I watched the first 10 minutes. Face-slapping summary-style exposition right away. Felt like an over-eager sales pitch at the expense of buildup or mood establishment. I like the idea of a 1899 supernatural show on a boat but this one threw me overboard quickly. I know shows need a few episodes to get the story rolling and iron out the kinks. I'd like to know if anyone else felt it started poorly but watched long enough to see it improve.
shareNot tonight, quite busy and don't want to watch just an episode, will binge tomorrow at least 2.
shareI'm curious about this one. But then again, it's from Netflix, so I fear it will have an unnecessary amount of wokeness in it.
Based on the trailer it reminded me of the 2009 film, Triangle.
Also the guy who is the captain looks like a younger version of Jürgen Prochnow.
I watched 4 episodes and so far:
- Strong and very intelligent woman unjustly put down by the patriarchy.
- Gay sex; not graphic, but gross enough to fast forward.
- Good hearted black man persecuted by angry and evil whities.
- White woman in a loveless marriage attracted to the kind black man.
There might be more, but frankly I'm not paying that much attention.
I picked up on these as well after the first episode. Not that I have anything against those things, but I signed up to watch what looked like an interesting mystery/adventure show. Instead, it feels less like 1899 and more like I'm in 2022 being lectured to by the woke staff at Netflix.
Another complaint, but one that isn't unique to 1899: Why does every film/show nowadays have to be so dark? I don't mean dark in tone, I mean dark as in I can't see shit! It's so dark, it's beyond a stylistic choice at this point. It feels like filmmakers are using darkness as a crutch to hide any potential mistakes in the production.
I do and for some a lot. A strong and intelligent woman doesen't need to be victim of the patriarchy, for isntance. It would've been much more compelling without the lecturing.
Actually is my bad, I should know better by now and stick to old stuff, but I kinda figured out already what's going on, at least in broad lines, so I'm kinda curious to see if I'm right.
Darkness makes it easy to keep a production consistent across both real life sets and CGI sets. A lot of shows/films bridge the gap between the two; CGI for large or sweeping exterior shots that might be too expensive to shoot on location, and closed sets when doing interior shots. As a way to hide bad or questionable CGI, it's easy to just darken the color grade to make it easy to blend between the two, especially if you have a shot that uses both real-life practical effects and CGI. So yeah, you're right that they are using the darkness as a crutch to hide potential mistakes in the production.
shareOuch ...
shareIt gets better after episode 2 or 3. Based on positive Imdb reviews.
Plenty of activity on Reddit before today: https://www.reddit.com/r/1899/
If that is only based on IMDB reviews by people whom have stayed with the show in spite of the bad first few episodes then it is based on the opinions of the people whom likely thought the beginning was fine as well. Numbers don't persuade me anymore.
sharePass
shareI struggled through the first episode. I think I'll skip the rest.
shareI don't think it improved unfortunately. What I loved about Dark is that not only do you get invested in the characters but it unraveled perfectly. Questions were constantly being answered while new ones popped up. You could follow along without knowing the full scope of what's happening.
1899 is pretty much the opposite. Strange things are constantly happening and it just keeps digging deeper, so you're watching 7 episodes knowing you're going to have to get to the 8th to explain everything you just watched. Of course there are the creepy/silent characters who have the answers but choose not to say anything. Also most of the characters aren't likeable and I found it annoying how they're constantly monologuing to each other even though nobody speaks the same languages. It felt like one long setup for a second and I'm sure third season. I like the ambition and I can always sit and watch a mystery like this, but it's just not a great show.
I’m on episode 3 and fell asleep about 50 times so far. I don’t know if I’ll finish the rest.
share