Constellation

After the first few episodes, I thought I was possibly watching the best new sci-fi series ever. Then the next few episodes slowed down and felt very much like filler, like they were waiting to reveal some sort of big climax at the end. But then, when that climax came, it was completely unsatisfying, and in the end, I was left feeling very disappointed. It was a waste of a good premise and some excellent acting, especially by the young girl who plays the daughter. There were also some holes in the plot that really made no sense and would love to hear the writers explain. And the final twist in the final scene, totally changed the vibe of the show from interesting sci-fi to campy thriller. Curious where the next season is going to take this.

I wasn't entirely sure where the show was headed when early reviewers and synopsis described it as a show about an astronaut who returns to Earth to find it different. Through subtle and not so subtle scenes, the story builds its plot device on "quantum physics for dummies" to weave a story where two events can happen or not happen, and happen AND not happen at the same time. Understandably, this can be confusing to follow, and a good review and a bad one can coexist and both could be right.

As with most interesting mysteries, there are secrets being kept that will be revealed. The show incorporates sci-fi horror elements, such as darkness, screams, imagery of the dead, and the terror of the unknown. The main premise seems that those who went out to space and back no longer experience reality as a certainty, in the quantum physical sense.

The acting is fine though a bit uneven, but in retrospect, this could be due to the way the story develops nonlinearly at certain points. But the suspense does start to build up by the third episode, and there is enough there to make me speculate on what's going on. Some may need to suspend a little disbelief early on, on how the entire ISS can be rendered so useless by one impact, as if the minds of multiple space agencies haven't planned for myriad contingencies, module and system isolation and redundancy, etc. But it's realistic enough to get the story going.

This appears to be a decent sci-fi horror suspense thriller in the making, and maintains Apple TV's standard for production quality. I do hope there is more to this than Hollywood's literal take on Einstein's "spooky action at a distance".

Great visuals and suspense , Solid start.

A promising start to the series. Heart pounding edge of your seat, mind-bending thriller from the get go.... It's one of those series that requires your full attention or you're going to get lost. I binged the first three episodes and watched them again. It's that good. I put this one on the same ranking with " Gravity" "Arrival" and the "martian" Noomi Rapace is phenomenal as always. Beautiful location, nicely paced thriller. Kept me glued from the start, couldn't wait for the next episode.

Fingers crossed hopefully the rest of the series maintains the hype and pace and keeps getting stronger.

Watchable actors and a plot that was engaging if a bit soapy in places, but left wanting for lack of a little exposition and terribly uneven pacing. There are plot holes in abundance, mostly masked by the fundamental premise so not fatal to enjoying the show. The mystery builds with hints at a scientistic multiverse explanation, though character viewpoint identification wasn't always clear and the shifts and flashbacks often confusing. But we got trapped in getting the same level of hints over and over again without any development of the idea or progress in the characters' realisations. Just as it looked like it was going to go deeper and get somewhere -the place I'd expect to be by epsiode 3 or 4 -the season ended. I only realised this when the next episode didn't show up and that was it. No resolution, not a satisfying watch.

Off the bat I'll say that what I mean by the title is that this is one of those stories told all out of order and mixed up, that, if told straight forward, would be about a 15 minute long show. Apple+ sure LOVES to make science fiction shows that make you start getting concerned that you've been wasting your time once you get to the midpoint of episodes. They've done like three shows like this now where you have almost no idea what's going on for the first few episodes... Then you start to realize, but hope there will be a twist... And then there is no twist and it is exactly what you predicted... And there was no reason to stretch it out so long.

Out of order and unclear story telling, with a story that would actually be quite short if told in order, is of course not always bad, and can be great, even- think of something like Pulp Fiction, for example- but in this case it is not great.

The acting is all very good, especially the little girl. She's very talented.

The show was entertaining enough that it's worth putting on your list, or watching if you've got the desire to. But by episode 3-4ish you pretty much get what's going on- if not ever detail- they continue to do a slow burn for 5 to 7 more hours of TV, as if the surprise hasn't unraveled yet.

There are also many reveals that once they are revealed you find yourself thinking, "ok... and....?". Because they all act as evidence to prove this one same thing... That you figure out pretty early into the show.

It would be like if you knew, for a fact, who the m*rderer was, in a show where that is the mystery.. and long after they gave you enough info to know it was him, and showed a flashback of him doing it... and a flash forward of him admitting it to police.... they still kept having ~shocking reveals~ in the present timeline... like, "WE FOUND HIS GLOVE AT THE CRIME SCENE- ITS A DNA MATCH (fade to credits)!". And really the only new information you're learning is that he, in fact, wore gloves, during the crime.

That is exactly what this show is like.

The small reveals mean nothing once the big reveal is so clearly the only option of what COULD be going on... It all becomes very, "Sure, why not; I guess I'd like to know why each thing happened, but I don't need to anymore." Any hope that there will be a huge unexpected twist is quickly dashed once it becomes clear what's going on (long before it's explicitly said)..... and there's no real b-plot or anything else that makes it fun once you realize what's going on.

Luckily, it is fast paced, and with good enough acting that it's not cumbersome to sit through, and each episode does go rather quickly... You just feel like there's not much to the story.

Especially now that multi-verses are all the rage in TV and film, this is pretty much just a slightly new way of telling the same old story.

Worth a watch if you like scifi, but I'll put it this way: This show is like a loooong steep hiking trail.... with no view when you get to the top.

Again, it's not at all bad, it's just not as good as you hope it will be after the first few episodes when it's action packed as they try to get home from outer space (which is risky, due to some complications)... that is before you realize the direction the show is going to go.

The negative is all down to the story itself. As I said, the acting is all good, and the cinematography and other visual effects, are also very good. The writing isn't even half bad, as far as the dialogue itself and keeping interest... it's just the story, overall, that is lacking.

The story itself is very simple and short, so it is made as confusing as possible, which is almost insulting once you realize what's going on... long before the main character.

It's also one of those shows where conflict arises simply because people don't share information they have or say things that need to be said. You find yourself yelling at the screen like "just tell him what you saw!" Or "just show him the evidence you have!" But they never do because then the story wouldn't be 8 hours long.

6/10 (and at least 3 points are for acting, and visuals)