I have mixed feelings about this one. I remember trying to follow the show in Holland back in 1996, but due to bad airing stability and a slot on the other side of prime time, the whole thing lost my interest. Now, more than a decade later, I bought the whole episode set and I must say it's been good for nostalgia.
You won't find anything in this show that hasn't been done better in any number of war drama's (band of brothers for example), but hey, it's in space, so that's fun bonus. The decors and budget must have been low-budget as heck because they genuinely made me smile or frown deeply. Also, 12 years hence, the special effects and CGI stuff are greatly outdone by even pretty standard video games. To me, this is still a fun show. It's gritty, and very laden with morale and ethics. Often it feels too artificial, especially when the card board scenery and goofy awkward moving/fighting chigs mix with scripts that are just plain corny.
They (the writers and actors) try to create an environmental and emotional vehicle to make a social point. Like in most chauvinist/patriotic shows (i.e. any US show/movie involving marines/heroes), it's just beyond any form of subtlety. Sometimes it feels like the structure was designed for the mentally numb, with its over the top camaraderie. Furthermore, you can see premature deaths and emotional responses coming from more than a mile away. So, more often than not, you can see where it all will end up right after an episode starts.
Why still watch? Because regardless of its simplicity, the shows does have a heart, albeit a stereotype one. I think it's still unique among far superior shows like Babylon 5 and star trek TNG and the new battlestar galactica. It has a certain roughness and honesty, even though the clichés often pile up faster than necessary. However, maybe that's where the charm lies. It's not going to win any story medals, but the darkness factor is pretty unforgivingly real. On the flip side, numerous plot holes and predictable scenario's leave a lot to be desired (no doubt the actual reason for its cancellation; the story had nowhere to go besides victory or loss and the main characters' personalities were deepened to the point of exhaustion). The story is often nonsensical or even mostly absent, offering nary a thread to facilitate the social interactions of the 58th.
Lastly there's the chigs; do they look bad, no, do they seem like a versatile maneuverable and superior enemy, no, does every marine with his/her big gun miss every single shot always, yes, so there you go; lousy shots make for hard as nails enemy, very silly. Chigs as "the enemy" and default "bad-ass" characters here are also ridiculously black and white. It makes for easy story telling; you are meant to hate certain characters (also human ones)to start loving the heroes more vividly and to create a bond of choosing sides, and this artificial hatred is induced through so many blown-out of proportion ways that sometimes you can't help but laugh. Nobody's that bad; it's the return of the uber-bully. Example of episode without balance; Ray Butts (not a credible character and episode), episode with balance; who monitors the birds (great character development on the Chig side and for Cooper). Countless examples exist of moments where you'll think..."hang on, how did he/she get there, that doesn't make sense, wouldn't they have known that....it could never have....why does nobody think it's odd that..." and so on. The first reunion with Nathans girl was particularly funny. I spotted where it was going, but throughout the episode conviced myself even these writers would never go there. But there you go, the Space Above and Beyond script does not deter cheapness and amateurism to make a point.
The show certainly has its moments of dread and utter enjoyment. So, watch it if you really like Sci-Fi and dark wars, consider it too rough at times, but persevere, have mixed feelings about it, laugh at it, be moved, have awkward fun predicting character lines and deaths, learn to love it, despite all of its faults, and consider it a favorite, old loyal car that you just can't leave behind. True ambiguous romance.
You won't find anything in this show that hasn't been done better in any number of war drama's (band of brothers for example), but hey, it's in space, so that's fun bonus. The decors and budget must have been low-budget as heck because they genuinely made me smile or frown deeply. Also, 12 years hence, the special effects and CGI stuff are greatly outdone by even pretty standard video games. To me, this is still a fun show. It's gritty, and very laden with morale and ethics. Often it feels too artificial, especially when the card board scenery and goofy awkward moving/fighting chigs mix with scripts that are just plain corny.
They (the writers and actors) try to create an environmental and emotional vehicle to make a social point. Like in most chauvinist/patriotic shows (i.e. any US show/movie involving marines/heroes), it's just beyond any form of subtlety. Sometimes it feels like the structure was designed for the mentally numb, with its over the top camaraderie. Furthermore, you can see premature deaths and emotional responses coming from more than a mile away. So, more often than not, you can see where it all will end up right after an episode starts.
Why still watch? Because regardless of its simplicity, the shows does have a heart, albeit a stereotype one. I think it's still unique among far superior shows like Babylon 5 and star trek TNG and the new battlestar galactica. It has a certain roughness and honesty, even though the clichés often pile up faster than necessary. However, maybe that's where the charm lies. It's not going to win any story medals, but the darkness factor is pretty unforgivingly real. On the flip side, numerous plot holes and predictable scenario's leave a lot to be desired (no doubt the actual reason for its cancellation; the story had nowhere to go besides victory or loss and the main characters' personalities were deepened to the point of exhaustion). The story is often nonsensical or even mostly absent, offering nary a thread to facilitate the social interactions of the 58th.
Lastly there's the chigs; do they look bad, no, do they seem like a versatile maneuverable and superior enemy, no, does every marine with his/her big gun miss every single shot always, yes, so there you go; lousy shots make for hard as nails enemy, very silly. Chigs as "the enemy" and default "bad-ass" characters here are also ridiculously black and white. It makes for easy story telling; you are meant to hate certain characters (also human ones)to start loving the heroes more vividly and to create a bond of choosing sides, and this artificial hatred is induced through so many blown-out of proportion ways that sometimes you can't help but laugh. Nobody's that bad; it's the return of the uber-bully. Example of episode without balance; Ray Butts (not a credible character and episode), episode with balance; who monitors the birds (great character development on the Chig side and for Cooper). Countless examples exist of moments where you'll think..."hang on, how did he/she get there, that doesn't make sense, wouldn't they have known that....it could never have....why does nobody think it's odd that..." and so on. The first reunion with Nathans girl was particularly funny. I spotted where it was going, but throughout the episode conviced myself even these writers would never go there. But there you go, the Space Above and Beyond script does not deter cheapness and amateurism to make a point.
The show certainly has its moments of dread and utter enjoyment. So, watch it if you really like Sci-Fi and dark wars, consider it too rough at times, but persevere, have mixed feelings about it, laugh at it, be moved, have awkward fun predicting character lines and deaths, learn to love it, despite all of its faults, and consider it a favorite, old loyal car that you just can't leave behind. True ambiguous romance.