I was very harsh on this series when it started but I have come to rather love it, despite some ropey characterisation & the merging of CGI & models still strikes me as odd. I'm getting used to it, though.
That said, I now watch it every day on TV catching up & I see the frenetic pace has been modified somewhat, concentrating on one situation at a time,
The new versions of the Thunderbirds are superb & using camera tricks like the zoom to make them more realistic is appreciated. Main characters are much improved, some humour has crept in & Lady Penelope & Parker the great double-act they used to be.
Pity that Kayo still has so little to do.
In summary I guess I was too stuck in the mindset of the young boy who saw the original series. This is a fine continuation.
Rather than delete the original comment & pretend I was prescient, I leave the original below.
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO, what a disappointment. While I liked the up- dates on the machines and an active role for Kayo, the character CGI was absolutely appalling. Their decision to deliberately make the characters skin look plasticky is ridiculous and the movement is primitive beyond belief. The NEW CAPTAIN SCARLET reboot was miles better and that was using 2005 technology.
The next problem was stuffing so many missions into the hour, presumably on the assumption that kids today suffer from attention deficit disorder. Thus no tension whatsoever was generated in any of the missions whereas the original concentrated on one disaster at a time and twisted the tension almost to screaming point.
Finally, the disappearance of Jeff Tracy. I thought at first they were suggesting he had died (a nod to reality and the passing of time) but it soon became clear that The Hood had caused him to disappear. So any chance that the Tracy boys WON'T find him at some point? Not exactly holding my breath on that plot twist.
This is a sad new wrinkle because the original showed that a father could run a family with grace and wisdom. Now his absence seems a nod to so many of the young viewers being from broken families with absent fathers. In my opinion, a step too far in entirely the wrong direction.
It says something that the best moments of the entire hour were the repeats of the original Jeff Tracy voice saying "5, 4, 3, 2, 1"
After the razzmatazz of the launch it seems ITV is burying future episodes at 8am on Saturday mornings. Maybe it will give the grownups an hour of peace on a Saturday morning which is about the best you can say for this spectacular misfire.
That said, I now watch it every day on TV catching up & I see the frenetic pace has been modified somewhat, concentrating on one situation at a time,
The new versions of the Thunderbirds are superb & using camera tricks like the zoom to make them more realistic is appreciated. Main characters are much improved, some humour has crept in & Lady Penelope & Parker the great double-act they used to be.
Pity that Kayo still has so little to do.
In summary I guess I was too stuck in the mindset of the young boy who saw the original series. This is a fine continuation.
Rather than delete the original comment & pretend I was prescient, I leave the original below.
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO, what a disappointment. While I liked the up- dates on the machines and an active role for Kayo, the character CGI was absolutely appalling. Their decision to deliberately make the characters skin look plasticky is ridiculous and the movement is primitive beyond belief. The NEW CAPTAIN SCARLET reboot was miles better and that was using 2005 technology.
The next problem was stuffing so many missions into the hour, presumably on the assumption that kids today suffer from attention deficit disorder. Thus no tension whatsoever was generated in any of the missions whereas the original concentrated on one disaster at a time and twisted the tension almost to screaming point.
Finally, the disappearance of Jeff Tracy. I thought at first they were suggesting he had died (a nod to reality and the passing of time) but it soon became clear that The Hood had caused him to disappear. So any chance that the Tracy boys WON'T find him at some point? Not exactly holding my breath on that plot twist.
This is a sad new wrinkle because the original showed that a father could run a family with grace and wisdom. Now his absence seems a nod to so many of the young viewers being from broken families with absent fathers. In my opinion, a step too far in entirely the wrong direction.
It says something that the best moments of the entire hour were the repeats of the original Jeff Tracy voice saying "5, 4, 3, 2, 1"
After the razzmatazz of the launch it seems ITV is burying future episodes at 8am on Saturday mornings. Maybe it will give the grownups an hour of peace on a Saturday morning which is about the best you can say for this spectacular misfire.