Great start, dismal middle and odd ending.

 

It's been a baffling 10 weeks.

 

I think this is a fair summary.

 

The first episode was probably the best of the bunch. I've seen a lot of people comment that the series was too long and they didn't have enough material to fill the ten episodes. I don't think this was the case; I think the basic plot of what-happens-if-no-one-died in itself should have provided enough source material for YEARS.

The problem was that they didn't really know what to focus on. The big strength of the previous Children Of The Earth series wasn't the explosions or the aliens or the action sequences; it was the human drama. Like I've said before, the most chilling moments didn't come from the alien reveal or even Ianto's death. They came when really awful decisions and choices had to be made - how would a government decide which of their nation's children would be sacrificed (that immortal line "If we can't identify the lowest achieving 10% of this country's children then what are the school league tables for?"). Could Captain Jack really bring himself to send his own unwilling and innocent grandson to the slaughter to save the world? It was a sci-fi show that excelled with the HUMAN drama.

 

I think that's something that this series sometimes remembered, and at other times completely forgot. They did the odd cursory bit of social commentary with Dr Vera's scenes in the first few episodes, but from episode 5 onwards that was very much done and dusted. It almost felt anti-climatic. We kept on being told the whole world had changed and been thrown into chaos, but beyond the medical camps, we didn't really get to see much of that at all. There was no exploration of the political consequences, or the effect on food and water supplies, or how the general public reacted to the development (surely if people became immortal, we'd see an outpouring of BIZARRE behaviour with everyone testing their new limits and pushing every boundary going?)

Instead we get whole episodes dedicated to Katya Kinski from Neighbours being a bit of a c**t and Gwen conducting a Blue Peter style science experiment on a plane. There were SO many drawn-out sequences that really didn't actually contribute to the development of the overall story at all. Vera's death for example - very sad, but that whole thing with the insane administrator was just unnecessary, there was no long-term consequence on the plot, and it took a LOT of airtime out that could have been put to far better use.

Even up until the last episode, you were left wondering where on earth everything was heading to. It felt like a very aimless story with lots of red herrings and dead-ends.

Absolutely loved the series, although, as people said, it wasn't going to be better than Children Of Earth. Also agreed about it being dragged for too long. At least 8 episodes would've sufficed.

 

So many deaths! Was especially gutted they didn't resurrect Vera somehow :(

 

I'm rather baffled at why Rex didn't heal himself straight after the death being brought back, and only after another shot it started working. Perhaps that could be answered in the next series.

 

HOW MUCH BLOODY LIPSTICK CAN YOU WEAR?! :wub:

I did enjoy the finale and felt it ended on a high note, I must admit I didn't expect that to happen - although overall as a series, this had too much filler and only really picked up at the end, I do agree that this could've been done in much less episodes

I think this is a fair summary.

 

The first episode was probably the best of the bunch. I've seen a lot of people comment that the series was too long and they didn't have enough material to fill the ten episodes. I don't think this was the case; I think the basic plot of what-happens-if-no-one-died in itself should have provided enough source material for YEARS.

The problem was that they didn't really know what to focus on. The big strength of the previous Children Of The Earth series wasn't the explosions or the aliens or the action sequences; it was the human drama. Like I've said before, the most chilling moments didn't come from the alien reveal or even Ianto's death. They came when really awful decisions and choices had to be made - how would a government decide which of their nation's children would be sacrificed (that immortal line "If we can't identify the lowest achieving 10% of this country's children then what are the school league tables for?"). Could Captain Jack really bring himself to send his own unwilling and innocent grandson to the slaughter to save the world? It was a sci-fi show that excelled with the HUMAN drama.

 

I think that's something that this series sometimes remembered, and at other times completely forgot. They did the odd cursory bit of social commentary with Dr Vera's scenes in the first few episodes, but from episode 5 onwards that was very much done and dusted. It almost felt anti-climatic. We kept on being told the whole world had changed and been thrown into chaos, but beyond the medical camps, we didn't really get to see much of that at all. There was no exploration of the political consequences, or the effect on food and water supplies, or how the general public reacted to the development (surely if people became immortal, we'd see an outpouring of BIZARRE behaviour with everyone testing their new limits and pushing every boundary going?)

Instead we get whole episodes dedicated to Katya Kinski from Neighbours being a bit of a c**t and Gwen conducting a Blue Peter style science experiment on a plane. There were SO many drawn-out sequences that really didn't actually contribute to the development of the overall story at all. Vera's death for example - very sad, but that whole thing with the insane administrator was just unnecessary, there was no long-term consequence on the plot, and it took a LOT of airtime out that could have been put to far better use.

Even up until the last episode, you were left wondering where on earth everything was heading to. It felt like a very aimless story with lots of red herrings and dead-ends.

I've just watched the final episode and completely agree with you. So many of the episodes were completely pointless, I'd point the finger at the Captain Jack back story as being totally unnecessary also as it could have been covered in about 5 minutes. Am very pleased that Jilly survived though, she's far too great a character to be killed off! :D

I've just watched the final episode and completely agree with you. So many of the episodes were completely pointless, I'd point the finger at the Captain Jack back story as being totally unnecessary also as it could have been covered in about 5 minutes. Am very pleased that Jilly survived though, she's far too great a character to be killed off! :D

Angelo was rather cute though :lol:

 

The general feeling seems to be that it started really well, lost direction in the middle and ended very well. I'd agree with that. It would have been better if they had dropped a couple episodes or developed the immortality thing more. The first few episodes explored the implications of nobody dying but that wasn't really developed in later episodes.

I've just watched the final episode and completely agree with you. So many of the episodes were completely pointless, I'd point the finger at the Captain Jack back story as being totally unnecessary also as it could have been covered in about 5 minutes. Am very pleased that Jilly survived though, she's far too great a character to be killed off! :D

 

Yes I think I'd agree with you on the Captain Jack backstory - it's one of the worst offenders for pointlessly filling up airtime. They could have come up with a much more effective and quicker way of introducing the three families, without having the audience sit through a whole episode of Jack's big gay love affair. Beyond that one twist of Angelo betraying Jack (which as you say could have been explained in five minutes), Angelo himself felt really quite irrelevant. It felt very shoehorned in, almost as if John Barrowman has something in his contract that stipulates that he MUST get to spend at least an hour of the series time having naked time with male castmates.

 

Jilly's FABULOUS, but I get the impression that if she does appear in the next series, she'll be heading down a path of genuine EVIL rather than mere fabulous cuntishness.

Lauren Ambrose can't do anything bad. :wub: