Post by xystophoros on Jun 25, 2017 1:55:25 GMT
For those unfamiliar with Dark Matter, it's a low-budget science fiction show set in space, a co-production of SyFy and Canada's Space channel.
The show follows six six members of a starship crew who wake from cryosleep with amnesia -- they don't know where they are, they don't know where the ship is headed, and they don't even remember their own names.
They agree to refer to each other by the order in which they woke from cryosleep. For example, One is the moral center of the group who can also be annoyingly sensitive, Two is the hot female lead, Three is a jovial white guy with a love of guns, Four is the stereotypical Asian guy who is good with martial arts and swordplay, Five is the adorable "kid," and Six is the physically hulking, powerful member of the group who is also a gentle giant and the most empathetic of the bunch.
While the details of their pasts remain frustratingly elusive, the crew members soon realize they're not the good guys -- five out of the six of them are wanted by the Galactic Authority for crimes like theft, murder, piracy, corporate espionage, that sort of thing.
Like all SF TV shows it's shot in Canada, most of the actors are Canadian, and there are unmistakably Canadian quirks. Same deal with BSG, SGU, even The Expanse. Canada offers major tax breaks for filming in cities like Toronto, and since SyFy and Space have been shooting science fiction shows there for some 20 years, there's a large pool of veteran sci-fi actors there. (Coincidentally, that's why half the female cast members of Battlestar Galactica did guest stints as lesbians on The L Word -- it was also shot in Toronto, so the production company hired local actresses.)
Anyway, I've been extremely critical of Dark Matter in the past, and for good reason -- the writers clearly don't know anything about even basic science, and they don't seem to have any interest in learning. A bunch of characters were flat-out cliches. Some of the early episodes were just bad. And showrunner Joseph Malozzi has an apparently insatiable fetish for watching small, 110-pound women beat the everliving shit out of heavily muscled men. The first episode alone had at least four scenes of women beating the hell out of men, and I lost track of how many there were in he first season.
I really don't know why I kept watching. Maybe it's a combination of slim pickings for science fiction shows, and the fact that Dark Matter airs in the summer, a traditionally dead time for TV.
But I'm glad I did, because in its third season DM has become pretty damn good. It's still cheesy, some of the characters are still one-note, but the others have evolved into much more complex characters. The show has demonstrated it's not scared of killing characters off. The production values have improved over the past two seasons. And most of all, the crew has come together and does a great job of offering amusing banter and humor in just the right doses.
Yesterday's episode was, IMO, the best yet, and it comes after a handful of really solid episodes to start season 3. Two years ago I would never have recommended this show, but now it's evolved into fun, adventurous science fiction.
The show follows six six members of a starship crew who wake from cryosleep with amnesia -- they don't know where they are, they don't know where the ship is headed, and they don't even remember their own names.
They agree to refer to each other by the order in which they woke from cryosleep. For example, One is the moral center of the group who can also be annoyingly sensitive, Two is the hot female lead, Three is a jovial white guy with a love of guns, Four is the stereotypical Asian guy who is good with martial arts and swordplay, Five is the adorable "kid," and Six is the physically hulking, powerful member of the group who is also a gentle giant and the most empathetic of the bunch.
While the details of their pasts remain frustratingly elusive, the crew members soon realize they're not the good guys -- five out of the six of them are wanted by the Galactic Authority for crimes like theft, murder, piracy, corporate espionage, that sort of thing.
Like all SF TV shows it's shot in Canada, most of the actors are Canadian, and there are unmistakably Canadian quirks. Same deal with BSG, SGU, even The Expanse. Canada offers major tax breaks for filming in cities like Toronto, and since SyFy and Space have been shooting science fiction shows there for some 20 years, there's a large pool of veteran sci-fi actors there. (Coincidentally, that's why half the female cast members of Battlestar Galactica did guest stints as lesbians on The L Word -- it was also shot in Toronto, so the production company hired local actresses.)
Anyway, I've been extremely critical of Dark Matter in the past, and for good reason -- the writers clearly don't know anything about even basic science, and they don't seem to have any interest in learning. A bunch of characters were flat-out cliches. Some of the early episodes were just bad. And showrunner Joseph Malozzi has an apparently insatiable fetish for watching small, 110-pound women beat the everliving shit out of heavily muscled men. The first episode alone had at least four scenes of women beating the hell out of men, and I lost track of how many there were in he first season.
I really don't know why I kept watching. Maybe it's a combination of slim pickings for science fiction shows, and the fact that Dark Matter airs in the summer, a traditionally dead time for TV.
But I'm glad I did, because in its third season DM has become pretty damn good. It's still cheesy, some of the characters are still one-note, but the others have evolved into much more complex characters. The show has demonstrated it's not scared of killing characters off. The production values have improved over the past two seasons. And most of all, the crew has come together and does a great job of offering amusing banter and humor in just the right doses.
Yesterday's episode was, IMO, the best yet, and it comes after a handful of really solid episodes to start season 3. Two years ago I would never have recommended this show, but now it's evolved into fun, adventurous science fiction.
