NBC "Debris"

NBC's "Debris" premiers Monday. Looks interesting. . . hope it's a good pilot episode.

 

I saw an ad for that yesterday. I’ll give the pilot a shot. But the things that concerns me is will it end up like all the other shows that are unexplainable...I.e., The Dome, Manifest, etc.

 

It seems that at least a good slice of the production team hails from "Fringe." If so, then the unexplainable is their thing. But they DID tie that show up in some sort of knot.

 

So...what we saw coming out of the sky last weekend in Colorado, was just a promotional stunt, hmm...?

 

Premise:
The series follows the lives of two agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, who must work together as a team when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.

Well, I like the premise, anyway.

 

very hard to maintain the 'mystery' - we'll see

 

I’ll pass...

 

I hope it doesn't suck, but let me remind everybody there have been a ton of "epic" science fiction shows that went horribly wrong in the last 10 years...

Manifest, Fringe, Flash Forward, Heroes, Alcatraz, Terra Nova, Revolution, The Event, The 4400, V, Resurrection, Under the Dome, Person of Interest, Kyle XY, Timeless, Wayward Pines, Emergence, The Tomorrow People, Zero Hour, and No Ordinary Family.

The smaller shows, like the current Resident Alien, are actually pretty good, and I think the big-budget Star Wars shows (like Mandalorian) and the Marvel shows (like WandaVision) have been fantastic.

I gotta say, Debris looks fantastic and it's a terrific concept. And the production values are amazing.

 

Interesting premise and a great looking trailer. It would be nice to see one of these shows with a comprehensible story line that wasn’t designed exclusively for seventeen year olds, but I’m thinking that streaming has ruined these once a week continuous plot shows. There are a ton of them on the streaming platforms where you don’t have to wait to see what happens. (I’m not saying this is good.)

 

Just as long as it's "Cosmic"!
C'MON, THEME SONG!!

 

I would agree with nearly your whole list except "Timeless". It was an excellent series until the network
gave it the shaft and cancelled it. And the fan outrage over it being cancelled was huge.

 

I wouldn't say all those went horribly wrong. Some simply didn't get enough of a chance. E.g. Flash Forward. Person of Interest wasn't bad.

 

He also left out Journeyman, yet another mystery time-travel show that NBC put in that very same time slot as Timeless. Then there was Invasion, and ABC show that tried to follow Lost, except it lost Lost's audience.

 

Oh yeah, and then there was Persons Unknown, a show about a group of strangers brought together in a strange hotel in a strange town, that NBC ran over one summer, promising that they would show the whole thing and that all would be explained. Well, NBC managed to preempt at least one episode toward the end, and the ending was a cliffhanger that essentially explained nothing. Another Monday NBC'er.

 

Surface that came out the same fall as Invasion.

 

Well, they're not necessarily all bad. You know, if I was compiling this list today, I would omit Person of Interest -- it lasted 4 seasons and did OK, plus it had some very good moments. I always liked Michael Emerson, and he was beloved on the set of Lost. But it was a "big conspiracy" show that was not successful in the way Lost was.

Flash Forward was kind of silly and bizarre, but it did raise some good questions. The ending completely left you hanging and I think everybody on the show thought for sure that would get them renewed. Nope.

Eh, the ratings were always bad and that's kind of the kiss of death. To me, it's another show that had moments, but that's not enough to sustain it. I did like the idea of the "Rittenhouse" conspiracy that was manipulating events in time, but let's face it: logically, that ain't gonna work. I watched every episode faithfully, but that was almost a hate watch, like "what stupid thing are they gonna do this week?" But there were isolated good episodes.

 

I watched Debris tonight....pilot episode. I was not impressed. Some of the special effects were good but that was about it. Doubtful I will stick with it.

 

I'd say Lost lost it's own audience by the end

 

Oh this is on broadcast NBC? Damn, it'll probably disappoint plus it'll be bogged down with ads, with maybe 36 minutes of actual show per hour.

 

Debris has a 6.7 on IMDB. That's hardly earth-shattering, but it's not terrible. The negatives seem to be people who don't like that they basically throw you into the middle of the action as the start of the show.

Some people like that "just go for the ride and you'll figure it out" approach. Some people hate it.

 

There was also “The River” on ABC a few years ago that was quite interesting I thought but only lasted a single season, if that.



As for Debris, I’ve not seen it yet but I’ll check it out this evening although, as with most network TV series, I suspect I’ll be disappointed. Why can’t network TV be as good as the cinema at least every now and then?

 

High concept, but probably botched execution. So, low expectations.

I do fully expect this to be a higher-visibility launching point for Riann Steele, who had a limited role in "The Magicians". I can listen to her all day.

 

I found the guy, her partner, annoying. Hopefully there will be flashbacks showing the origin story. So far not thrilled

 

Did anyone else find the music to be a bad Vangelis Blade Runner knock off?

 

I don’t think that Fringe went horrible wrong until it’s final season and when it imitated “The X-Files”. The first season of “Wayward Pines” was pretty good if too predictable.

The problem? Trying to sustain a 25 episode season for most of these shows. They end up padding out a show. Not all novels are 1000 pages. Tell the story the way it develops and sustains itself without collapsing under the created mythology.

I agree both The Mandolorian and Wandavision with each episode running as long as it takes to effectively tell the story (with varying run times) and having a limited series of episodes allows for a more muscular, better presentation.