Well, as long folks keep making a profit, I guess this is fine. It's not like folks were coming to an IP for the reason that kept them in the first place, right? Integrity is so, like, whatever.

Oh! Whoops, my bad all... I thought you all were... did you... did you think I was talking about the Halo Show? No no, I'm clearly talking about Pirates of the Caribbean getting rebooted. There is a draft script floating around where Captain Jack Sparrow renounces piracy, and decides to take up a life of gardening, which, I mean... that's what we're here to see, right? See, all he could talk about in the one movie was a jar of dirt, therefor it all makes perfect sense. But then, and this is the best part, along the way... Jack finds love! Just right then and there he declares he is never gonna give you up never gonna let you down never gonna run around and lol got'em, nerds. :P

Man... we could of had Neill Blomkamp and Peter gosh-darn'd Jackson on a Bungie Helm'd "Peak" days Halo. **** the money heads, long live art.

(Well...at least we have the ads. ...Omg what did I just say. >_<)

It's a definite improvement over Season 1 and, overall, an enjoyable show that I'll still be watching when it returns for Season 3.

But it's not all that it ought to be.

I do not mind the changes to existing lore and am perfectly willing to accept the show as its own separate universe. Going into the season, I made the decision to keep an open mind and not form any expectations based on pre-existing material, so my problems with the show are more fundamental. Simply put, it just feels undercooked. I have to admit that it's a really good sci-fi show overall, but certain characters (e.g. Soren, Kwan, and especially Parangosky) feel sidelined this season. Intriguing subplots are rushed, failing to reach their full potential, and the show seems concerned primarily with getting to the next action set-piece ASAP at the expense of everything else -- a change which I suspect is the result of fan criticism of Season 1.

On a more positive note, while I criticized the show's lack of effective character writing last time around, the writers significantly improved things this time. Both dialogue and characterization were given a huge boost, and while I do feel that certain characters were underutilized, I no longer feel that any of them were poorly written. Halsey, Perez, Soren, and Ackerson were very interesting and well-written, but in particular, I felt that Makee 2.0 was a welcome addition. Apparently, Schreiber lobbied hard for the actress, and I'm glad he did because the character's arc in Season 1 was pretty unsatisfying (and frankly, incomplete). It would have been nice to have gotten some sort of explanation for her survival beyond the cop-out we were given (echoes of "somehow, Palpatine returned")... but hey, yeh can't have everything.

It's a solid B. Cody's comparison to the shows of The CW is an apt one, although I'd personally say it's more like a very high-budget Syfy miniseries. Not quite as cheesy or gaudy, but every bit as "made-for-cable".

The show feels as though some archaeologist who moonlights as a fanfic writer uncovered a portion of the Halo lore from ancient ruins and tried to piece together what they thought the story might be. It's just... all wrong. In so many ways. And sometimes offensively so to anyone who cares for the source material.

The TLDR for me is: I don't think anything in the show was done better than it was in the existing material, and generally, it's objectively worse across the board.

See… the 'source material' for me is a red hering. Are you watching the show to enjoy what it presents, the way it presents it as a TV show, or are you watching it only for the validation of seeing source material you love translated faithfully?

The show can't be 'wrong'. It is what it is, and everything it presents to you is necessarily correct in the world that it's building.

Who killed Batman's parents? Joker, or Joe Chill? Is Batman a tough guy, or a horny nerd? Is Gotham a gritty run down metropolis, or a stylized Operatic Russian Constructivist circus? How could you possibly pick one of these over the other and say 'that's not right', when there is so much more joy in allowing all to exist, and to losing yourself into each one and having fun with that?

I can care about the 'source material', yet have no issue with this existing as it does. I watch it as a CW show in space, and on that level it does exactly what it needs to do.

It wasn't the same story, but even as it pulled events forward or rearranged things, or added completely new characters who had no counterparts in the original telling, I at least felt they were heading towards the same end goal as the version of the Halo stories I knew.

I liken it to the very recent live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix. It too rearranged events, swapped around which characters were where/when/why. I didn't agree with every decision, I thought some were worse than the original telling, but I at least understood why each decision was made. Some were from not being able to do some things as well in live action. Some were to put more weight on characters sooner so they'd have room to really drive things home in future seasons. Some things were done just because they were cooler! But, the cartoon and live action series did hit the same basic themes. The story was intact and seemed to be told by people who enjoyed that original story.

I can't say the same for this Season 2 of Halo TV. We went to Visegrád but wrote out Noble Team. We had Reach fall, but completely changed the why. We had a world named Onyx and a UNSC training facility called Camp Currahee, but they were no longer on a Shield Word, and the Spartan IIIs they were training were no longer angry, determined war orphans ready to do whatever it took to extract some revenge. We had an Arbiter who was a fool tricked and lied to by a human, instead of being an honest warrior who was betrayed and found out the real truth about his sides lies and atrocities. We had Captain Keyes and even the Pillar of Autumn completely written out of the story.

It's not even that I didn't agree with some of the decisions but could see they were going towards the same end goal like the Avatar tv show. It's that nearly ever decision these Halo writers made was contrary to the original story... and deliberately so. At every point along the way, this felt like a version of Halo told by people who did not enjoy the original story. And that makes me both sad and angry.

This season wasn't a best effort to tell the Halo story. It was a best effort to make up something else while using changes to the Halo story to shock and frustrate their long time fans.

And I'm not saying that in a negative way...that's just what the show is.

A couple of my friends who know nothing of the game universe are watching it and are really liking it. Enough that they are intrigued in playing through the games with me, which I hope happens.

To me, this felt like 343i continuing its trend of trying to do "ah ha you didn't expect that now did you?!" things to Halo. They have a decent story laid out before them from the original lore, but almost every time they change something it isn't to make the story better or to make well thought out compromises to fit 20+ years of content into a few hours long tv episodes... it's to swerve left and try shock me at their brilliant boldness.

It sucks.

I feel terrible for any Halo newcomer who might try to watch this show and reconcile it to the games and book that I grew up with and loved. What they're getting is a weird set of existing story elements, renamed characters, and vaguely familiar locations that have been thrown into a blender and then purposely, carelessly inverted. (Yes. Purposely & Carelessly.) So, not only is everything wrong and out of place... it is almost always the complete opposite of what happened in the original stories and games.

I'm not someone who thinks the only way to tell Halo's story is to stick to the way it was original told. It was a video game from the early 2000's with just enough story to provide a reason to keep shooting. The main character was notable for never taking off his helmet. It took almost a decade before the games even started trying to consider the implications of things like the feelings of enslaved Spartan super soldiers. It was totally reasonable to pull forward some of the personal emotions and politics that only came up far later in Halo's lifespan.

But not like this. Not like this.

I didn't hate the first season, so had some anticipation for the second. The fact that I at least skimmed these posts demonstrates the low stakes for me, however. I normally loathe having things spoiled, but not so much for this. It's a different take on the Halo universe. All that being said, after time you develop a nose for legitimate critiques, and y'all have successfully persuaded me to move S2 to the homework section of my queue.

It sucks.

I feel terrible for any Halo newcomer who might try to watch this show and reconcile it to the games and book that I grew up with and loved. What they're getting is a weird set of existing story elements, renamed characters, and vaguely familiar locations that have been thrown into a blender and then purposely, carelessly inverted. (Yes. Purposely & Carelessly.) So, not only is everything wrong and out of place... it is almost always the complete opposite of what happened in the original stories and games.

I'm not someone who thinks the only way to tell Halo's story is to stick to the way it was original told. It was a video game from the early 2000's with just enough story to provide a reason to keep shooting. The main character was notable for never taking off his helmet. It took almost a decade before the games even started trying to consider the implications of things like the feelings of enslaved Spartan super soldiers. It was totally reasonable to pull forward some of the personal emotions and politics that only came up far later in Halo's lifespan.

But not like this. Not like this.

this isn't The Last of Us

Well, until it tried to be... Oi.

I thought the second season showed some promise early on, but then it felt like the show lost its rudder in the second half and did a tail-spin into the dirt. I finished it last night and was supremely disappointed.

The show feels as though some archaeologist who moonlights as a fanfic writer uncovered a portion of the Halo lore from ancient ruins and tried to piece together what they thought the story might be. It's just... all wrong. In so many ways. And sometimes offensively so to anyone who cares for the source material.

The TLDR for me is: I don't think anything in the show was done better than it was in the existing material, and generally, it's objectively worse across the board. I get that the show creators want to pave some new ground so that there's some "freshness" to the story, but if you're going to do that, those changes should be improvements, not change for the sake of change, and they completely failed to do that. This feels like just another step in the absolutely lackluster and tone-deaf Microsoft/343 stewardship of the Halo franchise. And it makes me sad because the source material is just so. damn. good.

I'll follow breitzen's lead and do a pro/con, I guess (in no particular order):

Pros:

• I actually really liked Pablo Schreiber, the actor who played as Chief. I don't think he was given great source material to work with, but he did have his moments. And when he put on the suit, I bought it.
  
• First-half-of-the-season Perez. I thought her interaction w/ Chief was great and I understood her character's motivations. I cared for her and her family, which added some weight to the Fall of Reach.
  
• Environments and props – whoever was on this really paid attention to details. This all screamed "Halo" in the best way. Like, at a certain point, I was putting up with the rest of the show's nonsense just so I could see the environments and notice the little details. I think this is the department that had the "real" Halo fans.
  
• Ackerson – At first, I was upset about this character, but I kind of warmed up to him. And I liked the scene with his dad. Yeah, he's a jerk, but he's also saddled with more than he can bear and all his character flaws are coming out at the seams. He's too young to be in the position he's in, but maybe that's one of the reasons he's breaking?
  
• Cortana – her S2 appearance seems a lot more on-point than it was in S1. She's vastly underutilized during the season, though.
  
• Halsey – I think that Natascha McElhone just nails this character. She's just the right amount of intelligent, calculating, and manipulative. I think I would have been happier with a spinoff show about The Adventures of Catherine Halsey.
  
• Admiral Keyes – this one's divisive, but I was actually okay with him being taken off the board earlier in the story than expected. It's unexpected for those of us who know the story, but it doesn't really move the needle in any meaningful way for the rest of the story (or, wouldn't have... if they'd have stuck even remotely to the source). His outro was more than a little over-the-top cringey, though.

Cons:

• Makee – Just... why? I don't buy the "we need someone on the Covenant side to associate with" explanation for her existence... and she's kind of all over the place. And absolutely no explanation about how she's somehow still alive? I'm not sure about her motivations or why she would know what the Halo is, much less how it works. And now she's mysteriously tied to The Aribter...
  
• The Arbiter – A concept totally wasted. Who is he? Why is he shamed? Why is being "The Arbiter" a punishment? The show don't care, just gotta use more proper nouns from Halo lore without actually caring about them!
  
• Kwan Ha – Nothing against the actor, I thought she did well with what she had. But the character doesn't belong in the story. Carve her out and, really, nothing changes much. They obviously have plans for her, but I'm not a fan of whatever mysticism they've got cooking.
  
• Second-half-of-the-season Perez (when she was jammed into the Spartan III story line). The timing doesn't make any sense – she gets out during the Fall of Reach, and then she's somehow been doing S3 training for... how long? It felt like an unnecessary over-extension of the character, to the point of failure. Keep the Spartain IIIs, but have Perez somewhere else and do her character justice. Or just let her disappear for a while and have her appear unexpectedly in season 3 to everyone's delight.
  
• Soren – a holdover from S1 that feels like something they had to shoehorn into the budget. Again, carve his story out and we'd have a leaner, tighter storyline.
  
• Too much AWOL Chief – this is a symptom of the writers' obsession with self-conflict and infighting, but boy was it wearing thin.
  
• The Flood – Everything about this just felt stupid. Why would a Librarian be clutching a Flood sample container on a Shield World? How did the sample get out of the bio-containment box? (The best I could understand is that the other lab tech ... opened the box and touched it?!) It all felt a lot like someone at 343/Paramount just desperately wanted in on The Last of Us zombie action...
  
• How Cortana gets into Chief's armor... just, uh... punch the console? Really?
  
• Hand-wavy magicking. Just everywhere. Bleeds a little too much fantasy into the story.
  
• The Monitor – since the intended audience for this show is obviously not people who are familiar with the story already, the Monitor in this last episode has to be a real WTF moment.
  
• Fight scene cinematography – too much camera movement! I'll be glad when this superhero movie style has run its course...

It's episode 8, not 7.

But I was right. And it's the season finale, which stinks.

What an episode. Sons-a-bickses getting me all excited and having to wait a year to see what happens next.

If it hasn't been obvious, I totally have a crush for Master Chief and this episode was, as the kids say, gas.

They even had the same* music playing when you discover The Flood in the game

Not the exact same, but inspired by and pretty darn close to the same

Someone talk about this with me, cmon now!

I think this season made serious improvements to the show. I struggle with some of the decisions they've made, but I get it; this isn't The Last of Us. lol Overall the show was a solid middle of the ground. Some cool moments that were neat to see in a Halo show, but ultimately feels like slightly bigger-than-normal budget sci-fi show.

Here are my pros/cons.

Pros:

• Perez / The Spartan III's
  
• UNSC/ONI (I wished they could have gone deeper into this)
  
• The music
  
• Makee
  
• The space battle

Cons:

• The fall of Reach
  
• Halsey
  
• Soren/Kwan (both feel like they've basically been sidelined)
  
• Cinematography during John's action scenes

Finally, John is a weird pro/con for me. I like the actor as Master Chief, BUT I think he's poorly written and I'm confused on his motivations by the end of Season 2.

"Still" might be the wrong word - in my case, 'yet' is more relevant.

Ditto, here. I'll watch it soon, now that it's finished and I can do it at my own pace.

It's episode 8, not 7.

But I was right. And it's the season finale, which stinks.

What an episode. Sons-a-bickses getting me all excited and having to wait a year to see what happens next.

If it hasn't been obvious, I totally have a crush for Master Chief and this episode was, as the kids say, gas.

They even had the same* music playing when you discover The Flood in the game

Not the exact same, but inspired by and pretty darn close to the same

Someone talk about this with me, cmon now!

It's possible Cody is the only one still watching this (and my understanding is that he's a few eps behind at the moment).

Yes. FF7 Rebirth took 100% of my media time. But I watched 7 yesterday, and 8 is coming today. SO I'll be caught up in like, 6 hours time. Hold out till then Mankitten!

But I'm definitely not the only one watching haha. It beat The Crown.

Halo Season 2 debuted to 354m Minutes Watched in the US in it's first 4 days.

"The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries. The top streaming titles for Feb. 5-11, 2024, are below." - also doesn't include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. pic.twitter.com/mzv9EkuZ71

— EliteFalcon (@EliteFalcon_YT) March 7, 2024

It's episode 8, not 7.

But I was right. And it's the season finale, which stinks.

What an episode. Sons-a-bickses getting me all excited and having to wait a year to see what happens next.

If it hasn't been obvious, I totally have a crush for Master Chief and this episode was, as the kids say, gas.

They even had the same* music playing when you discover The Flood in the game

Not the exact same, but inspired by and pretty darn close to the same

Someone talk about this with me, cmon now!

It's possible Cody is the only one still watching this (and my understanding is that he's a few eps behind at the moment).

"Still" might be the wrong word - in my case, 'yet' is more relevant.

But I was right. And it's the season finale, which stinks.

What an episode. Sons-a-bickses getting me all excited and having to wait a year to see what happens next.

If it hasn't been obvious, I totally have a crush for Master Chief and this episode was, as the kids say, gas.

They even had the same* music playing when you discover The Flood in the game

Not the exact same, but inspired by and pretty darn close to the same

Someone talk about this with me, cmon now!

Like usual, I'm only half way through the episode, but man has it been a doozy!

The Chief we all know and love is kickin ace.

The introduction of the Flood, and it was done well.

It keeps cutting to Chief, all war battered, talking to an off screen voice, which I'm hoping is 343 Guilty Spark

Only half way through the episode. I still don't understand how the humans seem to know so much about Halo, and that it has the capability to kill everything.

So I'm asking if I've missed something, can anyone fill me in?

Yes when I watch it tonight. Sorry, I’ve been playing FF7 Rebirth to the exclusion of all other media.