I'm very slowly warming to Stargate Universe. and maybe a long ways down the road, I might actually say I'm a fan of the show. I'm not constantly complaining about everything (only half the time) and I enjoy more scenes. If someone were to ask me to compare FlashForward to Stargate Universe, I would actually say that SGU is a better show which isn't exactly saying much.
The writers are trying character development, but apparently they think it revolves around sex. Last night, we got to see a random scientist have sex with a mustached guy and later Greer as a way of coping with the stress. Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis had too little character development or character focus, but if SGU is going to have bad character development, I think I would prefer none at all.
Then there's the Young/Telford/Emily (Young's wife) insanity which is looking like a typical soap opera story. We still don't Telford's motivation for cozying up with Emily, but I'm sure it isn't just to be nice or friendly. He may want sex or something, but I'm guessing he's doing it to gain leverage over Young. I think the episode also kind of explained why Emily would sleep with something who doesn't look anything like her husband. She has some attraction to Telford and might have been thinking of Telford instead of Young while sleep with "Telford's body."
There was a bit of girl on girl action with Camile Wray and Sharon hooking up on Earth. Once again, I don't how Sharon could be intimate with someone that looks nothing like Camile even if she knew the mind was there. Anyways, their relationship is probably the strongest on the show. It seems as if the writers may be pandering to GLAAD, but that's probably my cynicism.
The Scott story was again cliché and difficult to watch. He uses the stones and discovers the girl he got pregnant all those years ago wants to talk to him. He shows up under the name of Colonel Telford and discovers an eight-year old. Yep, it's his. He talks to the mother and she "dances" to support herself.
I was totally confused by the scenes with everything exercising. I don't see why Young wants everyone to be healthy since most look in shape (they're all actors after all). Also, wouldn't exercising use up more water and food? And where the hell did they get all those gym clothes?
The best part of the show (and maybe the only part I truly like) is Rush. He's the character you want to like, but have to hate. After all the deception and wimping out with the chair, Rush really has no likable qualities other than his cool accent, and total lack of care for others.
Once again there was no coherent story. The communication stones scenes could easily have been spread across the other episodes with little trouble. Rush made a huge discovery with the chair, but there was pitifully few minutes dedicated to it. I still don't see where the series is going. There's no enemies or anything. Is everyone going to fight each other for the duration of the series?
Score: 8.5/10
Saturday, November 21, 2009
14 comments:
They did say that the serie would focus more on characters than action. I don't know if soap opera situations and a little sex here and there make that "bad" character development, but so far I really enjoy the series.
I too am enjoying the series. Funny how people complain about sex in shows, but in real life, people do a lot of really stupid things for sex. The pay for it, kill for it, die for it, you name it, people probably do it for sex. Its our second biggest drive, after eating. Why is it, in North America people are so prudish about sex? You can bludgeon a person to death on tv, brains spilling out of broken skull, it gets a PG rating. They have shows with highly realistic decaying, rotting corpses on prime-time TV in HDTV. But show a bit of nipple and you get fines up the wazzu from the FCC.
We live in a very repressed society, and it is not healthy.
I agree that the show has some problems, such as many of the crew being imbisiles or violent wackos. Too many for what should have been a high security military base on another planet.
I also don't like the winers, boo hoo, always me. These bozos are supposably staff for the congressman? But then they would understand power, sucking up, all that stuff. They wouldn't be biting off the heads of the people who control the strings, they would be sucking up big time. If it's one thing that congressmans staff know how to do, its suck up to those with power.
They would be shrewd polititions, who know how to take advantage of situations, not a bunch of winers and wimps. But, you have to have someone around to cause conflict. And the guy in charge would have said off the top, "marshal law, folks, shut up, sit down and do what your told or face the possibility of being shot."
I'm fine with sex in moderation, but I don't want SGU to look like The L Word or Tell Me You Love me.
I guess it is the culture we live in. There is a certain stigma attached to sex (though isn't there in every culture?) that makes us slightly uncomfortable when those scenes come on.
I guess Young wants everyone to be healthy because of all the hardships they may be facing that will require being fit, and also maybe because they don't have that much medicine. A healthy body recovers better of injury/sickness.
As for Rush, you're totally right, he's the best part of the show. I adore how people are forced to trust the guy with one giant red sigh over him flashing "not trusthworthy" XD.
As for where this is going...is watching a microcosm of mismatched people forced to collaborate on a space ship not enough? But they did say they would face unfriendly aliens in the season's finale, so I wouldn't worry too much.
Sex is being used as a substitute for real character development. It's a cheap ploy for inferior writing skills. Fans who think this is great science fiction must have those beergoggles on awfully tight!
Single stripper Mom raising a love child.
Lesbian make out session.
Horny woman sleeping around.
Dude going across the Universe TWICE to fight for his X wife's attention WHILE having an affair.
All in one episode.
This is crap. They have screwed up an awesome premise with this garbage. Its embarrassing.
Episode 9 already gone and the season only lasts for 20 in total. The really need to get their act together here or them might not be coming back for season 2. It`s called Stargate and not Stonegate, Universe and not Earth. SciFi and not soap.
While I do like the show, I~m finding it hard to think of it as science fiction.
I love character driven shows, but this is ridiculous. The writers should go back to writing for soap operas and stay away from sci-fi. I really don't know where they are going with this... It's like Young and the Restless in space. If you are enjoying this show, you should seriously give soaps a try.
It's worse than just sex ... it's outright rape with use of the stones and people should be more upset about it since it's done so CASUALLY. Oh and repercussions? Afterthoughts of the person's body who was used? Oh it doesn't matter, they're nameless automotons that nobody knows or cares about .. not that I care about any of the characters. The rape scenes did it for me. I will never watch another SGU episode.
Why people assume that nobody asked the guys switching their bodies their opinions? I'm sure, even if it's not shown, they signed a contract saying they are fully aware they're giving up their bodies and have no say in what it is used for.
Anyone thinking this show is deep or mature is fooling themselves. People are using other bodies for sex, violence, and getting drunk and no one on the show asks whether this is ethical or looks at the consequences. Even the writers don't see the potential problems. Fire the lot and bring in people who are more educated. Science fiction should be about examining the consequences of new technology on humanity.
This show is as lost and pointless as the crew drifting around in the spaceship.
When you're in the military, you're govt property. If they say sit by the stones, you sit by the stones and suck it up, even if you're covered in icky fluids when you get back to yourself.
I mean, all of this body swapping sex is basically rape of the hosts. But we're not getting stories that explore that. Or pit the lonliness of the lost people against the rights of the hosts.
What if everyone started refusing to sit by the stones, forcing all visit-swaps to be 100% chaparoned with an airman watching every private moment? Where 2-3 people who crossed the line become very unpopular back on the ship because nobody else can have privacy now with their loved ones.
But, instead of DEALING WITH THAT and exploring the reprecussions of it, we get a crappy soap opera that costs $2Mil an episode.
All the features the other browsers have, tabbed browsing, trash can where you can get old pages you accidentally closed, saves all pages so it looks exactly the same even if your computer loses power..
ok lots of problems stones yes stupid idea less it was kept as a military communication device only.
but besides the stones did anyone notice the big miss from ep 8 to ep 9 what was that... Matt throws a Kino though a solar flared gate and then the next ep all is good ????
that was the worst for me.(ignoring the stupid part of the stones)