I am a die-hard Stargate fan; I own all the DVDs of SG-1 and SGA and the original movie. I wasn't sure what to expect when I watched SGU last night but oh my, was I in for a shock.
The show is not "dark & edgy;" it's chaotic and humorless. The unrelieved drama left me feeling wrung out and depressed.
The appalling sex scene was the first shock and opened the floodgates for the rest. This show is nothing like SG-1 or SGA. Sure, the stargate is there and the original cast from SG-1 is there in brief cameos but after that all familiarity departs the "universe."
I kept trying to wrap my head around the enormity of being several billion light years from Earth and what that would be like for me. Although I cannot say I how I would react for sure, I seriously doubt I would act like the spoiled brats that these characters do. The creators touted the show as "that sort of fear and terror of a tragedy combined with the sense that there is hope for us in the basic ways in which human beings survive." I saw zero hope and lots of panic driven scenes in which the characters are screaming at each other or sniping at each other. The show is also touted as character driven; these characters are driven all right, driven to make us veterans of Stargate drive away in droves. I couldn’t identify with or feel any type of empathy for any of these characters. I lost my dad at a young age and felt zero empathy for the young woman, Chloe, who loses her father; especially after her childish outburst at Dr. Rush afterwards.
Also, there is a rather large continuity plot hole here. Were all these people inoculated with ATA gene therapy? In the Stargate mythology; one has to either have the ATA gene or have had the therapy in order to work Ancient technology. Granted some of it can be "initialized" by someone with the ATA gene and then it works for anyone, but they clearly state that this ship was unmanned. That's a rather large mistake for the creators to make and that’s just the glaring one that kept bothering me as I watched. The Ancient communication devices were deemed hazardous in both SG-1 and SGA; yet Dr. Rush blithely uses it to communicate with Stargate Command and then tells the others that General Jack O’Neill has put him in charge, though we don’t see Jack actually do that, which leads me to believe that is an upcoming plot development. If this ship is as old as it is stated to be, the little flying video cameras Eli finds should have been in Atlantis, which clearly they were not. This is a problem inherent in any type of franchise trying to do prequels of any kind; case in point – R2D2’s thrusters and ability to fly in the Star Wars prequels.
The way I Cie it is this: The show had the feel of reality TV and I absolutely despise reality TV. TV and movies are an escape from everyday reality; the last thing I want to do is watch something that reminds me of that. I will try a few more episodes; I have a DVR that can take care of it for me since I despise commercials too, but if the show doesn’t find any redeeming qualities fast, I won’t waste good space on my DVR hard drive for such drivel.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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