Just watched it. Overall was enjoyable, I did like how the story kept shifting the focus amongst the main characters, so it really felt like "they're" story rather they the story of a single protagonist.
I do like the concept of a 400 year "cold war" where we know a big fight is coming up, it will be interesting to see if future seasons time skip ahead or if it will all take place in the current day. I also thought the idea of a race that feels they have to wipe us out because we are liers is a cool premise, and one that makes sense. Realistically any society that doesn't have conscious deception would not do well coexisting with a duplicitous one....way too easily to manipulate. The "super proton super computer" was really neat.
That said, I of course have my nit picks and critiques.
- It is implied the aliens do not lie, and don't even have fictional stories. And yet....they helped make a VR video game in which people take on alternate names and personas, even creating civilizations that fit old earth aesthetics. So....plenty of deception there. And they learn our use of metaphor (calling us bugs near the end), so clearly they are capable of learning aspects of fantasy association. Probably one of the biggest holes to me.
- The aliens learned we can lie through a conversation with Evans. However, the man has been talking with them for decades (and since a few months ago basically communicating for hours a day). Heck he has even read to them another children's story. Yet THAT is when they learn we can't lie? That was either just a trumped up reason for the aliens to dump us, or the show just wanting to show the audience that while willing to drop the "realism" card.
- The Wallfacer concept is both interesting and incredibly stupid. Sure trying to make plans without the aliens knowing is a monumental task, but 3 little old humans (that are publicly announced), they should be hunted every second of every day for the rest of their lives. And the second they die, all of their plans die with them.
- Further, any plan of the kind of scope that would be needed to beat the aliens is likely going to show itself once they start implementing. The aliens can see anything on earth and are highly intelligent, it wouldn't be hard to start figuring out our plans once those plans are set in motion.
- My gut is telling me its a feint, that the 3 wallfacers are meant to be decoys for the actual leaders.
- The biggest "hole" in teh story....so why don't the aliens just win? They have already displayed an incredible ability to control our technology, and can even alter our sensory inputs. Hell within the day of Saul getting announced, they tried to kill him in a car accident and had a sniper almost kill him. And that's a few hours of work. Why not destroy the internet, take over every communication network. Create electrical surges across the grid, hack into the CDC and have one of the big plagues get released. If their goal is really annihilation....just start annihilating. Throw crisis after crisis after crisis at us. Every key leader should have 40 assassination attempts a day, not hard at all when you can adjust every computer system in the planet in fractions of a second. And this problem should only get worse as our tech advances, and we become more dependent on computers. From what we have seen of the alien's capabilities at the moment, there really should not be anyway for us to win.
- This hole is so large to me I actually wonder if the aliens really want to win? Is the ultimate goal what the original founder actually wanted, are the aliens just providing a threat to get us to come together and progress? That its just a feint meant to unite us rather than an actual invasion?
