The annoying, pretentious rubbish spoken by the little girl narrator at the start/end of each episode, she was so irritating.
AND
The over-the-top, storybook theme tune, should have had a slightly darker, more mysterious theme. It was tooooooo ET and KIDDYISH, like the annoying theme from Spielbergs AMAZING STORIES
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Not all the music was bad...just the main title theme I guess....too over the top and fantastical.
Will never like the narration, too much like LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE or THE WALTONS, and not right coming from a child.
Anybody who knows anything about Spielberg knows fantastic symphonic scores are a trademark of his productions. You mention E.T. & Amazing Stories. BOTH are also Spielberg productions. Kids were a big part of the story. Jacob, Jesse, Ally. As for the narration. I fail to understand how anybody could hate it. It set up the scene it proceeded & who better to do it than the product of the 50+ year experiment? In my opinion, anyone who didn't get the narration, wasted 15 or 20 hours of their lives because they obviously didn't get the story. Aside from the mathematical error regarding the birth year of Lester & Larry and the creepy carny looking surprised to see the spaceships when Jesse was abducted off of his bike as a teenager, I think it was a perfect miniseries. The carny looking surprised by the spaceships made me think he was one of the men in black type guys. But he never aged, so he had to be an alien too
shareI "didnt get the story" and "wasted 15-20 hours of my life" just because I didnt like the overdone music and flowery narration, what an amazingly condescending statement and rather illogical also. Clearly your one of these folks who considers Spielberg to be godlike and does no wrong, a large part of the series was about having an open mind and being open to new ideas and possibilities, yours is a closed book...I bet you would even applaud a turd Spielberg did in his toilet because its one of his productions and "THE BEST TURD EVER, MY GOD THIS MANS A GENIUS" lol, close your wide eyes, stop drooling and stop being condescending.
shareI'm closed-minded? LOL!!! I'm a Bigfoot researcher for cryig out loud. All I meant is I've noticed a pattern here over the years I've been coming to this board. That pattern is that those who didn't like the narration, also didn't like the story very much & didn't understand parts of it that I feel confident they would have understood if they hadn't tuned out the narration. I know I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much without the narration. The character of Ally has been described as "wise beyond her years" I seriously doubt that would be the case if the narration was really rubbish.
Dark music is predictable in this type of story. Spielberg doesn't really do things that are predictable. At least nothing he doesn't have to do. Power outages in buildings & cars in the presence of U.F.O.'s is something that has been reported and seems feasible to some scientists. So he includes them. Spielberg scifi projects are ultimately as much about the people in them as about aliens & U.F.O.'s. I think that's another reason for the type of music you hear in his projects. For example. The piece entitled "Artemis" that plays during Jesse's first abduction when he was a child, was child-like because a child was being abducted & the alien assumed the form of Artemis P. Fonswick, a 4 ft. squirrel & title character in Jesse's favorite bedtime story
"That pattern is that those who didn't like the narration...didn't understand parts of it that I feel confident they would have understood if they hadn't tuned out the narration."
That's actually a really good point. I can't stand Allie's narration, but I adore Chet & Mary so I've watched their scenes repeatedly while tuning out what she was saying. I've always found that a lot of the characters' actions don't really make much sense, BUT. If you actually listen to what Allie says -- regardless of how totally pretentious it is -- it does weave the story together quite nicely. So -- I think the narration is definitely necessary for the story, but to call it anything resembling 'brilliant insight' is a bit excessive.
As for the narration. I fail to understand how anybody could hate it. It set up the scene it proceeded & who better to do it than the product of the 50+ year experiment? In my opinion, anyone who didn't get the narration, wasted 15 or 20 hours of their lives because they obviously didn't get the story
That's just it. It wasn't unnatural in this case because Ally, being 1/8 alien, was suppose to be super intelligent & wise beyond her years. I think those who are annoyed by her narration don't get that for her, it isn't unnatural & if they just tune her out, they never figure it out
shareI do get what you're saying with that. With Allie being who she was, it was how she would talk.
I just can also understand how the narration could annoy someone. Even if they did "get her", sometimes constant narration can put someone off to a program/movie. The idea of the "wise beyond their years" child is so overdone in movies, the character of Allie could be too much for someone even though for her it does make sense.
Once again I must ask too much of you, Harry
Plus she doesn't even say anything smart. People get bored by her telling them common sense stuff like it's breaking news... not to mention all that nonsense gibberish...
Kindalike "Flash Forward" it's nothing but a bad scripted and acted slow paced wannabe smart show trying to tell us things we know already.
4/10
Um..yeah. So badly scripted and acted that it was critically aclaimed and either nominated for, or won a slew of awards
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289830/awards
It was suppose to be unnatural for a normal kid because Ally wasn't a normal kid. She was a super being. Possessing all the intelligence & other mental capabilities of the aliens, plus the emotions of humans. That's why John told her it was up to her whether she went with the aliens or not
sharei'm snipping out your bit about the carny here...
i thought the reason he looked surprised in that scene was because he was a freaking carny, and possibly a child predator going after jessie.
i took it to be he was spooked by the guy the first time his dad took him to the carnival, and when he saw him again, being all learing like, it spooked him again. the guy, being a predator, chased him...
and the aliens saved him... like they always did.
after that, the aliens used that image as a screen for him, his son, and lisa.
Agreed on both points
share