BOREalis
This show in a nut shell: "Russians are the worst people on earth."
shareThey are one of the antagonists in a fictional future, what's your point?
shareI've got two points to make:
1. The Russians being the evil guys is a big cliches. It's been done to death. It's just unvoluntary funny in itself, for a minute but not for the whole show.
2. The way the antagonists are portrayed here, now it doesn't matter if it's the Russians or someone else, is also very single-sided and outright dumb.
Together that's just very bad storywriting and it bores me. Even TV private detective series from the 70s and 80s had more sophisticated bad guys.
Remember, this was a pilot. Borealis was sitting on the last oil reserve on Earth: everyone wanted control of it. Had this gone to series, you can bet that there would've been evil guys from other countries, not just Russians, all trying to stake their claim on the place.
There was also a tease here that the League Of Nations officer, Svetlana, had someone pulling her strings behind the scenes. And that Dan, the archaelogist, was being funded by a shady organization that Alison, the environmentalist, was up in arms about. In addition, there were other criminal elements at work, like whoever was dealing the Ghost Meth (Vic assumed it was the Russians, but never confirmed it).
And, while his lackey's may have seemed single-sided to you, I didn't think their leader, Anton, came off one dimensionally and dumb at all. He had the potential to be quite the formidable villain.
The conflicts that make for interesting, quality drama were all set up here. A series would've given it all a chance to be fleshed out.
Remember, this was a pilot. Borealis was sitting on the last oil reserve on Earth: everyone wanted control of it. Had this gone to series, you can bet that there would've been evil guys from other countries, not just Russians, all trying to stake their claim on the place.
That's irrelevant, because their first choice for the obvious bad guys were the Russians. That tells me everything I need to know about the authors' intentions. They want to play it safe and don't want to take any risks in regard to story telling.
This setting couldn't be better for a thought provoking yet exciting series because we don't even have to wait until 2045 for the big oil and natural ressource companies wanting to go arctic. But I disagree with you in the matter whether the producers have succeed in achieving this. Most of it is mediocre television and in parts it's been outright bad with its use of seen-it-a-thousand-times-before-tropes. share
That's irrelevant, because their first choice for the obvious bad guys were the Russians. That tells me everything I need to know about the authors' intentions. They want to play it safe and don't want to take any risks in regard to story telling.And who should they have picked? Ethiopians? The realistic choices were Russians, Chinese and Americans. All just as susceptible to charges of stereotyping. share
I agree that they shouldn't have chosen Russians... or Chinese or whoever...
Considering it's in the future, why not create a new race/group instead of bringing up bad memories of days gone by.....
Piss poor writing
Having said that, I DO like the humour
And who should they have picked? Ethiopians? The realistic choices were Russians, Chinese and Americans. All just as susceptible to charges of stereotyping.
Exactly. Agree 100%.
share
Yeah, this is a somewhat shallow criticism. The Russians are the "bad guys" because it is logical for them to be so in the context of this fictional universe. That they've been stereotyped before doesn't make their appearance here less valid.
shareyes, Russians are an obvious choice. It's not far from the truth as Russia is one of the most corrupt and crime ridden first world nations.
The pilot episode also included a greedy American and corrupt (and dim witted) Canadians. Even the heros are really antiheros. I'm not sure why anyone would complain about the portrayal of Russians.
[deleted]