Tuesday 11 March 2014

Helix

What the hey, let's watch a new tv show, Helix!

Down in a base in Antartica (a very large underground base, that might as well have an Umbrella logo on it... okay, I watched certain movies recently...), a virus gets loose, and the CDC is called in. A group is hastily assembled and flies in and soon gets caught up in all sorts of shenanigans. (And yes, the virus does seem to make people act a little like zombies, but not really, and the mindless ones aren't really the point of the show, so I don't feel like this is a zombie show at all.)

By episode four, we have revealed that pretty much every one is lying about everything all the time. Various character backstories come out, and people trust clearly untrustable people, and people are killed off out of plot convenience and... it's all rather messy...

And yet, it is very watchable. Because it is about the people, and not about virus'd people, the plots are more relateable, and there is still the odd science gimmick to keep things interesting. There is the requisite character revelations and twists and turns... and while we are ten episodes in, I'm not entirely sure where they plan on going for the last three that isn't just stretching the remaining small amount of plot out over those episodes and not really having new reveals. Then again, no doubt the creators are hoping for a second season so expect yet more reveals to come!

Certainly I hope to remember to check out the remaining episodes, and consider this a win in the 'random show to watch' lottery.

[END]

4 comments:

evildicemonkey said...

I chalk this one up as a loss.
I'm commenting on it 2 days after your original post because it took me that long to work out I had seen it!
Everybody lies, everybody has a secret, everybody is paying no attention to what is going on and no one is thinking.
And despite the fact that everyone has a secret I am in no way compelled to stick around and find out what they are; boring characters doing silly things when they're suppose to be the best scientists in their field. Meh.
(I dropped out after the episode where they separated everyone, three I think)

Jamas Enright said...

You don't like what I like? Away with you heathen!

Well, fair enough. I'm annoyed by that too, and yet I'm still watching...

evildicemonkey said...

So now that the season is over, do you still consider this a win?

Jamas Enright said...

Of course it did stretch things out with ridiculous reveals, and the obligatory set up for another season... overall not bad, so a 'win' in the sense that so much these days is rubbish and this wasn't.