I'm astounded at the number of people who describe this as the best scifi they've ever seen - if that's the case, then god help the whole genre.
I just finished watching the "complete" series on DVD. First the good points: the characters are well written, the dialogue is thankfully excellent (because it's a real let down in many shows), the cast are great, and a special mention to the incidental music. It's one of the best scores I've heard and I think Laura Karpman is a genius.
The bad points: it is not, as others might have you believe, highly original. In very general terms, the "aliens among us" type of story is one of the oldest of scifi themes, and has been around since the early 20th century. More specifically, the show takes a great deal from "The X Files": they've just changed the shadowy secret organisation within the Government to the shadowy secret organisation within NASA, changed "aliens" to "sentients" and Mulder and Scully to the Odyssey 5 crew.
But to describe it as a "complete" series is unfortunate. The DVD release may comprise all the episodes that were filmed, but it is far from the whole story. I watched it with an increasing sense of foreboding as it seemed there was an unhealthy emphasis on character development and "set piece" events that comprised entire episodes, at the expense of the main plot. Of course character development is a vital part, but it should never take first place ahead of the plot. Watching it, I felt as if the plot was moving at a snail's pace.
Had I known that it is basically not finished, I would not have bothered investing 15 hours of my life into watching it. There's no such thing as a "great story" that's only half written, and the really frustrating thing is that they could have wrapped it up in 18 episodes with sharper writing and editing.
If you like stories to have an actual ending, don't bother with this. It will only make you angry and disappointed.
I just finished watching the "complete" series on DVD. First the good points: the characters are well written, the dialogue is thankfully excellent (because it's a real let down in many shows), the cast are great, and a special mention to the incidental music. It's one of the best scores I've heard and I think Laura Karpman is a genius.
The bad points: it is not, as others might have you believe, highly original. In very general terms, the "aliens among us" type of story is one of the oldest of scifi themes, and has been around since the early 20th century. More specifically, the show takes a great deal from "The X Files": they've just changed the shadowy secret organisation within the Government to the shadowy secret organisation within NASA, changed "aliens" to "sentients" and Mulder and Scully to the Odyssey 5 crew.
But to describe it as a "complete" series is unfortunate. The DVD release may comprise all the episodes that were filmed, but it is far from the whole story. I watched it with an increasing sense of foreboding as it seemed there was an unhealthy emphasis on character development and "set piece" events that comprised entire episodes, at the expense of the main plot. Of course character development is a vital part, but it should never take first place ahead of the plot. Watching it, I felt as if the plot was moving at a snail's pace.
Had I known that it is basically not finished, I would not have bothered investing 15 hours of my life into watching it. There's no such thing as a "great story" that's only half written, and the really frustrating thing is that they could have wrapped it up in 18 episodes with sharper writing and editing.
If you like stories to have an actual ending, don't bother with this. It will only make you angry and disappointed.