Tonight is Surface

[Aeolius]

Why was only one person in a multi-million dollar sub? They book those things years in advance and cram them with researchers...

Dude.... PMS... 'nuf said

Are we looking at multiple species or biological technology?

Envision the critters as sahuagin. They start out tiny and never stop growing.

Surface behavior AND depth adaptation...?

Great white sharks have been spotted thousands of feet beneath the surface. Granted, when you sneak one home and it busts out of your aquarium, it rarely squirms upstairs...

How do you get inside a sub while it's submerged?

Airlock

How come the US government in fiction is so darn well co-ordinated...?

Because its fiction?

Why would someone shoot a being that large with a spear-gun? You are just asking for trouble...

I assumed it was fear coupled with nitrogen narcosis (he was narced).

While the pacing of the pilot was horribly hobbled, I still see this series as having potential. Just a few months ago, I vacationed at the beach, found a stingray egg underwater while swimming, brought it home, and stuck it in my shark tank to see if it was viable. Granted, SeaQuest DSV had potential and they ruined that one after the second season. I would like to see the series couple monster hunting with hard science, add a bit from The Abyss, and then surprise us all.

I think the series pilot did need a disclaimer, though:
"Kids, do not collect strange eggs from the sea and place them in your parents' aquarium without permission."

 

[stevelabny]

Easily the worst of the new shows I've watched so far this season.

This thing was a mess, bouncing all over, giving us nothing to grab on to.

This could be one of the most unlikeable casts I've seen.

The kid is a pathetic loser, who I'm supposed to sympathize with because heis friends are bigger losers and his family is sub-human?

The chick threatens her child's stuffed animals? what kind of terrorist mom does that to her kids? That was one step below child brutality.

The scientist with the accent was ridiclous.

The diver with the dead friend was yawn-inducing.

The swamp-hillbillies? Yikes.

I'll leave it in my Tivo just to see if we ever get a good look at the creatures. Maybe the cast is purposely awful so that we cheer for the sea monsters to eat them?

 

[Arnwyn]

Huh. I thought it was the worst of the three by a noticable margin.

It could turn out to be a good show, but so far, I'm much more excited about, say, Supernatural than I am about this.

Color me shocked - can't say I'm surprised that's your reaction. (Just a bit of ribbing there, JD ).

 

[fett527]

It could turn out to be a good show, but so far, I'm much more excited about, say, Supernatural than I am about this.

And right now I'm looking forward to Surface more than Supernatural. The second episode= teh lame.

 

[Desdichado]

Color me shocked - can't say I'm surprised that's your reaction. (Just a bit of ribbing there, JD ).

Why, just because it's the opposite of yours?

 

[John Crichton]

The chick threatens her child's stuffed animals? what kind of terrorist mom does that to her kids? That was one step below child brutality.

Not quite. It's quite obvious that the kid likes being with Mom much more than with Dad. Sure, she threatened one of his stuffed animals, who knows if that isn't their routine. It was also established that she's trying very hard to pay attention to her son while maintaining a hard career, as she's done all along. Threatening to cut him would have been something that could have been seen as brutal. There is nothing that suggests she's anything more than really busy.

No problems here.

 

[John Crichton]

It just depresses me sometimes to see a show with a budget that huge and writing that bad. They quite obviously pulled out all the stops -- filmed on location, evidently, non-stock footage of several ships, good CG as far as I can tell -- and yet they let dialogue like that make it past the first draft.

Hmmm, I didn't hate the dialogue. I've seen much worse. I'd put it on par. Not great, not terrible.

The old scientist guy? Annoying and needlessly cryptic. The kid? While he himself was no more objectionable than any Will Robinson-esque kid-meeting-alien, I wanted to have sea monsters flay the skin from just about everyone else in his scenes. Sassy diver-mom who threatens to cut the ear off her child's stuffed animal so she can go off and do her dive? I know I'm supposed to find her cute and loony, but I hope dad gets custody, and I was wishing that the sea monster could have eaten her craft, not just bumped it around a bit while doing the Star Trek IV whale-song-that-shorts-out-electronics shtick.

They certainly should have done more with the old scientist guy. We already have enough mystery going on and blurry sea monster images - throw me a frickin' bone.

The characters aren't great but I wouldn't put them as completely uninteresting. You just knew the bayou-brother was dead once it was established was a good, if not totally smart guy. The living brother was okay. They didn't give him much to work with.

The dorky kid wasn't bad but it would have been cool to have the creature do some killin'.

My favorite character was Laura, the oceanologist. Maybe it's because she's hot, maybe it's because I love me some spunk in a female character but she was actually interesting. Maybe that's because she's the only one they established a little bit of a background for. To keep my interest they will need to keep developing her and the others. Plot ain't enough.

I'm giving it until the end of the current episode, but that's likely as far as I'll go.

Uh oh.

EDIT: I know that this is a Lost-ripoff, but come on! It's like they decided to rip off Lost after hearing about it but not watching it. The biggest attraction of Lost is the writing -- there are all kinds of cool things in the show that don't involve wacky monsters at all, yet are still cool because of complex and well-realized characters. This show... well, if there's any justice, it'll go all Earth 2 on us in a hurry.

You hit this one right on the head. Lost thrives on characters followed by concept. There is so much there to grab onto, it's just a *meaty* show. It's got style, character and Characters not to mention a maddening mystery.

EDIT EDIT: Since I know that some folks here enjoyed the show, and would take hoping for its cancellation as a personal affront, I'd like to modify my opinion to "Hope it gets radically better writing, or, failing that, that it does quite well for itself without me ever having to watch it again and without its presence resulting in the cancellation of shows that I like."

No need to add the disclaimer.

I'll give this one a few eps. The previews for the coming eps looked kinda interesting. I will say that I enjoyed this much more than Threshold. Time to watch Invasion...

 

[takyris]

Got to the end of the first episode. Like others, I'm a bit surprised that they revealed as much as they did. So what we've got are, apparently, merfolk who short out electronics and occasionally glow, either because they're maaaaaagic or because they have little merfolk flashlights. Also, baby merfolk hatch from eggs and are tiny but still have webbed hands, and full-grown merfolk are freakin' huge and pretty much look like whales with flipper-arms.

It's off my Season Pass list. I'd appreciate it if anyone could let me know when the kid's family gets brutally slaughtered, so that I can watch that episode.