Reviews

Are the reviews on here gamed? How does this episode get an 8.3 when almost all of the reviews rate lower and call out its absurdity?

I really don't need to point out the same things that everyone else did. Just had to register my own discontent and do my part to get the message across.

I will note, however, that the single most patently absurd thing about this episode, besides the use of grinders to straighten out horribly bent, large blades, is that after supposedly 140 years of operation that is critical to survival for the entire community, no methods or tools were put in place to deal with such maintenance needs. Add to that the idea that only one 30-ish woman in the whole place possesses the critical knowledge to keep everything functional, and the whole thing becomes a huge eye roll.

Great show so far. Horrible episode.

I have generally enjoyed the show and have found that the writing and direction is at least able to weave tension within and across episodes and seasons. This, at a basic level, is what has kept me curious enough to see it through to the end. (At this writing, I have made it just past the middle of the fourth season.)

But a major failing, in my view, is something I noted at least as early as the third season--namely, that there has been virtually no long arc to aid the viewer in contextualizing the constant stream of new mysteries that emerge among the characters and in the broader story.

First comes the main mystery: these passengers disappeared and then reappeared. Okay, what could explain this? What is the underlying force behind the phenomenon? Why does it exist, and what does it want? Well, these are fair questions to leave open in Season 1--even for a time in Season 2, perhaps. But we never get a real hint at what's REALLY going on! Instead, we get a never-ending stream of new mysteries and phenomena that are not only themselves not "reveals," but don't even contain small *hints* about what's driving the whole story.

So, the passengers have "callings." Okay, but from whom, or what, and why? People are revealed to have abilities. How? And why? How do mysterious abilities fit into the larger picture of what happened? We have hints and disjointed references to ancient and biblical mythology, special roles some of the characters occupy for reasons unknown, an arbitrary expiration date for the lives and abilities of the passengers, new abilities and phenomena that emerge seemingly out of the blue--all without any hints tying what's happening to a cohesive larger narrative or story arc.

Still enjoy watching and am looking forward to when we finally *do* get answers (I hope, at least). But what I've seen so far almost suggests that the writers themselves never knew the underlying story and have been avoiding dropping hints because there are none to drop, giving them the freedom to shoehorn just about anything in at the end. Or worse, leave the questions unanswered.

For a bit of contrast, consider the television adaptation of 12 Monkeys (SyFy Channel). In that show, even though the gradually revealed bigger picture seems increasingly bizarre and has its own problems, at least the viewer gets SOME meaningful hints and reveals along the way that allows one to place individual episodes into a larger, developing context.

Still enjoyed the show, but this was a major sticking point for me.