Episode 6 - Eyes (Fan Creations)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, April 28, 2022, 13:17 (728 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Cody Miller, Thursday, April 28, 2022, 13:57

"Parents mourn their mutant children."

This backstory has been a part of Halo since Fall of Reach. It's been present, and referenced many times. But this is the first time I actually FELT it. Where I emotionally, rather than intellectually, understood the cost and pain of this course of action. That's what this show is bringing.

They might as well just list the eyes in the credits. The way just the eyes alone expressed so many of the feeling of the characters, unsaid. Sadness, anger, confusion, longing, betrayal, fear, happiness. This is what is really setting the storytelling apart from typical video game fare (and the one area Naughty Dog and Square pretty much has a monopoly on.) These actors are giving 100%, even in the small moments.

Still, as good as it is I'm not in love with the bare clean production design of things like the barracks and the labs. Officials stand in an empty room, with holograms in the middle as they converse. That doesn't feel right. Halsey's lab has tons of open space, rather than being full of equipment. It doesn't have that 'lived in' quality, and ends up just reminding me it's a set.

I like how they reference the number dead from the previous battle and don't just forget about it. It makes it feel like these things actually matter to the characters, and therefore us.

Even so, this is good TV. The Halo reddit will hate it of course because MC is emotional. If I had any complaint, it was that the MC faced no repercussions after almost killing Halsey. I get what's happening, but it was never mentioned again.

P.S. With all these real video game adaptations coming about, my fake video game movie trailers don't make much sense anymore do they?