the British model of limited run shows become viable in America.

I also think there are cases where, X episodes through a show's run, the producers realize they need to add a new character or they come up with a new plot line that has a massive ripple effect with the show. When that happens, it might inspire another 30-40 episodes of great quality... or not. I would hate to put a limit to how creative or how many changes a writer or producer could make, simply because we had a contract that said, "sorry, you can only do 12 shows this season." Short seasons are also difficult for casting, like when you have small children who have a tendency to grow even when the show is not on the air. So it's not always practical to do shows this way.

TV shows also have a "living/breathing" aspect to them where things change over a period of time. New ideas develop, plot twists occur that they hadn't previously considered, new staff writers are hired that bring something different to the party, actors have ideas... you can't always stick with the concrete plan you had three or four or five years ago. I'm reminded of how Vince Gilligan changed one idea in the final episode of Breaking Bad -- bringing back Walter White's millionaire friends from college, because of an idea from a dying teenage fan -- which was one of the linchpins that tied the entire finale up. He admitted that had never, ever been in the planning, but it worked so seamlessly, nobody could tell. So magic does happen sometimes in the writing process.

 

I agree, though it's not just lately. If you look at the long list of Spielberg's TV shows, there's been some awful failures there over the years. Amazing Stories, Seaquest, Smash, and Terra Nova were not exactly known for being big hits; some were outright stinkers. I liked elements of some of them, but for the most part, they had some real jaw-droppingly bad episodes.

 

Indeed. When an idea is over-milked a show often goes into jumping the shark territory.

Imagine if Fawlty Towers had been a US show? It would have run for 10 seasons instead of 2. More is often less.

 

After eight seasons of Jack Bauer, I think at this viewers should know what they're going to get with 24. That would be like complaining that James Bond shoots a lot of people and drives fast cars. It is what it is. I don't think that it's any worse, less believable, or more violent than it's ever been.

The A#1 thing I look for is that the show is never boring, plus it also goes places I can never predict. Even getting those two things right is a huge victory from my point of view. I'm excited when something will happen in a TV show and my eyes open wide and I go, "wow! I never saw that coming!" I'm so jaded and cynical, I can usually predict this crap 99% of the time. Not with 24.

I'm amazed it's still as good as it is, and that Keifer Sutherland is still in good enough shape to go through this crap.

 

Actually, one of the first things that came to my mind in the new season was, damn, Sutherland is looking too old for this! I used to like the show when it was new, but with each passing season, the same dumb plot points would be repeated (inevitable moles, incompetent operatives, rotating bad guys, etc). Same now.

I welcome narrative unpredictability, but the unpredictability should have been extended to the whole structure too, IMO, to inject some freshness. Instead they just changed the locale, so meh.

 

Well, it looks to me like he can still kick somebody's ass, and he's one of the few actors I believe when he's holding a gun. Too few actors know how to actually hold a gun like it's the real thing. (Though I think Chloe is a little old to go for the goth look.)

I think you and I are not watching the show from the same point of view. I see the glass as half-full; you see it as half-empty. About the only criticism I'd have is that the look of the show is pretty ugly, but content-wise, it's a crazy, intense, over-the-top spy show. I don't ask anything more from it than that. It makes just enough sense that I can accept the stretches in logic from time to time.

 

You're right, it is a subjective thing. Some shows you give more slack than others for a variety of reasons and with this one the negatives outweigh the positives, for me. I'm glad that you're enjoying it and I do agree about Chloe, which was another strike against the show for me.

 

I just got Seaquest season 3 and I love it. It had really gone down hill in the second season, but the new Captain, and the fresh plots could have brought it back. Gone too soon.

And Terra Nova had a lot of potential, but I guess it was to expensive to keep on the books. We critics out here in TV land tend to forget that the primary reason our favorite shows exist is to make money.

But also let's remember M*A*S*H* which looked doomed and ended up doing 9 seasons with a finale that broke all the records in the day.

 

my 3 strike rule is in effect, sometimes extended for a foul ball but so far I'm not hooked in

 

In the vast wasteland of Summer TV, it is at least interesting.

 

I'm still enjoying this series. I find that in every episode there are some scenes, however seemingly minor, to be real gems which help to lift the show above average.

A mild spoiler follows...

For example, in the latest ep, the scene where AI boy misses the ring throw in the pub and later explains why he did it: "Nobody is perfect" (which is was what he was told before as a throwaway line).

I also have to commend the show's pacing. Things are really moving along rather then being drip-fed over the long haul.

 

I still enjoy the show, but, apparently, others don't. The show has already lost half of its audience. Ouch!

 

Moving way too slowly

 

Fell asleep during last week's ep. Barely stayed awake this week. This is bad sci-fi & bad tv.

Not even Halle can keep me interested at this point. I'm out.

 

the kid is amazingly annoying.