MovieChat Forums > Extant (2014) Discussion > For everyone who finished it, need advic...

For everyone who finished it, need advice! Please read!!

posted 10 years ago by fctiger
15 replies | jump to latest

Ok its very simple. I started watching this from the beginning very excited for the show. Halle Berry doing TV in a really cool sci fi story sounded intriquimg. I turned it on expecting to really enjoy and it was ok but I just got soooo bored with it.. Cool ideas but just felt flat. I got to episode 6 before I basically gave up.

But even though I stopped watching I still kept taping it in case I changed my mind. But never did. Now its over and I have the remaining 7 hours left and I'm debating should I just erase all of them now or does the show start to improve that I'll really enjoy it if I watch? Maybe it really does get better? Maybe the finale is worth it?

Ok this is where you come in. All I need is a simple yes or no. If you want to explain why please do! Will take it all in. But I'm going to base it on a simple democracy. If I get more yes I will suck it up and watch. The no vote rules will delete the whole thing and never look back.

So its that simple! :) I hope I get quite a few responses but at minimum I need 3 ;). I will wait 24 hours from now and see the results. I won't even peak until then. This is kind of exciting lol. Ok guys I'm leaving it up to you what I should do with my 7 hours. Let me know and vote!

Thanks!

Ok a bit middle ground. If someone thinks the show gets better but not until farther along let me know what episode I should pick it up from (I know they recap everything so not worried) . Maybe will do that in case the no voters win and a better compromise.

12 Years a Slave Best Picture Of The Year!!!!!!

[–] tb-sch 10 years ago

No.

The show is becoming exactly what you expect it to become after episode 6. I really enjoyed it before, but then everything just falls apart and nothing makes sense anymore or is just based remotely on common sense. The last three episodes I just watched because I needed something to watch on a long trainride. And unless you don't sit for six hours in a train, it'll feel like a waste of time and attention and hurt all the time for wrecking a concept which started out interesting - cool ideas but just felt flat describes the show too well.

[–] artdogg50 10 years ago

Yes and no.

I enjoyed the show, but can't honestly say I was blown away by it. A little slow with way too much family melodrama for my tastes. Wanted and expected more sci-fi and didn't expect most of it to be in flashbacks, which I've never been a big fan of. Story picked up a little towards the end, as did the action. Ending was not much of an ending, and I couldn't tell you for sure if it was a cliffhanger, I simply don't know. Take Halle Berry out of it and I'm not sure I would have continued with it, but I love me some Halle.

[–] ruwawa 10 years ago

Go ahead and finish it. A few bright moments in the finale.

[–] fctiger 10 years ago

Ok its 24 hours later and I got a total of 3 replies!

Wow this show must've sucked lol. I got 1 definite solid no, a kind of small yes and a third answer down the middl who says why I should and shouldn't which kind of makes it a tie lol.

But based on the small sample no one seem overly enthusiastic about it. Which tells me if I finish it at most the ending is tepidly satisfying at best. So I'm not going to bother. If I had more time and so much wouldn't be on now I would just slog it through but based on the responses I guess not. Or maybe I'll just watch the last one lol. At least see how it ends

Thanks for your input guys. I was hoping to get around 10 responses lol. But that too kind of tells me how the show was received with how fast the interest faded once it ended. Another bad sign. Oh well.

12 Years a Slave Best Picture Of The Year!!!!!!

[–] !!!deleted!!! (49761343) 10 years ago

Thanks for your input guys. I was hoping to get around 10 responses lol. But that too kind of tells me how the show was received with how fast the interest faded once it ended. Another bad sign. Oh well.

No, it's not a bad sign. The reason why you didn't get many responses is that most people who were watching the show quit the boards because of the constant negativity and complaining.

[–] vwvoyager 10 years ago

You should have finished it, I just watched the finale and it was a good one

[–] srobinson6375 10 years ago

As someone who watched the entire series, and looked forward to it, I'd argue that after about episode 5, it started to go downhill. There were some high moments, even in the finale, but overall, it seemed like it was trying to do too much, and yet didn't seem to know what it was doing.

[–] SrEditor 10 years ago

overall, it seemed like it was trying to do too much, and yet didn't seem to know what it was doing

That's a good, succinct evaluation!

[–] fctiger 10 years ago

Ok well you'll be happy to know I went for my third option and just watched the last 2 episodes and just erased the previous 5. Yeah the last two were at least decent. Yeah I was a little lost but got the basic gist. Alien son grew up, tried to get the rest of the spores back on earth yada yada yada . Robot kid turned out good too. So I saw all I needed and was glad I saw the ending at least. I was shocked when I heard it got renewed so it motivated me to watch them...yes weeks later after I made this thread lol.

Anyway yeah happy I didn't watch all 7 hours. Ending was decent but it didn't feel anything worth I had to watch all 13 episodes over it.

12 Years a Slave Best Picture Of The Year!!!!!!

[–] stuartwhyte300 9 years ago

Hi,

Ok we just finished watching the finale, having recorded and slogged through the episodes singly or in batches.

There were some issues with the plotting and pacing and the overall sharpness of the story in carrying the themes it deals with.

This could be be summed up as a bad case of "Heroes-itis" or "Lost-aemia"

As ever, each story has a beginning, middle and end. Unfortunately whilst the beginning is clarity itself in the exposition of the main tropes and story arc, also the main characters are helpfully paraded in essential short-hand form and, similarly, the conclusion is perhaps equally planned in detail and some lead up is prepared over the life of the whole story (with allowances for re-commissioning to catch any loose ends etc)- the piece loses focus and becomes procedural in the ever expanding middle phase. Filler characters and sub-plots enter the story, there is a fall back to 'chase' scenes, ticking clock deadlines, descents into madness, dream sequences, separations and conflicts, or near-death experiences and other such red herring or cul-de-sac writing devices. Treading water essentially.

I don't think it is helpful to suggest an idea needs to be developed over severals seasons before 'hitting it's stride' so to speak. That would seem to abuse an audience too heavily (see Lost).

Extant should have taken about 8 episodes to culminate it's story-telling without flagging and so leaving the audience to wait until the good guys get to (metaphorically or literally) point the gun and make the decisions.

I guess a 2nd series will dump the space stuff and do some sort of cain and abel, nomad vs settler, sibling schism storyline now there are two sons in conflicting modes.

PS I was a little annoyed by the clunky use of the 2001 HAL quote "I'm sorry I can't let you do that" spoken by the on-board AI of the space station....

My God it's full of stars...

[–] RionnoiR 10 years ago

I liked it, but based on what you've said... I'd say don't bother finishing it then.

The tone doesn't really change.
The last two or three episodes get pretty exciting, but other than that, it's more of the same vibe that you're already bored with.

[–] fctiger 10 years ago

I did end up watching the last 2. They were good but nothing great. I'm pretty happy I didn't bother with all 7 now. But am happy I saw the ending at least.

12 Years a Slave Best Picture Of The Year!!!!!!

[–] birdsoulhouse 9 years ago

I started fast-forwarding in ep. 7 of season 1. I could no longer suspend my disbelief so constantly, esp. with such stupid astronauts, but I wanted closure.

[–] realitycomments 9 years ago

Yes, I like season two better than season one. Then again, I didn't get bored with season one.

DVR it or check it out on Hulu. If it doesn't float your boat and you're still bored, watch something else.

If this post is your idea of excitement, I'm confused how you were so bored with season one.

[–] ricolarelief 9 years ago

This board/show isn't that popular so you shouldn't expect a lot of replies. To be honest,you either like it or you don't. It's 100% better then the first season but it still drags at certain points. At this point it's kind of like a "guilty pleasure show" for most