The first two episodes of season two of the Halo TV show have premiered, and in a sick curiosity, I had to check it out. You might think that they would improve the show after the disaster that was the first season, at least that was my initial thought. Oh, how wrong I was. This show is still wearing the skin suit of Halo, and it makes me seriously doubt that anyone involved in writing the episodes has even played one minute of the games, or read anything from the books.
It’s not good
It’s just as bad as the first season, if not worse in some ways, as they have learned nothing. It seems they retconned some of the events at the end of the first season, because suddenly Master Chief is back, and Cortana is gone from his feeble brain. So, at least they didn’t kill the hero off to do the classic switcheroo and made some random female the main protagonist instead. Regardless, the show is trite, the pacing is god-awful, and for some reason, everyone speaks like they are making an ASMR video. Lots of mumbling and whispering, as it was recorded in a library with very strict (but sexy) librarians.
I don’t expect much, since the Halo universe isn’t especially deep, but it has a nice space militaristic tone and doesn’t paint the good guys as a shining beacon of hope. It has more nuance than that, a bit like Starship Troopers, I would say. Then we have the aliens and their society, which is interesting by itself, since it’s run on a brutal cast system, with the small smelly grunts at the lowest tier. In the show, they act like mindless monsters that grunt and spray saliva all over the place. Yawn!
A cooler thing…
One idea that I think would have been cool, instead of this pile of crap we are getting – is if season one would have followed the book Halo: Contact Harvest. This tale handles the first contact with the aliens, with the badass Avery Johnson as the main hero of the story. It’s a good book by itself, got some cool battles, and the first encounter with the Covenant is great. It’s also pretty small scale, considering the massive scope of the Halo space opera. A good start in other words, and well, the script is already written basically. If this were a success, they could have jumped forward and continued season two with Halo: The Fall of Reach. Another good read in the Halo universe, and it would have explained the SPARTAN program, Dr. Halsey, and ONI. It would have added much to the show, especially for people who haven’t read or played the games. The fall of Reach, one of humanity’s main planets is a crucial event too in the lore – it would have been a win-win in all ways.
However, we can’t have any good things anymore, well, almost. I don’t want to go full doomer here, but this show is a MASSIVE missed opportunity, and will probably kill off the few Halo fans still clutching on out there. Now, I haven’t talked about the show that much, and the reason for that is that there nothing is going on in it. It’s the same PTSD bullshit as ever, with the Master Chief and his crew trying to find themselves in a world that is burning as they mope around. They have also added mysticism to the show, with soothsayers and magical healers that can heal with touch alone. Beyond that banal bananas, there is really nothing happening. I accidentally fell asleep two times on the sofa, sitting up mind you, and that doesn’t usually happen. Oh, and yeah, the absolute silliness of the space pirate, the tiny Asian girl, and the white-haired human chick that for some reason controls the Covenant continue. It’s all so uninteresting, and has nothing to do with Halo – you know, the space battles, the massive ground battles, the enormous casualties and despair of humanity, the general cool sci-fi stuff, the heroes, and so on…
Maybe next time. But until that time, don’t watch this. It’s not worth it, and will probably just make you pissed off if you care for the lore.
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 