As someone who loves sci-fi, even bad sci-fi, I found this show deeply disappointing. The writing, the plot, the CGI, the characters, everything was dreadful from the get-go.
When they first introduced the crew, I thought Niki (Katie Sackoff) was dreaming (again). Teens/twenty-somethings on the most important space flight in the history of space flights?
The very worst part was that the writers apparently watched Netflix's reboot of "Tales of the City" and incorporated all those awful characters into this series. Anyone who saw the 1990's Tales of the City series knows what I mean.
A transgendered medic that prefers the pronouns ze/hir (what does that even mean outside of San Francisco?), a gay crewman, a lesbian, threesomes, an unwanted pregnancy, a straight guy who falls for the aforementioned trans medic, and poor Niki looking very old around this very young cast. She really needs to quit smoking. She looked 50 y.o.
Maybe that's why they made William (a male holographic computer that helps the other computer, which has a female voice, run the ship) closer to Niki's age. I have watched a lot of B sci-fi shows and learned to like them. This doesn't even arise to that level. It's a pure F straight down the line.
For those that saw the movie The Fifth Wave, you'll recognize the creature that attached itself to a host's brain. The CGI is identical to the movie's. For those that watched Star Trek Voyager, you'll recognize where they stole the idea of a holographic character. For those that watched StarGate: SG1, you'll recognize a whole host of episodes, but mostly the whole Replicator story line (the aforementioned mechanical creature).
They cribbed from so many other shows and movies that the screenwriter's guild should take away the writer's credits and replace them with one word: Various. It's a mash up without meaning. An ending that was awful and a cheat.
If they had spent less time virtue signalling that this show was cool and hip, and more time actually thinking about the story line and characters, they may have had a chance. They blew it. Did anyone care when some of the crew members died? Or when Niki said goodbye for 20 minutes to her cloying husband? The only time I felt sadness was when were told those weird alien bat-like species were wiped out by the replicators. And we know that because the bat aliens had a universal translator in the cave that explained what happened to them. Really?
Netflix must've given them orders to round up every cliche on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, throw them into the not-too-distant future, blend, and hope it all works out. It doesn't.
This was pure pandering to the smartphone generation. Maybe because subscribers are dumping Netflix because they don't offer any good movies. As a Millennial, I found it insulting.
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