I agree, The Expanse is easily the best produced sci-fi I have seen... possibly ever. Very slick and very deep feeling- as if I could hop aboard a transport and go off to live a new story. I enjoy the protomolecule twist to a degree, but there are still a lot of what I call "unnecessarily macabre" elements- for example when the weapon cuts a whole straight through the Martian ship and blows the guy's head off. Like... ok, you need to kill the guy for plot purposes, but there are so many less disgusting ways to do it. Historically most people in warfare die from disease, famine, accidents, or prior injuries compared to combat and, in particular, the more gory elements of combat (a large number died or were disabled from the shock of explosions or injuries suffered in shelling or bombing). Heck, an utterly enormous number died from complications or mistreatment in POW camps, having been taken prisoner.
I consider Band of Brothers and The Pacific (both excellent HBO productions, but no, sadly no sci-fi elements) to be as gory as a movie *needs* to be- anything more is just excess violence with no real purpose than to startle or upset the viewer- and they are both series about some of the bloodiest battles of WW II. For example, I've never been interested in horror movies. If I wanted to be scared by disgusting stuff and violence, I would go and be a paramedic or enlist in the military, or take a walk through one of our many fine crime-ridden cities- heck, the former can earn me money and the latter won't cost me anything except possibly my life and transit costs!
I've noticed a trend, watching lots of old movies lately, that Hollywood has gotten extremely dark lately compared to the 90's... the 80's... the 70's... the 60's... heck, I think it's the darkest and grittiest it's ever been at this time. Like, even old film noir seems detached and relatively mild compared to the sort of stuff that goes in films and TV shows nowadays, and frankly, I think a lot of it is not necessary. I loved things like MacGyver, The A Team, heck even recent stuff like Eureka, for the way they carefully danced around blood and guts while still managing to make just as enjoyable and engaging of a viewing experience (and sometimes even more enjoyable as a result). Stuff that used to pass for "light-hearted" is now "cheesy" by comparison, which is kind of sad to me.
I get it, this is the 21st century, we don't have to shield our poor eyes from the horror of death or resort to ketchup bottles, the covering of faces with blankets, and death monologues to show who got shot, but I just don't get why everything and their mother needs to horrify the audience. Maybe it's just that our CGI and effects are so good that what used to look kind of corny (e.g. the people stuck in floors and walls in an old episode of ST:TNG) now looks reasonably realistic. I don't exactly consider myself conservative or weak stomached, but it's not like people getting sliced in half or whatever is reeeaaally necessary to get a story across. Heck, the protomolecule could have been like the omega particle from ST:VOY, an extremely dangerous explosive particle that was assumed to have been responsible for the big bang. Now that's both cool and just as terrifying without having to suck people into it and turn them into deformed power-eating zombie things spawned from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. It's like to me - exciting and reasonably realistic danger that one could reasonably encounter in space vs... bored writers coming up with the grossest thing they could think of in an unreasonable amount of time. I think it would be much more enjoyable to watch The Expanse if it were instead exploring how earth and mars attempt to rebuild diplomatic relations, how the ring manages to find a role in the tenuous balance of power, and how the characters live their 'normal' lives in the future instead of covert evil big business crap getting in the way of the entire existing plot. It's almost like I want to see a 'role-playing' TV show of the future rather than a 'point-and-click' horror adventure.
I've seen the original Battlestar Galactica. I liked it reasonably enough until they started killing off lead characters. I get it, in real life people die, but I've just never enjoyed TV shows or movies where you never know who's going to get it next but you can sure as hell be sure everyone's going to get it eventually (e.g. 24). Life is stressful enough, I don't need to be stressed out by the very things that are supposed to relax me! :S
Maybe I'm just too light-hearted for current fare, I don't know! It definitely seems to be getting harder to find things that are light-hearted but not comedies (and in particular... things that are funny but not over-the-top comical, e.g. the careful line of humor and seriousness in Eureka or Warehouse 13, both of which I enjoyed immensely despite lots of suspension of disbelief being required).
I consider Band of Brothers and The Pacific (both excellent HBO productions, but no, sadly no sci-fi elements) to be as gory as a movie *needs* to be- anything more is just excess violence with no real purpose than to startle or upset the viewer- and they are both series about some of the bloodiest battles of WW II. For example, I've never been interested in horror movies. If I wanted to be scared by disgusting stuff and violence, I would go and be a paramedic or enlist in the military, or take a walk through one of our many fine crime-ridden cities- heck, the former can earn me money and the latter won't cost me anything except possibly my life and transit costs!
I've noticed a trend, watching lots of old movies lately, that Hollywood has gotten extremely dark lately compared to the 90's... the 80's... the 70's... the 60's... heck, I think it's the darkest and grittiest it's ever been at this time. Like, even old film noir seems detached and relatively mild compared to the sort of stuff that goes in films and TV shows nowadays, and frankly, I think a lot of it is not necessary. I loved things like MacGyver, The A Team, heck even recent stuff like Eureka, for the way they carefully danced around blood and guts while still managing to make just as enjoyable and engaging of a viewing experience (and sometimes even more enjoyable as a result). Stuff that used to pass for "light-hearted" is now "cheesy" by comparison, which is kind of sad to me.
I get it, this is the 21st century, we don't have to shield our poor eyes from the horror of death or resort to ketchup bottles, the covering of faces with blankets, and death monologues to show who got shot, but I just don't get why everything and their mother needs to horrify the audience. Maybe it's just that our CGI and effects are so good that what used to look kind of corny (e.g. the people stuck in floors and walls in an old episode of ST:TNG) now looks reasonably realistic. I don't exactly consider myself conservative or weak stomached, but it's not like people getting sliced in half or whatever is reeeaaally necessary to get a story across. Heck, the protomolecule could have been like the omega particle from ST:VOY, an extremely dangerous explosive particle that was assumed to have been responsible for the big bang. Now that's both cool and just as terrifying without having to suck people into it and turn them into deformed power-eating zombie things spawned from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. It's like to me - exciting and reasonably realistic danger that one could reasonably encounter in space vs... bored writers coming up with the grossest thing they could think of in an unreasonable amount of time. I think it would be much more enjoyable to watch The Expanse if it were instead exploring how earth and mars attempt to rebuild diplomatic relations, how the ring manages to find a role in the tenuous balance of power, and how the characters live their 'normal' lives in the future instead of covert evil big business crap getting in the way of the entire existing plot. It's almost like I want to see a 'role-playing' TV show of the future rather than a 'point-and-click' horror adventure.
I've seen the original Battlestar Galactica. I liked it reasonably enough until they started killing off lead characters. I get it, in real life people die, but I've just never enjoyed TV shows or movies where you never know who's going to get it next but you can sure as hell be sure everyone's going to get it eventually (e.g. 24). Life is stressful enough, I don't need to be stressed out by the very things that are supposed to relax me! :S
Maybe I'm just too light-hearted for current fare, I don't know! It definitely seems to be getting harder to find things that are light-hearted but not comedies (and in particular... things that are funny but not over-the-top comical, e.g. the careful line of humor and seriousness in Eureka or Warehouse 13, both of which I enjoyed immensely despite lots of suspension of disbelief being required).
Sample library developer, composer, and amateur organologist at Versilian Studios.
