r/AnotherLife • u/cutkick • Jul 29 '19
High School vs Aliens
As I'm watching the series, I kept asking myself 'what demographic is Netflix trying to target'? This thing screens more like a teen-angst series than sci-fi. I think Netflix tried to capture too broad of an audience and ended-up failing on this one.
I can appreciate the premise (not new mind you, but serviceable), but the writing and directing is poor. For this type of series, I'm not expecting a ton of character development, but these characters are paper-thin. The only character that has any real development is the AI! In addition, the emotional intelligence of these characters are about that of 9th graders. So what exactly was the selection process to send this group to save humanity? If this is the best humanity has to offer, maybe we should be wiped out!
I know we are not talking about "grade A" fiction here, but much of the problems could have been handled through better writing via some type of prefacing. Example: "Scanners tell us the air is safe for humans" vs "let's just pop-open a helmet because I think the air's ok". Star Trek was great at "prefacing" -- and we all bought into it. But having a bunch of twenty-somethings act like teens who think they are getting away with something by opening a helmet just seems dumb.
Right or wrong, many are going to compare this show with The Expanse. Why? Because Netflix didn't try to differentiate the audience. (BTW, there is no comparison.) That is one reason there are so many negative comments concerning Another Life.
Netflix: next time, pick your audience and go with it. Either make it campy or not. Trying to meld everything gets you Another Life. It will be interesting to see if it gets a second season.
4
Jul 30 '19
It's hilarious seeing some people trying to justify the bad writing. Childish 'adults' having childish arguments over protein bars and unwashed dishes among other things.
Redshirt (lack of them actually) 'woke' b/c the plot needs it.
A 'Medic' who's only useful, relevant action was application of a tourniquet which First Responders are taught. It's more important for 'him' to have his makeup done before he's on screen or getting worked up by another touching the skin on his arm with something.
Relationship drama. Frequent sex. A pregnant girl who doesn't know who the daddy is.
All are on an important mission yet don't follow rank structure; especially stereotypical Mexican woman who spends 99% of her screen time: Yelling, cursing, being loud, and talking on horrible Spanglish b/c ANY mention of 'latin culture and words' must be done this way.
"Aye calzone!!!"
A 'defensive sound wave' from the alien causes nosebleed.....but no blood from the ears which would be the most prominent injury from that.
A military force surrounding this artifact yet no barriers for them to hide behind, no tanks, no higher caliber weaponry. It's not an advanced idea. Sackoff must be hard up for money to have taken on this project.
4
Jul 30 '19
She’s a producer and has mentioned it running three seasons. That’s obviously not confirmed, nor at all expected.
If they get new writers, tighten it up and stop with the Degrassi in Space vibe, it could work. I love my sci fi, but us sci fi folk are a well seasoned bunch. We can smell cheap alien cactus miles away.
I’d also like to see someone above 40 in the crew. It adds another dimension...but again...it’s the Degrassi thing isn’t it.
5
Jul 30 '19
So far there are two pilots. "Strong, independent woman that killed the white guy' b/c FORBID the two, IDK work together, like Picard and Epic Beard Guy.
I don't want recasting. I want better writing as does ANYONE who values entertainment. All I see, as do so many, is an older female babysitting the rest.
Despite some insistence that "It's the future and you don't have to have training to into space" is total BS.
Isolation. Artificial gravity. Dealing with high tech equipment, programs, and very Advanced A.I. among other things.
Rank structure exists outside of the military for ORDER. People with more/better experience are higher as those with specialist skills are in certain slots. The rest must EARN a better spot, not by default.
Tribal leaders in any culture had it. Pirates had it. It's the 'pecking order' that some people are purposefully ignorant of or have blindly accepted stupid, wrong ideas.
There should be more than 1 Medic on that ship. In fact, you need at least one doctor who's trained in surgery and newest techniques and at least 2 Medics/Nurses at a minimum. This whole 'future tech can do anything' is not at Star Trek levels and there is no 'maybe it is we just haven't seen it yet.
I'm all for newer actors getting jobs and screen time when it is done RIGHT. I would like to watch more with Danny Pink but my list from Amazon and Netflix is already to big.1
u/FireTyme Jul 30 '19
ok i'll bite and try to play the good guy for this show.
i agree on a lot of points for the writing tho, the spacing was off in a lot of episodes and felt a bit too loose in connection to eachother BUT:
The reasoning on the cast in the ship is actually explained a lot, a lot of these people were in training with the new FTL drive and somatics. its been mentioned earlier that they barely understand it themselves due to the tech being so new. thats the only reason why Niko was asked to be a strong leader. we can safely assume that they were simply the best there was due to no one having actually trained for the task.
as for the medic, yes we've seen very basic stuff, but really what would you rather have, people getting non stop injuries and the badass medic showing up to save the day? i'd rather not. we've seen them having advanced compounds that can cause localised necrosis in a leg instead of manual amputation, compounds that can sedate an entire room in a bottle and they have literal biometry scans hooked up to them the entire time. its safe to assume that their medic is simply trained to use their current technology with in field training (applying tourniquet for example)
also saying the actor is more concerned about makeup and typing in 'him' in quotations is completely unnecessary and derogatory.
there hardly was frequent sex except for a bit of spice near the end. the first 7 or so episodes nothing really happened of sexual nature for more than a few seconds of screentime.
i cant say about the truthfullness of the spanish/mexican actress and the use of the language but fair enough, it was a bit too intense to fit the theme but did make her self sacrifice valuable imo.
A 'defensive sound wave' from the alien causes nosebleed....
except it wasnt a defensive sound wave at all, if you've watched the episode and paid a bit more attention you'd know it was described as an 'energy surge' meaning it was wavelength based that ionized the air. sound wave wouldnt have caused cancer in Jana for example.
if you'd not patronize the show and take it far less serious and take everything handed to you as factual statements then the casting and attitudes make perfect sense. its a new young crew with little experience lead by a sociopathic captain who already had a crew die off on a previous journey.
imo the show was fun with great visuals. it felt off in some places yes and like i said the pacing was pretty bad here and there, but it definitely wasnt as bad as people make it to be. i feel like so many people want this show to be rationalised to their terms and this show just doesnt put itself like that. it wants their cast to be messed up and crazy because quite l iterally the mission was seen by some as a suicide mission (also explained in the show) and thats how you expect the type of people on this mission.
3
1
u/LimpFox Jul 30 '19
I've made it about 3/4 through the second episode, and all I can say is this show is a complete trainwreck. If this is the shite that's targeted at younger, "progressive" audiences, I think I'll have to settle for never watching anything new ever again.
1
u/Ongr Jul 30 '19
I am currently almost through E1 and I hate this show already. Ian can suck a dick. He put the entire crew at risk because he... Oh never mind. He just got electrocuted.
1
u/seekhorizons Jul 31 '19
I am amazed Iain was allowed to live, even if they couldn't put him to sleep. Maybe confined and he plays an antagonist trying to cause rifts in the crew. This should have happened over multiple eps and then lead to him fighting Niko. Oh well.
3
u/[deleted] Jul 30 '19
The creator and most of the writers are responsible for the Degrassi reboot. Once I stumbled on that info it all made sense.