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Halo (Paramount+, March 24) - series renewed for second season, will show Master Chief's face


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14 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I just finsihed the first two episodes and besides the surprising amount of violence (I'm still shocked by that considering the source material) I've enjoyed what I've seen so far. @JPDunks4 has filled me in on some of the criticisms leveled at the show and all i can say is :shrug: Gonna get caught up in the show before I really pass any judgements but I'm digging it so far. Does it fall off a cliff or something at some point?

 

I found the second episode put the show on an upward trajectory, but has just kind of stayed the same since (I'm four episodes in; haven't seen the latest). But it's just been a lot of a super soldier touching a rock and having visions for three hours now.

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47 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

I found the second episode put the show on an upward trajectory, but has just kind of stayed the same since (I'm four episodes in; haven't seen the latest). But it's just been a lot of a super soldier touching a rock and having visions for three hours now.

 

Make that 3 hours and 45 minutes.

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4 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

This seemed like the Haloest episode so far.

 

Unfortunately that dumb girl subplot is still ongoing. If they don't kill her off soon I'm going to riot! Why the hell would Master Chief come back for this stupid bitch?

 

I actually appreciate the KwanHa subplot since it breaks up Pablo Schreiber's brooding sequences for a few minutes here and there.

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14 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Make that 3 hours and 45 minutes.

lol, i almost said "New episode doesn't stray much," but figured i'd leave that surprise for ya.  I just can't get over the decision to basically go "What if we made Halo, but used none of the source material!"

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6 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I just finsihed the first two episodes and besides the surprising amount of violence (I'm still shocked by that considering the source material) I've enjoyed what I've seen so far. @JPDunks4 has filled me in on some of the criticisms leveled at the show and all i can say is :shrug: Gonna get caught up in the show before I really pass any judgements but I'm digging it so far. Does it fall off a cliff or something at some point?

 

Basically what I said in the beginning of the thread. Surprisingly violent. An OK show and your enjoyment hinges on if you can get past the fact this is not a recreation of the Halo games.

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8 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

I actually appreciate the KwanHa subplot since it breaks up Pablo Schreiber's brooding sequences for a few minutes here and there.

 

John Halo - Not interesting so far

Jane Halo - Interesting

Fat Dave Chappelle  - Interesting

Covenant Girl - Interesting

KwanHa - Annoying shit

 

Also I kind of find it silly (Spoilers up to the 5th episode)

Spoiler

The show began as UNSC is evil, which was never resolved. John Halo was like I came back because I trust you. Now it's sliding back into UNSC is evil and we are supposed to be shocked they are shitheads?

 

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39 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Finished episode 3 last night. Pretty slow episode, but I'm still on board with the show. Definitely think this show would work better if it was binged.

 

I also find it weird that it's filmed with parts for commercial breaks as if they were ever going to show this on TV.

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3 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I also find it weird that it's filmed with parts for commercial breaks as if they were ever going to show this on TV.

I noticed that too... it will definitely be on commercial TV at some point in edited form. They probably have a deal in place already with one of the other Viacom channels. A show this expensive would have sould the rights to a BUNCH of different entities around the world to help cover/justify costs. Something else Netflix doesn't do.

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On 4/22/2022 at 8:30 AM, skillzdadirecta said:

I noticed that too... it will definitely be on commercial TV at some point in edited form. They probably have a deal in place already with one of the other Viacom channels. A show this expensive would have sould the rights to a BUNCH of different entities around the world to help cover/justify costs. Something else Netflix doesn't do.

I imagine it varies by show along with production company and various other deals, but I'm pretty sure a bunch of Netflix stuff has been sold to international distributors in the past. The same phenomenon has been present in Netflix shows for years. It's probably less common now that Netflix has a significant presence in so many countries, but I think it was common for them to do it in the early days.

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21 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I imagine it varies by show along with production company and various other deals, but I'm pretty sure a bunch of Netflix stuff has been sold to international distributors in the past. The same phenomenon has been present in Netflix shows for years. It's probably less common now that Netflix has a significant presence in so many countries, but I think it was common for them to do it in the early days.

Have Netflix produced shows had built-in act breaks? I haven't seen many like that especially originally produced Netlfix shows. This one stands out because it was clearly written with commercial breaks in mind. I haven't seen Netflix shows, or too many shows from other streamers that have been produced like this. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Halo is on one of viacom's other commercially driven channels before the year is out. It's an expensive show and they will want to make as much money off of it as possible.

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I'm still on board for Halo, but I'm not exactly loving it. At this point I'm just hoping that the setup for Season 2 is really solid and we can move past some of the plot lines dragging this season down. They really haven't sold the need to keep Kwan Ha's character around, but I expect we'll be seeing more of her. I also can't say that I've found all the Halsey / UNSC drama worthwhile.

 

I complained about something similar with the first episodes, but I feel like the problem with much of the drama they're trying to gin up just doesn't change either our understanding or our feelings about her work or the UNSC. We were introduced to these people as willing to murder a child without much of a reason at all, so yeah, it's hard to escalate the overall impression that they're not great folks when you start with killing an orphaned refugee.

 

Maybe if we were introduced to the Spartans in such a way that cemented the need for them; as humanities greatest hope against a superior foe, the brainchild of their most celebrated scientist in her desperate attempt to save the human race. Once you've established how great and important the Spartan program is, how desperate the situation and the righteousness of their cause, then the secrets surrounding its creation and the horrors inflicted on the Spartans themselves present a real quandary.

 

Instead of tortured scientist crosses ethical lines for a perceived greater good, we get sociopath kidnaps children (and flash clones their replacements with a terminal time bomb!) in order to make better soldiers because she could. There's no discovery about these characters or even self discovery, because they all know they crossed lines and are only now kicking her out because of convenience.

 

The show is not terrible, but I really think they did a poor job of handling the dramatic elements this season. Still, I'm a bit hopeful for the next season. While the Cortana/MC relationship isn't what I expected, I think there is a lot of potential. There's more arc available if they start out a bit antagonistic to each other. I also think the Covenant look pretty darn good, as good as I could have hoped, and it makes me excited to see more action involving them. If we can get to the battle of Reach, maybe it can put some of the lame USNC/Halsey/Kwan drama behind us and focus on a more exciting story.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I thought we dodged a bullet a couple episodes ago with no Kwan Ha in the entire episode. But the bullet kept going freak on a leash style and hit us right in the balls as we  were treated to a whole episode dedicated to Kwan Ha. By the end of it I can't say she was redeemed  or that the whole story thread was worth it. It was terrible. Like Teri Bauer amnesia terrible.

 

On top of that, it was edited in a confusing way. (I'll put this in spoilers but I doubt anyone cares at this point)

 

Spoiler

It showed how Kwan Ha escaped and what she did but it didn't show any such thing for Bokeem Woodbine. In fact I'm pretty sure there was a flash back with Kwan Ha and then we cut to Soren looking like business as usual. There was subtle nod to the wound on the back of his head but most of it seemed like a flash back until his wife said oh you should go to Kwan Ha and then suddenly it was like, "oh so this is what he was doing" 🤷‍♀️

 

And then with all this story dedicated to her, I'm not even sure who Vinsher was. I thought he was a UNSC guy, just like a total asshole. So what does taking him out accomplish? The UNSC is still around. Maybe he should have gotten more of a backstory than "guy who appears and is bad"

 

That episode gets a Oof out of Ugh from me.

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On 4/15/2022 at 1:39 PM, Jason said:

 

bro you can get a free month of the ad free version every month

 

facebook.png
WWW.DOCTOROFCREDIT.COM

Paramount+ frequently offers free months when you use a promo code. New codes are added frequently.

 

 

 

How do you use these, Jason? Like where do I go in my account to input the code?

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6 minutes ago, johnny said:

so what's the verdict on this? im not super into Halo but want to support video game stuff... but not if it's bad lol

 

I think it's fine. This barely has anything to do with Halo. Like I said it feels more like mass effect than anything. If you're not interested in Halo then you probably won't mind some of the things on the show. Although, some of the things are just universally bad no matter what show it's on. Plus you gotta support ya boy Bokeem Woodbine. 🤜🤛

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The last couple episodes have been pretty rough. I really think the only decently handled relationship in the entire show is Cortana and MC, which would be fine if they were the only characters that mattered like the game. Unfortunately this show is trying to do so much else and failing so badly at it. At this point I'm curious as to what they'll do next, but my only remaining hope is that Reach falls and season 2 resets things enough to give it a chance to improve.

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Well I wrapped this up and overall I think it's fine, it's ok. It's like a notch below good. Some of the story was interesting, some was bad and I think the final episode held a lot of promise and maybe could directly appeal to a lot of Halo people. I did also like how the show was very inclusive, a lot of the roles were filled by POC and women (or both). Unfortunately, and no offense to my Indian friends, Shabana Azmi's accent was a bit hard to parse at times.

 

I can use the same excuses why Arcane was good for this show.

 

1. You don't even need to play the game to enjoy it! - Really, it's probably to your advantage if you have no idea of what Halo is because then you'll come in with the notion of what you want to see from it. A lot of the show is an introduction to the characters and factions.

 

2. The story is almost an exact copy of Arcane.

  • You have two factions vying for power over an object
  • There is a female outcast by her own people, turned against them
  • Mad scientists with good intentions but harmful outcomes
  • Politics and power struggles from both each faction

The list goes on. The only thing that Halo doesn't have that Arcane did (which carried the show) was well done 3D graphics. Not that it's a bad looking show, I think while some of the elites are chunky boys most of the other CG looks alright, especially the big brute guys. I've mentioned it before Cortana also looks good (especially after that shock early on). And of course, Halo wins the soundtrack war over Arcane.

 

The biggest takeaway I got from this show, is that it probably should have been about Kai instead. She's a much more interesting character than master chief and a lot more likable too. I've mentioned it many times but master chief's arc was not that interesting, it wasn't until the later episodes you could really get on board with him. Makee was also probably the other most interesting character and Charlie Murphy gave us all a better performance than maybe the show deserved.

 

Lastly, the Kwan Ha storyline was trash and will always be trash. As a discussion point I'll put it in spoilers.

 

Spoiler

Kwan Ha was always all talk no action. It was annoying how she went on about being a rebel and how she'd kill people and this and that but she never did. I mean technically towards the end with the sticky bomb and the explosion but never directly taking action on someone. Further she was just an angry person, never had any self reflection. I'm still waiting for the moment that it hits her that she abandoned all her friends in a shack and they were obliterated. Soren is a cool guy but it was sad to see him waste all his time rescuing Kwan Ha (Yes at the end she's taking the credit for killing like 10 guys in an explosion when Soren basically took out 100 guys on his own)

 

With all that out of the way, and with what the show has set up. The second season should be a lot more interesting.

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I have never played a Halo game and have just the vaguest idea about the plot of the game series.

 

I thought the show was ok. Looks great, obviously a huge budget that seems like it was generally well spent. My problem with the series is that Kai was literally the only character I liked on the whole show. Kwan's plot did nothing for the series and just padded out the run time.

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a6388161b5e1038ed19e123139665a09
WWW.YAHOO.COM

Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto has some words regarding Paramount+'s TV adaptation of his video...

 

Quote

...the creator clarified he does not, "I didn't say I hate the show. Some parts are interesting. Just confused by many of the choices that were made which feel pretty far outside the core fiction I helped create." He also added in a separate Tweet, "I actually like some of the battle scenes. Cool action and some great VFX. In particular, the plasma hit effects in episode one are spot on." He doubles down on how the show is not what he expected, claiming it is much different than the Halo he created.

 

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On 4/22/2022 at 9:46 AM, skillzdadirecta said:

Finished episode 3 last night. Pretty slow episode, but I'm still on board with the show. Definitely think this show would work better if it was binged.


And yet I just watched episode 1 the other night and feel almost no motivation to watch further. 

 

this feels like the “Last Airbender” movie for the Halo franchise. Something out together by people who have little to no knowledge or affection for the source material. 
 

On 4/22/2022 at 10:26 AM, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I also find it weird that it's filmed with parts for commercial breaks as if they were ever going to show this on TV.


Paramount + does have commercial breaks if you don’t pay for the ad free version. That’s probably why. The Star Trek shows are edited the same way. 

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