MovieChat Forums > Killjoys (2015) Discussion > Anyone else dislike Dark Matter but like...

Anyone else dislike Dark Matter but like this?

posted 10 years ago by thenmadewild
89 replies | jump to latest

It seems like a lot of people on this board prefer Dark matter but honestly, I liked this one much better. Dark Matter to me felt very 90s/ early 00s. This one at least felt like it had a chance to grow into something original, even if it isn't right now.

Both show have cliches but the ones in Dark Matter just seem more...obnoxious and obvious? Or maybe they just happen to be ones that personally annoy me the most. The 'tough guy' who wants to shoot everyone, the female android, the 'mysterious' teenage girl...none of those are things I have much desire to see ever again. Both shows have fairly typical "sexy, kickass" women but I for some reason way preferred Dutch to Two or whatever her name was. Perhaps it was the actress' acting or just small differences in the writing. I also prefer the two brothers to the male characters we got in Dark Matter, and the setting seems more interesting.

[–] CassandraAusten176 10 years ago

Of the two, Killjoys is the better show so far. It has more world-building, better defined characters, and more energy. I think the smaller cast and fewer number of episodes really help it.

Dark Matter has been very disappointing. It could really be something interesting, but the writing is just not there.

[–] urthpainter 10 years ago

finished both final episodes season one. production wise, the two shows are comparable, but Killjoys has quite a bit more flare. The direction, camera, sound, lighting in Dark Matter is really pedestrian, very strait forward. Story wise Killjoys is an order of magnitude better than Dark Matter. Its not even close. Dark Matter feels like a first season, and with better writing, it could become a really good show. Star Trek:TNG is widely regarded as a great science fiction tv show (dated as it has become), but ever watch that first season? It's pretty terrible! It didn't catch its stride until the third season. People are very impatient these days.

Back to Killjoys, there's a lot of fascinating ideas here! The mysteries of the RAK: lvl 6, radical science, and hidden agendas. The monk religious order, which John has been (apparently) indoctrinated into. The casting! Such a colorful bunch of performers. One example Frank Moore as Hills Oonan - this guy can Act! He's just a bit player. Killjoys really handles the cast well - 3 leads, and a bunch of periphery characters that arise when needed. This is more advanced than juggling an larger crew in the traditional manner, like Dark Matter

All Killjoys needs is more money for upscaled production. Everything else is in place.

my opinions

[–] klandersen 10 years ago

I like both shows but this one took me until around the 3rd episode to warm up to it. I wanted to like it and ended up liking it. Dark Matter I liked from the beginning and like it even more and a little better than Killjoys.

Even though both have similarities they are different types of the gritty modern Sci-Fi show. Killjoys it is more obvious that the 3 lead characters are the good guys and will try to do what they think is right. Dark Matter it is a little more fuzzy about the lead characters, we already know that they have dark pasts but is what they doing actually for the better or are they just trying to save their own asses?

"Snag it, Bag it, Tag it!" ~ WAREHOUSE 13

[–] NYPinTA 10 years ago

I'm watching both and was looking forward to Dark Matter more, even buying the comic book before the show aired. The first few episodes I really liked and appreciated how they used the crew's memory loss to explore the ship and the universe they inhabit. But by the fourth or fifth episode it started to feel a bit paint by numbers and every episode reminded me of so much that had come before. I keep hoping it's a result of the memory loss, but even without their memories, they're all still people yet they feel like walking tropes reading scripts.

But Killjoys, which I found ok if a bit silly at first turned out to be a show filled with characters that I adore, even if most of them are damaged people trying to get by in a pretty crappy world. They do fill their tropes, but they also feel like fully realized people and everyone gets a story, everyone- including the secondary players- gets conflict and arcs and I can't wait for the next season.

Dark Matter could subvert all the tropes they are following now and become amazing, so I'll stick around. Three, who was the big man who loves guns guy has more to him, I'm sure. And I'm curious if Four finds out that before his memory loss he actually didn't give a damn about reclaiming his throne. Now THAT would be interesting. To find out how different their goals are now then they were and really explore what identity means and how much ones memories make us who we are and how much a person can be altered by the loss (or even the addition of) some. They could even have had Five changed by her holding all of their memories in her head. But no. She's just the genius innocent girl right now. Wasted opportunity, IMO. Killjoys doesn't seem to waste opportunities. I think they fill ever minute with as much story as they can.

Edit: I found a typo.

[–] Ciaobaby-Rides-Again 9 years ago

As somebody else said, Dark Matter seems to develop much more slowly. More slowly than necessary, I think, although it has picked up the pace and found its focus lately. And I find the dialogue a little ponderous. There was a moment, when Five was recounting Two's story about surviving her exposure to the vacuum, that made me cringe. That scene felt stagey and Dan Brownish - where Dan Brown is a euphemism for awkward exposition. Most of the writing is much better than that, though, and the characters are really growing on me. I enjoyed the last few eps and the season finale and especially the twist.

I think Killjoys is much more fully realized at this point. The characters are three dimensional and their relationships seem organic and believable. Secondary and even tertiary characters have depth and actually contribute to moving the plot forward, too, which is refreshing. Alvis and Pree, and even Hills, are not simply plot devices. They're people. I like that.

I also like that the action takes place within a solar system. Science fiction in film and tv always takes the idea of interstellar travel and societies - and the technology and logistics needed to support them - for granted. The action in Killjoys is interplanetary as opposed to interstellar, and I think it works very well. It is, again, more realistic. The Quad gives the writers enough room to present believable and diverse human societies and allows them to explore and develop them fully. I'm liking that.

[–] gveronica 9 years ago

I quite watching Dark Matter live once Strike Back started. I have the rest of the season on my dvr but haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Can anyone tell me if the show kept pursuing the romance between One and Two? Because that was just painful to watch.

[–] lump66 9 years ago

I like Dark matter, but i like Killjoys more, its mainly down to the faster pace of Killjoys compared to Dark Matter, which as a slower plodding pace, yes both shows are full of the usual clichés but that is the norm for most TV shows and films now.

[–] cmtaylor531 9 years ago

Absolutely love Killjoys. I couldn't stop myself from binge watching all the episodes in like two,days. I'm currently trying to watch Dark matter and honestly I kind of bored. I'm only on like episode 5 and I know people swear it gets better so I'm trying and so far I'm struggling through. The only character in remotely interested in is the young girl.

[–] wdbehg17 9 years ago

thenmadewild posted...

It seems like a lot of people on this board prefer Dark matter but honestly, I liked this one much better. Dark Matter to me felt very 90s/ early 00s. This one at least felt like it had a chance to grow into something original, even if it isn't right now.

Both show have cliches but the ones in Dark Matter just seem more...obnoxious and obvious? Or maybe they just happen to be ones that personally annoy me the most. The 'tough guy' who wants to shoot everyone, the female android, the 'mysterious' teenage girl...none of those are things I have much desire to see ever again. Both shows have fairly typical "sexy, kickass" women but I for some reason way preferred Dutch to Two or whatever her name was. Perhaps it was the actress' acting or just small differences in the writing. I also prefer the two brothers to the male characters we got in Dark Matter, and the setting seems more interesting.

I feel the complete opposite of this. I love Dark Matter, but I do not like Killjoys. Here is my opinions on both shows:

-Dark Matter-
-I love the setting, story and characters.
-The entire show feels very "high tech".
-The acting is good. (Or at least to me it seems good.)
-The fighting scenes are nicely done.

-Killjoys-
-Neither the story nor the characters are very interesting.
-It feels very outdated. (Not only that, but the entire show also feels very "low tech".)
-There is this sense that it is a low budget show, (at least when compared to Dark Matter anyway).
-Both the action sequences as well as the fight scenes are extremely cheesy. (And not in a good way). Also, overuse of slowmo to the point where it just starts to feel stupid.
-The music is absolutely horrible. Normally the music in TV shows don't bother me, but in this show the music is just garbage. I don't know who chose the music for this show, but that person needs to be shot. The music is so bad it completely kills the onscreen action.
-I'm not too fond of the actress that plays Dutch. There is absolutely no emotion in her face when she says any of her lines. It's like her lines are being read by a robot.

[–] th_gamer 9 years ago

You are confusing names. There's no other explanation.

As far as quality goes, Killjoys just destroys Dark Matter. But there's nothing wrong to prefer DM over Killjoys because tastes.

Main reason why I prefer Killjoys is that its technology makes sense while technology in DM doesn't. So they can go into FTL every episode, but only sci-fi gun they own can only shoot one lame shockwave before it dies? They have this cloning technology that is commonly used for travel(kinda), etc, but medicine is on 21st century level? The fact that there's an artificial human that can survive vacuum isn't high-tech, it's out of place(or everything else is). While Killjoys isn't set that far into the future(humans are just starting going places) and I can see tech used in this show existing in our world when we start doing same thing. Another problem I have with Dark Matter is that world-building here is just too blurry. Too much stuff thrown in to make the world diverse, but almost no information about anything. Killjoys does this right, it goes small but gives enough information about everything mostly through small talk and sometimes with big reveals to give us info about it's setting and after watching first season we have a pretty good idea what's up in that world. Not knowing isn't my problem, feeling like authors don't know either is.