Yet, they keep watching it and keep posting here about how bad it is. I'm hanging in there with it. I'm enjoying it but agree that it needs a bit more... something.
I watched the first episode last night and found and it sort of interesting. Started the second episode but fell asleep about halfway through. I'll probably give it another try over the weekend. But so far it is only somewhat interesting to me.
I'm still watching and enjoying this show. It hasn't taken any crazy "Lost" turns yet; actually it's gotten better as the story unfolds.
I finally got a handle on how to watch the show: the instant they go to any "warm & fuzzy family" or "romantic" scenes, fast-forward. Then stop when they go back to the actual "conspiracy" plot-line (government trying to experiment on and kidnap some of the surviving plane passengers with unusual abilities). Do that, and the show is less boring AND has more of a plotline. We were able to zip through 3 episodes in less than 30 minutes each, which was great. It's great when you can bypass the contrived, boring, extraneous parts of a show and just force it to get to the friggin' point. And the last few shows have actually been pretty interesting.
coming back next week, i'm 100% sure it will be exactly the same thing as before. what's wrong with the kid? they will almost get caught but get away at the last minute.....each and every week. the blond and the detective pretending they are not still in love, with the inevitable hook-up played out as far in advance as they can. the mother getting back with her boyfirend....or not. the daughter not sure if she likes her dad or her mom's boyfriend better......also played out to the hilt. no answers to any questions.....ever. and we keep watching like something will actually happen. quite possibly the single worst show on TV. does anyone know how this schlop does in the ratings? and before you ask why i watch.......one simple answer.....my wife and mother-in-law make me. those in the know, will understand totally.
Was pretty impressed by the pilot. Had Twilight Zone/X-Files potential. By the third episode I lost all interest. If you're gonna have badly written dialog and one-dimensional characters, you damn well better have a compelling story to tell. Nope. I can't imagine anyone watching this show unless it's "hatewatching" like I used to do with Beverly Hills 90210.
Oh, there's far worse. I figured out a long time ago that with a "big sci-fi mystery/conspiracy" show, like X-Files or Lost or Revolution or Helix or Fringe or Alcatraz or Terra Nova or Under the Dome or The Event or Heroes or Taken or Zero Hour or Resurrection or Flash Forward or The 4400, the showrunners' intent is to come up with one massive overarching mystery, then leave you very small bread crumbs with tiny chunks of answers, while stirring up new mysteries to keep you tuned-in. But ultimately it winds up being a constant tease, where they never really give you a satisfying explanation that makes sense. And it's a frustrating experience, especially when there's no real payoff. Manifest is in danger of doing the same thing, except their wrinkle is combining the mystery/conspiracy of Lost with the human drama of This Is Us, with mixed results. In the case of Revolution, they constantly kept you off-guard until very deep in the show, when co-star Elizabeth Mitchell finally spilled the beans. And from day one, she could've said, "well, I was part of a team of military scientists that developed millions of microscopic nanobots that could neutralize all electricity. We intended to use them as a weapon in the Middle East, but the nanobots reproduced, spread all over the world, and all the electricity everywhere stopped... and we have no idea how to fix it." There you go... four sentences that took us two years and 35 episodes to get to. The other shows have similar goofy explanations, when you get down to the nitty-gritty. If viewers had known, would we have stay tuned? I'm not smelling a great explanation or a grand conclusion for Manifest, but it's tolerable when I have my finger on the fast-forward button.
i think 'manifest' could be better if the acting was better, but the acting is bad, so stoic, so contrived, that it just adds to the foolishness of the whole thing.
I just file this under "extreme suspension of disbelief" and hope there's a payoff that justifies the absurdity. It's like an amusement park ride: you know you're gonna be scared ****less for a minute or two, but you also know there's no actual danger involved and it'll be over soon enough. If it's sufficiently exciting you get back in line to ride it again. I think back to the original run of Twin Peaks, where the worst episodes were the ones that spent inordinate time "making sense" of the previous episode. The Return made no such attempt and was far more successful overall. You either buy into the central conceit of the plot or you don't, and if you don't you probably aren't watching for long anyway.
I think the problem with Twin Peaks (either the original or the sequel) was the pacing kind of voided any kind of drama. If they had cut it a lot tighter, it would have had a lot more suspense, made more sense, and gotten to the point faster. But I also think they left a lot of explanation on the floor, just to keep viewers guessing. Manifest is spelling a few things out, but I wonder if we're ever going to be given a real explanation as to how and why the plane jumped forward in time 5-1/2 years. And maybe the bigger question is what gave all the passengers powers from that experience? I have a simpler one: what happened to the pilot and co-pilot?
I don't want to drift this thread, but your critique of TP is not an uncommon one. Some believe Lynch deliberately makes his films opaque (esp. recent ones like Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire) so as to invite multifarious interpretations of his work. It's certainly the case that he's more interested in asking questions than answering them. (Jordan Peterson essentially calls MD a hollow, pseudointellectual exercise in the clip below). I prefer to believe that Lynch, like Kubrick, has a definite artistic vision but leaves it to the viewer to decide exactly what that is. Thus the story is not told in a linear fashion but as revealed truth as it were. Really don't care anymore, but a fair guess would be that the writers are holding back on this kind of "big reveal" to sustain audience interest. Or maybe the pilots were mysteriously transported to a better show?
Lynch definitely doesn't care how long the scenes are, as shown in this infamous outburst on the set during the production of the Showtime Twin Peaks reboot... Getting back to Manifest, my problem with the show is the A&B&C stories, where 90% of the time I don't give a crap about the C stories, and 50% of the time the B stories are a drag. The A story -- the mystery, the big conspiracy, the "who/what/why/how" aspect -- is intriguing, but the rest drags it down. Skilled writers and producers can blend it all together so that everything is well-balanced and well-integrated. That doesn't happen on this show. I suspect a) a lot of network meddling and b) too many producers (14 credited producers, co-producers, and executive producers, including no less than Bob Zemeckis). I suspect too many cooks are in the kitchen.
i will be astounded if 'manifest' gets renewed. anyone know how it does in the ratings? the big tease this week is the pilot going to fly into the same thing that caused them to 'disappear' for those 5 years. i'm betting we get the answer he is seeking in about 5 - 6 weeks., if we get it at all.
and how long you think it will take before the girl with the caterpillar eyebrows and her ex ( the detective) hook up? they have been teasing that one since the second show, and you just know it is going to happen and the wife/best friend will catch them in the act.
I had almost forgot about this series. When the answers to the big questions aren't forthcoming, the audience's emotional investment in the characters carry the show. For me, I just don't care about the characters or find them attractive or interesting. Possible explanations for the time travelling airplane: (Pick your favourite and save yourself four or more more seasons of watching.) 1. worm hole; 2. alien intervention; 3. government conspiracy such as a secret experiment or weapon; or 4. an act of God (wasn't there quite a few religious allusions at the start of the series).
And now the explanation is Black Lightning, according to a promo I saw for the show a few days ago. Whaaaa?
this week's show, with the whole black lightning thing and the little kid alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no explanation whatsoever of how he got there or why he was there, was THE worst show yet. hard to believe this show can get any worse, but it continually amazes me with it's ineptitude. and the acting, also getting worse instead of better.
I lost interest after the third (or fourth?) episode and deleted the series recording setting. I just found it too slow and too many scattered story lines among the characters. Kind of reminded me of that show with the bubble dropped over a town. I don't even recall the name of that one but lost interest in it after about four episodes as well.
I agree about the poor acting (which I pin on bad directing) but, to be fair, they did explain how the kid got to the cabin and why he was there.
they did? i missed that part i guess. i do remember the guy just showing up out of nowhere in the middle of the woods.
The kid had some kind of "calling" directing him to the cabin to receive the hiker when he arrived. One of his parents asked him how he got there and he said something about taking a bus to Tannersville and walking the rest of the way, if I'm remembering correctly.
