Category: Commentary, Critique, and Response

SCI FI SERIES … and the “Asian sci fi problem”.
(Ongoing struggle of producing quality sci fi, that doesn’t get canceled – mostly because of the failure of the studio and distribution system in the states.)

Silo (s1?) [Rock solid so far]
From (s2+) [Risk if doesn’t conclude with season 3]
Last of Us (s1+) [Odd episode pacing, rock solid]
Foundation (s1+) [Lee Pace victory, Lousy young female lead]
Black Mirror (s6?) [The expected Mix but great script concept work, and legendary for metalhead alone.]

The Expanse(s5-) [Flawless] … [more please :)]
Counterpart (s2-) [Excellent]
Westworld (s3x) [Started perfect, but weaker each season with S3 a death blow it up – Why? look who they gave the writing to. Couple ‘a ‘chicks. 😉 Lots of lessons to be learned from the S2,3,4 decline of it.]
Man Who Fell To Earth(s1x) [weak plot, pace, casting]
1899(Deu)(s1x) [Good but broke the ‘too many gimmes’ rule]
Raised by Wolves (s2x) [Brilliant S1 but broke the too many gimmes rule on a scale never seen before.]
War of the Worlds(UK) (s3-) [Iffy start but made it solid with a full story arc]
Invasion(s1+) [Thought it would get canceled but ok, looking forward to s2, maybe they’ll pull it off.]
Debris(s1x) [Great premise, horrific cast, sad loss]
Night Sky(s1x) [Good one-season premise, great cast]
Altered Carbon(s2x) [Perfect s1, s2 murder by woke casting, unbelievable weak script and weak direction]
Salvation(s2x) [adequate premise, mediocre plot and script, tried hard, S3 might have been worth providing closure and re-run revenue.]
Dark Matter (s3x) [Started perfectly, budget in S3 killed it]

Silent Sea(s1-) [good one-season premise, but weak esp w/ ‘little girl’]
The Rig (s1-) [Great premise, good cast and production, but omg who wrote that horrible script?]
Station 11 (s1-) [Couldn’t bear watching it]
Another Life(s?) [Sat thru it, that’s all]

Peripheral(s1?) [Great cast, good writing, tired story]
Resident Alien(s2x) [Good one-season, s2 was underfunded and under developed.]
Lost in Space(s2x) [Gag. Great production, horiffic script, and absurd sequential catastrophes.]

?=Uknown, +=Continuing, -=Ended, x= Cancelled.

Haven’t Seen:
The Pact
Evenfall
Into the Night
SnowPiercer
Utopia
BioHackers
neXT
The War of the Worlds (French)
Katla(Iceland)
The 4400
Exception
Hot Skull
The Passage

Woke Trash:
Everything Star Trek
Everything Star Wars
Everything Halo

Won’t Bother:
Fantasy, not SF
Lame chick flick SF
Lame teen SF
Lame Drama Masked as SF
Lame Comdy SF

Asian SCI FI:
Why isn’t Asian sci-fi working?
Easy: Asian civ is massively insecure and afraid of ‘stick up one’s head’ which is necessary for heroism. Same for ‘what’s wrong with the Japan?’ memes on social media: evidence of insecurity without group affirmation and support, and are only heroic in the context of family. Where Europeans are heroic in the abstract, only err usually by pride or overconfidence, arrogance, or retreat from physical fear. So, Asian drama is ‘effeminate’ in the sense that it’s socially and emotionally insecure rather than masculine in physical insecurity and a warning against hubris – a warning necessary precisely because of our cultural presumption of heroism as virtuous contribution to the commons.