Hey everyone! I made this post where we can discuss the 1st episode of the TV series. The episode will premiere at 12am PST/3am EST. Enjoy and let’s discuss!
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Unfortunately I’m from the UK so this discussions will pretty much help me decide whether to watch the series or not.
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Just watched it. I’d say it’s a pretty run of the mill sci fi show if you’re not invested in the franchise. Not great not terrible. I think it’s enjoyable enough to keep watching but it’s not going to be the “next big thing”.
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Can’t watch because I am in UK and don’t want to get another subscription anyway.
Does it manage to sell you on the combat and aliens?
How does it handle introducing Cortana? Are they out the gate doing the love story thing or keeping that understated? IMO it works in Halo 4 onwards because she’s been around for long enough to justify that. I had heard that they were looking to bring this idea of her spying on him rather than looking out for him; is that right? Seems a, um, courageous choice.
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Light spoilers about the first episode ahead:
The first episode sees the spartans defend an insurectionist colony from a covenant attack (for whatever reason elites only so far). The Elite’s seem a bit buff (more like in H4) to me. Aside from that combat was done nicely enough although the first person shots aren’t too memorable.
They then find a Forerunner Artifact which makes chief kinda remember parts of his childhood. This then leads to him ignoring a morally questionable order by UNSC command. He has not yet been paired with Cortana when the series kicks off. She is only mentioned in conversation as a possible way to “help deal with the situation”. I can totally see that going the way of her being tasked with spying on him and things taking a different direction regardless (Cortana in the 343 games obviously also had a mind of her own).
Also what Halsey wants/does is quite obviously not aligned with what the higher ups want (but that again is pretty much a reflection of her character in the games).
I’m in the UK so I’m going to just have to experience people spoiling it for me up until summer and then it’ll release on Sky which is too expensive for me to pay for.
Never did I think they’d make a Halo TV show and price me out of it.
Absolutely incredible.
Its lukewarm. Its non-canonical so its hard to care that much
The covenant are scary IMO. Their weapons used on civilians seem way more horrifying and brutal in live action than in any of the games so thats a benefit of the series
The action, what little there is, is very entertaining. They use first person HUD shots a lot but its jarring and looks out of place. They tried to make that look too much like the games and it doesnt work
Im not really sure who this show is for: old school fans will think its underwhelming. Im not sure how newcomers will react. Lots of lore is thrown in the audiences face very fast- lore that look several games to be unveiled to players.
Its OK. I dont really feel compelled to keep watching. Its not bad. If I were a critic id give it a 7/10. Just below being good, but not high enough to recommend.
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I couldn’t help but repeatedly think “what if they’d used this budget for a canonical story instead”.
It’s hard to care about when it ads nothing to the universe I love.
Apart from some core concepts, locations and character names, the story itself didn’t resemble Halo much more than it resembled any other sci-fi franchise.
At the end of the episode, I still didn’t feel attached to any of the characters, including the Chief. It’s not the same character, just the same name, and more episodes will be needed to get to know him.
But at multiple occasions I found myself really enjoying the art style, location designs, armour etc. This was probably my favourite part of it.
If I speak only based on my own enjoyment I would say that this felt like a missed opportunity. But if other people liked it that’s great and you’re gonna have a few exciting weeks ahead of you.
Since this isn’t canon, at the end of the day it doesn’t affect “my Halo”.
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It was underwelming IMO. I believe this is a perfect example of why they should have created a story using a Spartan other than Chief. You can stay within the original created universe and just expand without creating issues with beloved characters that are already established.
The plasma shots were literally the only thing going for this episode (IMO). The action seemed clunky and the movement of the Spartans seemed “odd” to me and took me out of it.
I don’t hate it but I’m definitely not super hyped to see whats coming in episode 2, in fact at this rate I may just wait until the season is fully released and then watch.
About the only thing I can describe this as is a sort of stupid looking sci-fi show. Its definitely not on par with other recent shows like The Mandalorian.
But what can we expect from something associated with 343? An almost, but a not quite…their signature.
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It felt a bit cringe to me. The Halo element is there, but the poor script and choppy editing on speed fail the show.
There are spotty overlaps of ultimately weird “uncanny valley” use of CGI, throws CGI AR on the ground.
The “oh, but it’s not canon” departure from established Halo lore is also disappointing. I couldn’t care less about casting choices, but the acting is stale, cliché at best, and let down by a lousy script.
The show’s game of thrones gore based entry sequence isn’t enough to take my interest, and telling the audience that “bullets only work on elites when spartans hold the gun” is mind-numbingly insulting to the audience.
The sudden sharp dive into the “chief has feelings now” approach to Master Chief as a character leaves the gore joy ride opening is also wholly undone.
I may give episode two a shot, but the first episode has left me uninterested.
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It’s not bad so far, it’s just not good either is the problem. Just like with any other show I’ll give it the “three episode chance”. If it doesn’t get better by episode three then I won’t continue watching it.
But honestly, I’m just wondering where the budget went. They spent 10 million dollars per episode on this show and the writing is not the best so far and the cgi is just okay.
For comparison The Mandalorian had a budget of 12 million dollars per episode and it looks like a high budget Star Wars movie.
Don’t get me wrong, I know 2 million dollars is still a sizable difference… but like… is it such a huge difference that the elites have to look like cartoons in some shots? Or that the writing has to force several subplots into the show in the span of the last 30 minutes of the first episode?
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I never liked the idea of an alternate timeline. But the way it was executed is particularly disturbing, with characters that have the same old names but different roles and personalities. Miranda works for ONI and is a mix of the original Miranda and Anders. Keyes is involved with the assassination of a human civilian (or underage unarmed captured insurrectionist), which he’d never want anything to do with. ONI would be more likely just to imprison this person and certainly wouldn’t order an SII to kill her in cold blood, they have people for that. Chief doesn’t follow orders and acts rogue, which is uncharacteristic, although understandable given the orders. Halsey and Paragonsky are more in line with their original characters, which is good.
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First part is cringy, low budget feeling halo. That said, it was nice to see covenant weapons feel powerful. It had its moments, but also had some really bad moments.
Later half feels higher budget but less halo. Feels like they want to explore a lot of the things the player base didn’t like around h4 and h5’s time with chief being rebelious and the UNSC being extra cruel to justify it. Forerunner mcguffin feels too convenient.
I dont have as much a problem with non-canon-ness, but cramming some of 343’s less popular plot ideas into their equivalent of the original trilogy isnt the best idea.
Also it just irks me he has the MK6 already. Especially since he’s likely to get new armor in later seasons anyway. Its more of a personal thing though, it just bugs me how chief is so stuck with the MK6.
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It was so disrespectful to Halo, some changes to lore I can tolerate and can make for an interesting show however the one thing they should never do is drastically change the main character to the point of ruining him completely. So disappointing.
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I enjoyed it.
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All things considered, I think it was pretty great. I’m worried about the human who lives with the Covenant, I can’t think of a way they can justify such a silly plot point. I’m also a bit worried about the pacing. Everything happened a bit too quickly in episode 1, so I imagine viewers that aren’t familiar with the games don’t really understand what’s going on (who are the Insurrectionists, who are the UNSC, etc) and the fact that Master Chief is already going rogue at the end of the first episode and before we even know him feels like it’s unearned.
I think it would have been a better idea to focus on world building and character development in the first episode and properly introduce the factions. There was ebough going on in the episode that we didn’t need them to rush towards the plot twist at the end while glossing over so much necessary exposition. One final thing I can say against the show is that some of the dialogue felt contrived (particularly in the first scene at the bar).
Thankfully, there’s quite a lot of good in the series as well. I think that the cast so far seem to be fitting for their roles. I can easily see myself loving these characters by the end of the season even though they’re different. The action, though not perfect, was pretty good in my opinion and I love that they went for R rated violence, it shows the Covenant in a new and very scary light which is more akin to the books than the games (and that’s a good thing). The visuals are very cool in general and it was fun to watch as a Halo fan.
If the rest of the show is as good as this episode, I will be satisfied, but it also feels like there’s potential for it to become even better. I’m aware that it could easily become much worse, especially with that human who lives with the Covenant, so I’d say the jury is still out on this show. We’ll need a few more episodes before we can say if this is the live action Halo series we’ve been waiting for.
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The ending wasn’t a plot twist. Who here believed for a single second that he would execute that girl? Its crappy writing plain and simple. What will be even more pathetic is when in episode 2 he will return to the arms of the UNSC and all will be forgiven.
We also probably will never hear from the Insurrectionists again, so that will end up being a pointless episode. Making all those criticisms of the Chevy Tahoe and AK-47s relevant and poignant.
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Is it really though?
While I have my own fair share of issues with the show, this has actually kind of grown on me. The covenant (or at least its leaders) know it needs humans to activate forerunner technology. We even see them take captives in halo 2 explicitly for this. Why is the idea of raising one to use as a willing key so ‘silly’? The covenant justified all sorts of nonsense, i don’t think claiming she’s a ‘redeemed human’ or even a story like she’s a legit forerunner while the rest of humanity is all corrupted is farfetched.
That said, her inclusion in episode 1 was completely pointless and time filler. I do want to see more of their actual justification of her in universe.
I’ve finally got to watch the first episode and my thoughts are.
The show did not tie in with the games or the books but we all knew that was expected.
How ever I did enjoy the first episode and I do want to finish the first season before I can judge it.
Part of me does hope that the season ends where the original game begins and hopefully thats when it will relate to the games more.
I could see her being a prisoner and being forced to activate forerunner tech like anders in halo wars. But not so much as to be living comfortably on high charity speaking the language of the prophets. I also felt like things looked to plastic.
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