Attain has fallen within the Halo TV universe. If you recognize something concerning the lore of the Halo video games, you recognize that the subsequent factor that’s imagined to occur is Grasp Chief escaping from Covenant forces above Attain, his ship getting attacked, after which promptly crashing onto the sequence’ first Halo ring. In different phrases, that is principally the second the place the motion begins. That isn’t what occurred within the Halo TV sequence. As a substitute, Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and his pals took a reflective tour to a backwater planet that felt much more like a detour than character improvement.
After escaping Attain, Chief and everybody else on the escape ship with him (which is principally the entire still-living sequence regulars apart from Kate Kennedy’s Kai), go to Aleria, a small filth farming planet with loads of land to spare and almost poisonous soil. After an episode as huge and thrilling because the Fall of Attain, this appears like a really HBO-style respite: the type of episode devoted to taking inventory of the characters we misplaced and inspecting the brand new form of the world after a giant shake-up. However these exhibits earn these reflective episodes with constant high quality earlier than them, they usually are likely to make these quiet episodes really feel ever larger and extra vital than the loud ones. That was definitely not the case in Halo season 2’s fifth episode.
In protection of the Halo sequence’ whole premise, it has no obligation to comply with the occasions of the video games instantly. Because the present’s announcement, the inventive workforce behind it has been cautious to specify that this sequence takes place within the “Silver Timeline,” which is totally separate from the canon of the video games. So going someplace aside from Halo after the Fall of Attain isn’t actually an issue. The issue is that the present as soon as once more fails essentially the most primary and vital take a look at of doing attention-grabbing issues with these modifications.
The sequence appears satisfied that the viewers loves and cares about its aspect characters. However they’re simply not attention-grabbing. Throughout this episode essentially the most coherent plotline we spend time with includes Soren (the fantastic Bokeem Woodbine, attempting his finest as at all times) and his spouse trying to find their youngster. We see them query numerous folks across the village, and even discover somebody they assume is holding their child from them. However by the tip of the episode, they uncover that he was really kidnapped by the UNSC — a company we virtually completely know at this level because the army that loves kidnapping kids. It’s a bland, “no shit” reveal that feels each too apparent and completely meaningless on the identical time. One other of the episode’s plotlines includes Riz, a Spartan who was launched only a few episodes in the past, deciding that she desires to be a farmer now that she is just too injured to be a Spartan.
With plotlines this boring, about characters that the present by no means actually does job of convincing us to care about, it’s getting awfully arduous to not lengthy for the round perfection and alien weirdness of the Halo rings that give this franchise its title. So why aren’t we there but?
The reply appears to lie within the Halo present’s method to the rings normally. The sequence clearly acknowledges one of many nice strengths of the primary sport was that Halo was profoundly mysterious. However the present is approaching that thriller in a really completely different approach than the unique sport did.
For the sport, the thriller of Halo was in how little data you had about each the alien ring and the online game’s world. Except for the fundamental premise of humanity being on the again foot in a struggle towards aliens, virtually all the pieces else was a black field. So once you crash-land on Halo within the sport’s second degree (a degree additionally known as “Halo”), the trail is obvious for the sport to slowly reveal its secrets and techniques about Forerunners, the Covenant faith, the Flood, 343 Responsible Spark, and all the pieces else that feels commonplace within the sequence at the moment. The TV sequence, alternatively, determined to make Halo a vacation spot. As a substitute of giving us no lore, it’s been stacking up piles and piles of lore by its first two seasons and dangling the Halo ring in entrance of his by way of characters’ prophetic visions. This path to Halo isn’t inherently unhealthy; a well-done buildup and reveal could make for a improbable second in a TV present. However just like the Hatch in Misplaced, the secret is that it’s a must to present the viewers why the factor is mysterious and vital — it’s a must to actually show it to us, not simply have characters bombard us with insistent dialogue that it issues. And extra importantly, the characters really must get into it will definitely.
None of that is to say that the present has run out of time to make it to Halo, and even that it might’t be good as soon as it will get there. However it’s to say that the journey there to date has felt profoundly misjudged and approach too sluggish, and it’s beginning to really feel prefer it won’t occur in any respect. On this episode, Makee (Charlie Murphy) tries to persuade the Arbiter to go to the Halo rings as a result of she insists that the Prophets are mendacity concerning the Nice Journey, telling the remainder of the Covenant fanciful tales about its significance and transcending the bodily realm, however by no means really planning to take them alongside on their journey to divinity. Now, I’m not saying that the Halo sequence is the Prophets and we’re the remainder of the Covenant, however I’m saying that our lack of a journey to a Halo ring is beginning to really feel a bit of suspicious, they usually’re operating out of time to persuade me we’re actually going.