Nightflyers

It's difficult to understand how a show as exceptional as The Expanse can be cancelled and replaced with dumbed-down schlock such as this. From the start we're already against Humanity not only because we see the outcome but the writers went out of their way to clarify why Humanity does not deserve to survive. On top of that, they have clearly graduated from the School of Having Characters Act Stupidly to Create Conflict. Also, I'm all for stories taking their time, but when you're already doing so over an entire season I see no point in having scenes drag on with long stretches of nothing, particularly when those scenes have little to do with the plot.

The costumes are nice, actors are ok, but it seems like the plot doesn't really go anywhere big. People talk here and there, creepy stuff happens with sudden loud sounds, nothing gets explained well or at all so you have to believe in their reality no questions asked. I know it's fiction and all but a very unrealistic one so it's very hard to believe. I'm sure Martin's book must be good, but this show isn't.

You ever come across a show you're really enjoying, come onto IMDb to look up the cast and find it has a 6/10 average with a ton of 1/10, 4/10, etc reviews? That's what happened with Nightflyers. This show has a great mix of suspense, horror, mystery, and science fiction. The sound design is absolutely wonderful (I'd recommend watching with headphones for something different), and the performances are engaging and on point. I'm not exactly sure what most people were expecting (George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones in space or Asimov/Asher level hard sci-fi?), but this is a damned decent show. Perfect? Far from it. But it's an odd, multilayered and entertaining sci-fi show - far from deserving of these silly, pretentious 4/10 reviews.

The show starts okay and the general themes are interesting, but as it goes on it gets worse and worse. The crew makes no sense at all. People don't communicate with each other or act logically and of course everything goes wrong because of it. Later there is a lot of filler. Lots of logical inconsistencies where the show breaks rules it had established before. Sometimes characters tell others what happened wrong. This just seems like scenes were filmed out of order and messed up in editing or something. The way computers work of course makes no sense either, but I guess this is a minor gripe at this point.

So why still 6 stars? Because I think for all its flaws it was still extremely watchable. If only to get the solutions to the mysteries. I do not regret watching it, though I will not watch it ever again or a season 2 of it.

Chock full of dumb characters making dumb decisions, NIGHTFLYERS aims to go where no one has gone before...in making us want to pull our hair out.

The mission: an intrepid group of explorers has set out from Europa to rendezvous with an alien craft in space. You'd think a mission of this importance would require a crew of top-notch scientists and seasoned spacefarers. Not here. We get a crew of ding-dongs who wouldn't pass a psych eval. Add in a belligerent tool of a telepath whose sole job--wait for it--is to communicate in a friendly manner with the aliens, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Not long after launch, the mission goes sideways with weirdness. The captain knows all along why this is happening. Does he do anything about it? Say anything? Perform any corrective action? Nope. He pretends like he's ignorant instead of heading back to port because reasons. Oh, and the series opens with a murdery death scene far into the story that wipes out any worry for the characters shown because we know how they end up. Yay.