Halo TV (P+) - March 24, 2022

[NotGreyheim]

I mean, as long as they're talking to 343 about the characters and the world I don't see a problem with not talking about the game.

[Elcura]

Never a good sign to ignore the source material in order to make your own official Halo fanfic. Another case of just exploiting a name to get existing fans but having nothing about it be for them.

Like you don't have to base shit directly off the game, but bragging about ignoring it seems pretty stupid to me.

[Serra]

Yeah, it feels like he's feeding into this false dichotomy -- the only options are not retell the same story we've all played or ignore the source material to do something completely new and original.

[Karbuncle]

I mean, as long as they're talking to 343 about the characters and the world I don't see a problem with not talking about the game.

I can COMPLETELY understand not tying yourself down to a 1:1 recreation which will inevitably be compared unfavorably or locking yourself into extended universe lore of the books and what have you as from a writing perspective that'd be a nightmare to try and keep to, not to mention as a 1:1 it wouldn't work because 99% of the attachment to the story in a video game comes from you PLAYING the game, not watching... aaaaaand here's the but, you're smoking some copium if you don't see why completely ignoring decades of source material loved by the fanbase you're trying to milk, in a video game adaptation which already have shit track records, in Modern Hollywood who lets be honest have far more misses than hits when it comes to understand even on a basic fundamental level why "X" franchise is popular, is bad.

And to be honest 343s track record with the Halo series isn't exactly banger.

It just seems like a bad move, people who don't care about Halo aren't going to be motivated to watch a Halo series and people who do care are going to be turned off by the fact all the interviews make it seem like they've bought the rights to characters and places and are going to wear it like a skin on some random unrelated Sci-Fi show that wouldn't have stood on its own merits and just want to milk brand recognition without doing any of the leg-work to make it a good adaptation. Who the hell is this suppose to appeal to?

Edit: Okay, actually went beyond the title and its just clickbait. When put into context the quote more or less means their talks with 343 focused entirely on the Lore and characters of the universe, not that they ignored the games lore, but rather they didn't talk about Halo 1/2/3 I guess as "games", though they did probably discuss what happened in those games story wise. So credit where its due they're at least putting in some legwork even if the show is apparently be written by people who don't even know what an Xbox is, they're learning. I still don't expect much from the show as its clear the writers intend to take a LOT of liberties with the IP and make something completely unrecognizable to the franchise, but I can admit when my knee-jerk reactions were wrong.

https://twitter.com/inFinit36525299/...04933576630297

[Takiwaki]

They should have worded that very differently then. Pretty dumb quote.

[Karbuncle]

Super dooper agree. There are so many better ways they could have worded that and they chose what amounts to "Fuck dem games"

[Krandor]

I wonder why they had to say "outside Seattle"

Redmond isn't that big of a place but it's home to Microsoft and Nintendo of America, so it's not like it's some super podunk no name place.

[6souls]

https://www.metacritic.com/tv/halo - 63
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/halo/s01 - 57%

Middling reviews from critics. They seem to like the CGI and MC's actor, but everything else, not so much. A lot of comparisons to the Mandalorian, but that might be too high of a bar to reach.

[Karbuncle]

I went and watched some critic reviews cause chances I'm probably not paying to watch this and they seem mixed between "Generic SciFi show that doesn't really set itself apart" coming from the We-have-no-idea-what-Halo-is crowd of reviewers, and "What the fuck is this?" from the ones who have some understanding of what Halo is, and a good mix of positive reviews as well so you kinda have everything covered.

One reviewer i watched mentioned Master Chief is in quite a few scenes either helmet-less or suitless and honestly don't know how I feel about that. I understand it may have been an attempt to characterize him more or make the audience recognize him as human in the dumbest way possible, but If they can make Judge Dredd work without ever taking off his Helmet, they could do the same for Master Chief, hell Darth Vader did it decades ago(final reveal aside). He's seemingly trotted out as a slab of man meat eye candy, which, cool it has its demographic, but it raises further questions about this shows target audience lol. They also mention that the TV shows focuses a LOT on the Politics/Science/Rebels point-of-view and making the Spartans kinda a back-seat to that political drama, as well as treating the Spartans as mindless drones.

Not this is only the first few episodes though, not the entire season.

[6souls]

One reviewer i watched mentioned Master Chief is in quite a few scenes either helmet-less or suitless and honestly don't know how I feel about that.

The main focus of the series is MC discovering his past self before becoming a Spartan.

[Karbuncle]

The main focus of the series is MC discovering his past self before becoming a Spartan.

Sure

[Takiwaki]

Super dooper agree. There are so many better ways they could have worded that and they chose what amounts to "Fuck dem games"

One thing though... the fact that they consider it being a game a limiting factor, shows a huge disconnect on what games offer these days.

[6souls]

https://variety.com/2022/tv/features...ef-1235205361/

“We’re going to tell a story about a man discovering his own humanity,” says Kane, who joined the show as co-showrunner in 2019. “In so doing, he’s invited the audience to discover that guy’s humanity too.”

Eventually, Levine says, “we got the script to the place where we said, ‘You know, this is a deep dive into character. What are the costs of turning human beings into killing machines?’”

[Karbuncle]

https://variety.com/2022/tv/features...ef-1235205361/

I believe you 6, but I don't believe them. Cause they tried to sell Star Trek Picard as a focused character driven story that gets back to the heart of Star Trek and it was just another dumb season long action shlock fest where Picard was a background character doddering around like a lost old man. Yes I'm still salty about that okay.

[NotGreyheim]

They should have worded that very differently then. Pretty dumb quote.

Quote accomplished what it set out for: Rage clicks. It's literal click-bait.

[Karbuncle]

Ah the cutthroat world of internet ad revenue.

[Ker]

Ep1 (dropped)
It's quite insane to me that this is what they deliver after years and years of planning and production. A Halo TV series done well could absolutely amazing but this so far is just bad.


Angry Joe seen Episode 2(It’s worse than episode 1).

[Gadritan]

Yep. It’s a big oof. Stuck through to the end of the episode and glad I did. Otherwise I would have missed the biggest facepalm.


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[Takiwaki]

I enjoyed it. dont hate me. I am not familar with Halo lore story or the game.

[6souls]

EP 1 available on YouTube for a week