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Brocktoon posted:Seriously, I wouldn't trust any if these "doctors" to give me a Tylenol if I had a headache. Actually... that might make for a fun exercise: What would HELIX prescribe? A patient reports nasuea and diarehha. Patient is nauseous in the morning and having unusual food cravings. Patient is unresponsive and covered in black spots.
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Jan 27, 2014 16:59
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ZorajitZorajit posted:Actually... that might make for a fun exercise: What would HELIX prescribe? For all 3: Tell them they're not contagious and send them to a highly populated area.
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Jan 27, 2014 18:00
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For all 3: You're in luck! We got this experimental cure-all that'll fix everything! But remember: Don't tell anyone anything ever again. 
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Jan 27, 2014 20:21
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DangerZoneDelux posted:There are some seriously cringe worthy lines being said on the show. I don't understand how no one during the filming process was like wtf You mean every single line? It couldn't suck this bad without sucking due to someone you can't argue with.
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Jan 27, 2014 23:26
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ShakeZula posted:Another thing that bugs me: who called the CDC? The guy running the place certainly seemed perturbed by their presence, the military guy who recruited Farragut definitely doesn't want them there, and everybody else either didn't know about the virus or were already infected. I guess it might have something to do with the boss' Julia obsession, but I really can't see that being resolved in a not-stupid fashion. Yeah I still don't understand how the CDC got involved in the first place. They make a big deal about the fact that the research base is located outside of any one nation's jurisdiction so it makes no sense that the American military or the CDC would have any authority whatsoever.
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Jan 31, 2014 15:21
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smg77 posted:Yeah I still don't understand how the CDC got involved in the first place. They make a big deal about the fact that the research base is located outside of any one nation's jurisdiction so it makes no sense that the American military or the CDC would have any authority whatsoever. They were specifically requested by Hatake, presumably because he wanted to get his hands on Julia Walker. I assume part of the lure involved deliberately exposing Peter to the virus, and then blaming the break-out on him and his work.
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Jan 31, 2014 15:28
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The Major is a dunce. Did he really not think that the puncture wound woulldn't be visible during an autopsy?
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Feb 1, 2014 06:00
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"Hmm, how else can we add mystery and drama to this?" "....a frozen head?" "GENIUS!"
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Feb 1, 2014 07:24
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This show is a lot of fun if you rub your hands together and go "Muahahahahahahahahaha!!" after one of the bad guys feels they've manipulated someone.
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Feb 1, 2014 07:46
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The way the Head Security Goon said "No murders have happened on this base, but accidents happen ALL the time" was hilarious. The Blonde Doctor looking after this infected person is terrible. I really hope she dies sometime soon.
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Feb 1, 2014 14:14
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CODChimera posted:The way the Head Security Goon said "No murders have happened on this base, but accidents happen ALL the time" was hilarious. Especially when you consider that he saw his boss murder three people in front of him the night before. Also, what are the odds on someone hallucinating the head-in-a-jar coming to life and dispensing some advice? Maybe it'll even start singing.
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Feb 1, 2014 17:46
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I hate Tumor doctor and her whole storyline.  The rest is entertaining, her current arc is just annoying.I couldn't believe that the military guy cut CDC Doctor's line outside, and kicked him away from it...and managed to leave him in sight of the line so it was pretty simple for him to just crawl back and follow the line back. I mean, if you're going to leave someone for dead in the arctic you should probably stab them and then take off their jacket and hat and shoes and stuff. At least the Security Goon got that part right. The frozen head is so ridiculous I love it and I can't wait for them to reattach it to someone's body.
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Feb 1, 2014 19:44
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Has anyone actually died from the virus yet? Other then when people murder the carriers or the people the infected beat up for not being cool enough to infect? I was still hoping they would explain how his brother while infected became able to do sweet super Mario jumps into a warp pipe. At least have him say its made his muscles super dense or hes granted the strength of each infected person.
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Feb 1, 2014 21:45
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I want a doctor to do a neck-ectomy or something on a dead body. Or an autopsy even! Where is all the black goo coming from!?
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Feb 1, 2014 21:54
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At the very least the show is quick about somethings. Tumor poo poo dragging out but at least they've kinda rushed soldier dude and hallucinating doctor plotlines along.
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Feb 1, 2014 22:18
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Gee wouldn't it be shocking if the solder came back to life! For a giant research facility with a staff of 200 it sure has dramatic lighting and no sense of community. Production costs hurt the ability to show these things well, but they could have written around those.
Upsidads fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Feb 1, 2014 |
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Feb 1, 2014 22:40
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Junkie Disease posted:Has anyone actually died from the virus yet? Other then when people murder the carriers or the people the infected beat up for not being cool enough to infect? It mostly turns people into Vectors, but there were two scientists in the first episode that turned into black goo -- though that's because there's two strains of the virus. The A-strain kills, but doesn't seem to have broken quarantine. The B-strain creates the killers.
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Feb 2, 2014 04:38
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Open Source Idiom posted:It mostly turns people into Vectors, but there were two scientists in the first episode that turned into black goo -- though that's because there's two strains of the virus. The A-strain kills, but doesn't seem to have broken quarantine. The B-strain creates the killers. Technically Peter died from it, but apparently he's getting better now via the power of love?
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Feb 2, 2014 05:52
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hollylolly posted:
That was just one long sequence of failed murders. Really ridiculous
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Feb 2, 2014 16:05
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CODChimera posted:That was just one long sequence of failed murders. Really ridiculous Two identical sequences of "acerbic quip -> punch a dude from behind" in fact.
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Feb 2, 2014 18:49
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I think my favorite part is the main character is just a foil for everyone else and is constantly running around looking for things, rather than doing his job, which they remind us multiple times needs to be done with interruptions. Also what was the security guy going to do with the head? You know this other guy is looking for it, so just leave it there and watch to see if he leaves the base to go get it! They really just rushed the whole zombie storyline into the forefront right away too. First two episodes there's one guy that is running around, third episode there's a couple people sick but only 1 zombie at the end, fourth episode there's a few outside the main group of infected people but that's not really explained, now the whole quarantine level is a zombie nightmare zone...ok... PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 03:30
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PaybackJack posted:I think my favorite part is the main character is just a foil for everyone else and is constantly running around looking for things, rather than doing his job, which they remind us multiple times needs to be done with interruptions. Also what was the security guy going to do with the head? You know this other guy is looking for it, so just leave it there and watch to see if he leaves the base to go get it! Well there was the classic misdirection of the other guy sending a message saying he already got it, which prompted security guy to check if it was still there, leading him right to it. I have to say I am severely disappointed in this show. There is still potential for it to get good, but so far it is like the worst episodes of lost. There is no meaningful character development. The most developed character is the dumb tumor chick who I can't relate to at all because she's like "I LOVE WORKING FOR THE CDC AND ALSO CONCEALING VECTORS OF INFECTION". This show feels less like a serious drama and more like a checklist of scifi drama tropes. Evil science conspiracy: check, evil military conspiracy: check, coverup of evidence: check, drug problem: check, retrograde amnesia: check, complicated family relationships interfering with professional behavior: check, hallucinating imaginary friends: check, Who can you really trust? Check. Like nothing we've ever seen before: Check, artificially created: check. Hero blames himself for dramatic effect (even though every single person has acted like an incompetant moron): check. Zombies ( for no real reason ): check. It's mind-numbing. During the pilot when it was laid out that the virus is so advanced that it will mind-control its hosts in order to insure that it spreads, I was like "Holy poo poo this is going to be awesome" except it's not really like that except name and it's basically just zombies, which is dumb as hell. If they were going to make the show feature only about 10 people, why did they say there 160 people on the base? The locked about 30 people down on R level, but then we only saw 4 of them ever again: the three that Hiroshi immediately murdered and then the main older science chick. Are we, the audience, seriously supposed to keep in mind that there are 30 people in quarantine the we aren't supposed to care about and then another 100 people still active in the main base? While every episode revolves around about 5 people, one of whom is imaginary and one of whom gets killed off every episode. It's freaking insulting.
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Feb 3, 2014 07:46
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I laughed pretty hard at the "she was a hallucination the whole time!" reveal, even if it was telegraphed two whole episodes in advance.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:15
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Wade Wilson posted:I laughed pretty hard at the "she was a hallucination the whole time!" reveal, even if it was telegraphed two whole episodes in advance. I had finally decided that I was wrong about that one scene earlier when the chick beat down the zombie with the fire extinguisher.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:13
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Snak posted:It's mind-numbing. During the pilot when it was laid out that the virus is so advanced that it will mind-control its hosts in order to insure that it spreads, I was like "Holy poo poo this is going to be awesome" except it's not really like that except name and it's basically just zombies, which is dumb as hell. Yeah, there's a real missed opportunity to make the virus into an interesting antagonist, but they've instead left it, at least so far, as a fairly boring mystery. "The audience won't even know what the villain wants to achieve" is way less exciting than genre writers seem to think it is.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:38
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Sir Kodiak posted:Yeah, there's a real missed opportunity to make the virus into an interesting antagonist, but they've instead left it, at least so far, as a fairly boring mystery. "The audience won't even know what the villain wants to achieve" is way less exciting than genre writers seem to think it is. We also forgot about Evil Chia Pet version of the virus that would be equally interesting.
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Feb 3, 2014 17:48
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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The TV IV > Helix: I LOVE WORKING FOR THE CDC AND ALSO CONCEALING VECTORS OF INFECTION
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Feb 4, 2014 05:24
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Sir Kodiak posted:Yeah, there's a real missed opportunity to make the virus into an interesting antagonist, but they've instead left it, at least so far, as a fairly boring mystery. "The audience won't even know what the villain wants to achieve" is way less exciting than genre writers seem to think it is. And this was Lost's entire angle. And anyone smart stopped watching, and anyone who didn't was royally pissed off when the the show ended and all the of the clues and all of the secrets were completely unrelated to the ending. Lost did have one thing going for it though: It was intensely character driven. With the exception of the final season or two, the character dynamics ruled the show. Plot and established back-story were all insignificant to the character drama that was unfolding. Helix has no such strong, emotionally developed, characters whose actions drive the drama. The idea of the audience not knowing who to trust is borrowed from the spy/thriller genre. It often works there because the characters are developed enough that we can guess and their motives. We know what the care about and we have to figure out how those goals mesh with the story. In Helix, there is no plot to speak of (there is a setting and a premise, but no strong plotline) and there are no strong character motivations to which we are privy. The few bits we do get are not sympathetic: Cancer doctor is hiding the vector, infected doctor is hallucinating, head doctor wants to save his brother but it's not possible because then the show would be over.
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Feb 4, 2014 05:28
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Tumor doc needs to die. Fast. Two Masters and a PhD = dumb as a box of rocks apparently.
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Feb 4, 2014 07:12
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PaganGoatPants posted:Tumor doc needs to die. Fast. Two Masters and a PhD = dumb as a box of rocks apparently. Seriously. I mean, she's super young, so it makes sense that she's not that smart even if she has those degrees. My favorite scifi genius is actually the guy from StarGate: Universe, because he was a very realistic super-genius. Egotistical but factually accurate 98% of the time, no social skills, generally a douche, but he knew his field and he knew his poo poo. He was basically never guilty of being a pop culture genius who needs to learn basic concepts in front of the camera so the audience gets it. He wasn't loving "The Big Bang Theory", which I maintain is the academic equivalent of a black-faced minstrel show. Every time some loving moron with a humanities degree tells me "They have a REAL SCIENTIST as a consultant on the Big Bang Theory" I want to punch them in the face and explain that that is only impressive to people who know nothing about science, and whoever's job that is is probably really embarrassed to have it. I don't really give a poo poo about scientific accuracy in television as far as whether something is unrealistic, but the more technical you make your bullshit, the more insulting it is to people who know anything at all. Fringe, for example, did a really good job of "basic theoretical concept" -> super genius -> working prototype. Fringe did not for one second pretend that anything that was happening was the way that professionals in that field work. It didn't try to be realistic, it tried to be a cool scifi series. I am going to give this show as much leeway as I can, but it's pulling at my suspension of disbelief from so many angles. The whole artic research base is a decent concept except that there are apparently <200 people there and no one knows anything about anyone and only a few people seem to have even met each other. There's basically 2 people in charge of the entire base and everyone else just sort of does their own thing. This is not how isolated settlements work. This is not how large groups of scientists work. This is not how managing a small village works. I loving laughed out loud when they talked about how Dr Hvit was somewhat of an urban legend. There's 160 people on the self-contained base. there is no such thing as an urban legend. There is nothing else to do here but work and gossip and gently caress each other. So that's one big tax on my suspension of disbelief. The other big issue is that I'm supposed to believe any of these characters are professionals. We have a bunch of doctors, infectious disease specialists, geneticists, A security guy, and a secret military operative. And yet all of them act like this is a highschool drama. If this was a spinoff of Red Dawn where a bunch of teenagers stumbled upon a secret biowarfare lab, this would be a pretty interesting show. A lot of times criticisms about characters not acting logically are unfounded: they are the result of 'spergy being confused that characters emotions are affecting their judgement. That's not really the case in this show, and even where it is, we aren't familiar enough with the characters for it to work. And something that is parallel to these two points is that I guess everyone who's not one of the ~ WHO OPENS THEIR loving PILL BOTTLE OVER THE SINK?! It's almost like this has happened in so many movies that people in real life should know never to do that. What the gently caress kind of doctor is like "I have a migrain, I guess I'll take so much morphine I pass out, that's better than nothing" YOU HAVE ACCESS TO LIKE ANY DRUG YOU WANT AT ANY DOSAGE YOU WANT AND YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO ESTIMATE AN APPROPRIATE DOSAGE! I'M THE HEAD OF A 4 PERSON TEAM FROM THE CDC ATTEMPTING TO CONTAIN THE MOST DANGEROUS VIRUS EVER DISCOVERED IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS INHERENTLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO EPIDEMIC, BUT I WILL NOT KEEP TABS ON MEMBERS OF MY TEAM FOR >12hr PERIODS OF TIME, DESPITE THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALL WORKING AROUND THE CLOCK. I will forgive this show for everything if it ends with the rocketeer saying 'gently caress it', strapping on his rocket pack, and flying the gently caress out of this poo poo hole by himself and leaving everyone else to
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Feb 4, 2014 07:43
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Snak posted:Seriously. I mean, she's super young, so it makes sense that she's not that smart even if she has those degrees. My favorite scifi genius is actually the guy from StarGate: Universe, because he was a very realistic super-genius. Egotistical but factually accurate 98% of the time, no social skills, generally a douche, but he knew his field and he knew his poo poo. He was basically never guilty of being a pop culture genius who needs to learn basic concepts in front of the camera so the audience gets it. He wasn't loving "The Big Bang Theory", which I maintain is the academic equivalent of a black-faced minstrel show. Every time some loving moron with a humanities degree tells me "They have a REAL SCIENTIST as a consultant on the Big Bang Theory" I want to punch them in the face and explain that that is only impressive to people who know nothing about science, and whoever's job that is is probably really embarrassed to have it. So I guess you're a huge fan of the show, huh?
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Feb 4, 2014 09:12
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Acer Pilot posted:So I guess you're a huge fan of the show, huh? Yeah, ima keep watching it... edit: To clarify a little bit, I watch LOTS of shows... I watch every genre. I get upset when shows fail at their genre or when they fail at being engaging. But I also like things for no other reason than their genre. Some of my favorite shows ever are Breaking Bad, Battlestar Galactica, Castle, Chuck, ST: Deep Space Nine, and Total Recall 2070. That's just off the top of my head. Oh and unironically, Sons of Anarchy. Justified. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but not Angel. I hold shows to exacting standards. Those standards are simple: They must connect with me emotionally, and they must maintain some semblance of internal logic OR consistent narrative language. Basically that's it. If a show does that, I won't hate it. If it does that and it's one of the genres that I'm really into I'll probably love it. I want to love this show. I loved Deep Space Nine, I love Battlestar Galacatica, and I even liked parts of Lost. I love science fiction, I love John Carpenter's The Thing, I love The Andromeda Strain. Everything about this show points to it being something I should love, but it's not really living up to it. I'm going to keep watching in the hopes that it will find it's footing, because, god knows, there were a lot of bad X-Files episodes... tl;dr: all I want is to love and relate to my entertainment. If I can't relate, I hate. Snak fucked around with this message at 09:44 on Feb 4, 2014 |
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Feb 4, 2014 09:35
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Snak posted:Yeah, ima keep watching it... I understand how you feel though. It gets a little annoying when almost every character in a show is terrible at life decisions.
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Feb 4, 2014 09:38
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Snak posted:"The Big Bang Theory", which I maintain is the academic equivalent of a black-faced minstrel show. Oh man, you were doing so good, and then you went and said this and now me and no one else can really take anything you say seriously. Fake EDIT: I seriously thought nerds calling BBT "black-face" was an exaggerated goonsay joke that no one actually ever said, but look at what we have here.
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Feb 4, 2014 13:46
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Oh man, you were doing so good, and then you went and said this and now me and no one else can really take anything you say seriously. I mean, I actually enjoy the show. It's pretty funny. My dad is a university professor, and a lot of the things in BBT are funny cause they're true. It's just that people act like the show is for nerds despite the fact that a lot of the science is wrong and the portrayals of nerd culture are laughably unrealistic. It is a show making fun of parodies of nerds. Which is fine, because it's funny, but I'm tired of people telling me about how they have a science consultant to make everything accurate when they obviously don't give a poo poo about accuracy. The Schroedinger’s Cat thing alone has turned regular people into morons who think they have some insight into the nature of reality. People try to talk to me about Schroedinger's Cat and then get pissed off when I explain Schroedinger's actual thought experiment and the context for it and what the purpose of it was. "That's not as cool as in BBT" is actually something that people have told me. So yes, my statement is kind of an overreaction, but there's just something about the way people react to BBT that rubs me the wrong way in a very fundamental way.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:04
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Snak posted:And this was Lost's entire angle. And anyone smart stopped watching, and anyone who didn't was royally pissed off when the the show ended and all the of the clues and all of the secrets were completely unrelated to the ending. Hmmm? A lot of people liked the ending. It was good. The "I NEED ANSWERS' crowd were never going to be satisfied though.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:26
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Snak posted:So yes, my statement is kind of an overreaction, but there's just something about the way people react to BBT that rubs me the wrong way in a very fundamental way. Yeah, nobody cares. Just stop calling it "a black-faced minstrel show." It is inappropriate, inaccurate, and makes people ignore what else you have to say. Particularly when it's part of the opening salvo of a ridiculously long-winded rant, where you're going to want reassure people you have the discipline to use that space to clearly communicate a point rather than just kvetch for paragraph after paragraph.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:26
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You could strip a lot of it out and be left with a leaner and tighter concept to play with. I'd probably be liking it more if it were a more 'sciencey' version of "Forbidden World" in the Arctic.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:34
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You guys are gonna love what Ron Moore had to say about scifi today: http://www.blastr.com/2014-2-4/why-ron-moore-thinks-sci-fi-has-devolved-popcorn
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Feb 4, 2014 23:27
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Tokubetsu posted:You guys are gonna love what Ron Moore had to say about scifi today: He should team up with Greg Clarkson and go away.
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Feb 4, 2014 23:30
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