MovieChat Forums > Mars (2016) Discussion > Stop making these awful mixed docu-drama...

Stop making these awful mixed docu-dramas!

posted 7 years ago by ahdvd
14 replies | jump to latest

I get that it's the national geographic channel, and as aresult of this it's made with a sense of being educational and based on real science, but the mix of fixtional drama scenes edited together with documentary sequences is what ultimately causes things like this and Barbarians to fail. It breaks any tension being built up in the drama and doesn't leave enough time for the documentary sections to go in depth enough for them to be either informative or even entertaining as a documentary - if they really want something like this to work, make it as TWO series with hour long episodes that air consecutively in a two hour slot - one a serialised drama, and the other a full-on documentary that references and explains the events shown in the preceding episode. The two whows should be able to be watched inependantly of one another but either can be seen as a companion piece to the other.

[–] MoviemanCin 7 years ago

Bingo!!

I briefly stopped watching because of the boring 2016 segments, but decided to watch anyway.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

[–] ferencegrizzal 7 years ago

I feel the opposite. The documentary part is much more interesting than the drama. Although this past episode was both equally good.

[–] AntDude 7 years ago

Ditto.
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Ant @ The Ant Farm (http://antfarm.ma.cx) and Ant's Quality Foraged Links (http://aqfl.net).

[–] conradmp313-352-920203 7 years ago

Completely agree, the docu parts are interesting and as long the drama part backs this up it is a very good illustration of a possible result.

[–] indyj1 7 years ago

Agreed. The real story of how they're trying to make this a possibility is way more interesting than the hackneyed drama part that has used every cliche ever previously used in a movie or TV show about space colonists. It's really sad that some people found the reality to be 'boring' when at least that's factual and educational. The drama part was done better in half a dozen movies over the past few years alone.

[–] rrattbbooyy 7 years ago

Why not record it, then every time they flash 2016 you can hit FF. You'd end up with about a half hour show, but at least it would be all drama, no documentary.

[–] TylerFX 7 years ago

Yep, that's what I do. Either that or I'm playing my games on my phone during the documentary stuff.

[–] nerfdump 7 years ago

Me too, I fast forward. Maybe one day I'll do it the other way round and watch the science stuff but it's mostly filler from what I've heard of it.

[–] AntoineMDevine 7 years ago

Like what The History Channel is doing with Vikings and Real Vikings. I'd watch both if it were done that way. I'm not bothered by the current method that much, but I like your idea, perhaps if there's a second season.

[–] SILMARILLI 7 years ago

I could not agree with you more!

Hit the nail on the head.

neither works so both fail!!!!!

[–] Str74 7 years ago

I have a suspicion that this only got made because Elon Musk funded at least a part of it. His sections on the show seemed to me like a weird combination of a corporate promotion video and a cult recruitment piece.

[–] IrinaOma 7 years ago

Maybe "The Martian" inspired them, I don't know.
Anyway, I really like this show. It was a bit boring but still interesting

[–] no-not-ever 7 years ago

Agree, people already have problems telling real from wishing it to be real. This is not helping.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6004) 3 years ago

Yeah, this compromise means that both the story and the documentary suffer. A cleverer write could write a drama that integrates so much information that you wouldn't need the documentary.