Dominion

First a disclaimer: I have no desire to be a movie critic, and I auto-avoid 'user' reviews made by wannabe critics who like to drop impressive words to show of their knowledge of the dictionary. So, I won't.

Now, here's a secondary disclaimer. I *ENJOYED* the movie 'Legion', and I had resigned myself to not getting a sequel made. A TV series? Better. Much, much better. TV gives an idea room to breathe and evolve over time.

This series took me by surprise, as I hadn't heard about it before. As soon as I finished watching the pilot, I immediately dug out Legion and watched that again. The series is entirely a continuation of the movie, set some years after. The plot makes sense, and the densely packed pilot served to set the scene very well. Then again, I watch for entertainment and don't go looking for errors, so your mileage may vary.

The set, costumes and props are all of a high standard, and there wasn't anything that caught your eye as being out of place or of poor quality. The CGI was very good, with the exception of one high-speed death scene near the beginning which flits by so fast many of you won't notice it.

There is a lot of implied sensuality, though (so far) nothing pornographic other than one costume. I feel they found a good balance there, without being crass for the sake of it.

Now, the acting. I've seen a number of shows featuring Anthony Head (David Whele), and this is his crowning achievement, I believe. In one episode, he gets you to hate him, sympathize with him, pity him... twice I flipped, from rooting against him to siding with him and back again. All this was achieved in a relatively low number of scenes. He isn't the soft touch we've become used to seeing him portray. The love interest, Claire (Roxanne McKee) has shown better abilities than Alex the lead (Christopher Egan) though I think it won't be long before he finds his place once his 'role' in the story is more firm. Casting there was an excellent choice - she even looks like her on-screen father, Alan Dale.

So far, after one episode, this has killed Defiance as it is truly Fantasy/SF, instead of just a Western with SF bits stapled on. Also, it's not a formulaic, monster-of-the-week or crime-of-the-week show... you'll have to follow to keep up.

That makes it expensive, though, and a risk for the studio.

Now. This is SyFy. Call me jaded, but the odds of this not getting canned after one or two seasons aren't great.

Dominion seems to be the successor to the 2010 film "Legion".

For those that don't remember it the plot is as follows, God abandons the Angels and they decide its mankind's fault, and thus the apocalypse is born. One angel alone amongst his brethren sides with humanity, and comes to a remote diner to protect one expecting mother whose child is prophesized to be mankind's only hope of survival.

Dominion is set a significant while after the invasion, where by all accounts the demonic (angelic) invasion wiped out all but a few walled off highly defensible cities holding the last of human kind (the one we see bares a strong resemblance to Fallout's New Vegas), and then became somewhat dormant.

The show has believable sets and effects, some interesting stylistic choices on armor and swords and city architecture. The plot isn't incredibly unique, but its not derivative enough that you will know the seasons plot after one episode. Although you likely will guess whats happening throughout the episode 30 seconds before it does happen, nothing is all that surprising.

Decent fight scenes, acting that's up to par, multiple sources of adversity from the Angelic threat to your own people, with one particularly self deluded villain that you will instantly not like. They highlight some social issues like caste systems and economic disparities, which might become important to the story later down the road.

Everything about the pilot is promising, if you're into fantasy entertainment this probably will excite you. Word of caution, only the pilot is released, and its from the Syfy network which doesn't bring its A game often (ever?). The only recently decent show from Syfy was Helix, which started out equally powerfully with no overt mistakes and a promising premise, but the more episodes of it you saw the more obvious it was that the possibilities you imagined in response to all the mysteries the show introduced were vastly superior to the illogical garbled mess the story turned into by the end of the season. I enjoyed the pilot, but if you're short on time wait for a while to see if the show maintains its quality.

25 years ago, God disappeared. That's Dominion's opening line, and the introduction to the show's mythology. Now, you may be thinking, okay, this is a show about religion and angels and Christian belief. But before you judge all too quickly, let me stop you right there. Because it's not.

First and foremost, Dominion is a show about humanity trying to survive in a harsh, post-apocalyptic world. Mankind is caught in the middle of an ugly war waging between the Archangel Gabriel and the Archangel Michael. What is left of society is trying to overcome the hardships they face every day in the few cordoned off enclaves that withstood the invasion of Gabriel's lower angels. And it's Michael who tries to protect them to the best of his ability, waiting for the Chosen One, the savior of mankind, to be revealed.

Dominion is based on the movie Legion and continues the film's mythology, jumping ahead 25 years in time. Season 1 shows us the world of Vega (the former Las Vegas), which gives a home to many of the survivors of the Extermination War. While the people in the lower castes lives a rather measly life, the royalty of the city plot their schemes and get caught up in politics. It's ugly and complicated and ultimately explosive in these unstable times.

And while it's the political battles that keep Vega busy, Gabriel is plotting his next strike against the humans with his surviving army of higher and lower angels. All hope is now upon the Chosen One, who goes by the name of Alex Lannon, and who is struggling to understand what role the tattoos on his body may be playing in saving the earth and mankind from further destruction.

As we move into season 2, the show gets darker, grittier, and more powerful. The Dominion universe is extended to other cities and towns in what's left of North America. We discover the seemingly peaceful town of Mallory, AL, which raises a lot of questions. And then there's the unruly, messy underground city of New Delphi with its eccentric leader Julian. The power play has only just begun.

Would I recommend Dominion as a show to watch? Yes, absolutely! Its universe draws you in and wants you to learn more about the world of Vega and the Cradle. The characters are all intriguing with a lot of depth to them. I was hooked from the very first episode, and that says a lot because I was more than skeptical when I started watching it (and only did so because it came highly recommended by a friend).

If you haven't given it a try yourself, I can only recommend that you do so to form your own opinion. And if you're interested in learning more about the show, drop by dominionfans.com or syfy.com/dominion, which are both excellent starting points for finding out just what exactly you're in for.

I decided to watch this show just to kill a few minutes, didn't like the premise of it, and didn't expect much from the SyFy Channel.

All this changed after the first 20-30 minutes, plots, subplots, twists, complex characters and a unpredictable future were all cleverly woven into the story.

I was hooked, not so much by the special effects (they were decent), not by the acting (not bad) but by the story line. I feel there is great potential here for the development of characters within a good complex story.

I will be tuning in to see where this goes.

I'm so tired of watching these new shows, getting invested in them, only to have them canceled without any kind of conclusion.

It seems to be happening more and more. I'm at the point where I don't think I will bother watching any new show until there is at least 3 or 4 seasons that have been completed. I would rather binge watch them without commercials anyway.

I can list a ton of shows that I really enjoyed, and they simply pull the plug without any attempt to give us some closure. Dominion is another example of this. I agree, that the second season was a bit of a mess, but it was still a good show, and it looked like it was about to get really good again.

However, if they wanted to cancel it, fine, but for the love of all that is holy, they could have given us a couple more shows, and attempt to give us some closure.

Yup, I don't think I will start watching any new shows, unless they have a few season under their belt now. Especially if it is a SyFy show.