Battlestar Galactica

The After is a new Post Apocalyptic TV pilot on Amazon Prime.

The story itself isn’t too terrible. They leave you with a ton of questions, something to be expected from the creator of X-Files, but they don’t leave you with enough concrete to keep you going forward.

The premise is a group of people get trapped in a parking garage. Something terrible is happening outside, but we don’t know what. A unlikely group of strangers is brought together to survive whatever is going on. When a few of the people actually make it out of the garage there is pandemonium. We know nothing other than everything has hell. The streets are plugged full of people and all we are given is that power and phones are down. Eventually this unlikely group makes their escape to the rich one’s house. Here they are attacked and while they flee end up faced off against some sort of demon or angle or something biblical that appears like it is going to lay a whole lot of judgement on the world. The end.

The issue is there is no lack of post-apocalyptic shows anymore. Revolution, Falling Skies, the current front runner: The Walking Dead, or if you want to go back in time a bit, there is Battlestar Galactica, and Jericho. Point being, there are a ton of contenders for your PA time, and I just don’t see this one getting in the ring.

The thing that makes any PA show great is the characters. Yeah, we like watching them bash in a zombie’s head with a baseball bat, but at the end of the day if we don’t like that character enough to not want them to die, we are going to find another snow.

Maybe they tried to introduce the entire cast too soon. Maybe we will learn more about the characters in the next episode that will make them interesting, engaging, or likable, but for now I am going to turn it off. I will be impressed if it becomes selected for Amazon’s shows, but if it does I would be hard pressed to take the time to go back to it.

With so many other great options on the table, I wouldn’t waste your time seeing what this one is about.

I know they are SyFy or something like that now, but I still owe them my sincerest apologies. I have an Amazon Prime account which I love dearly, because it now enables me to sit down and watch TV shows at my leisure. I was never the type to be able to sit in front of the TV every Thursday night to watch show X, and if I did it definitely wasn’t on the SyFy channel. Since January I have watched all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica and Farscape. Both were shows I wouldn’t have given the time of day when they were on air because of how I’d of been viewed for watching them. Luckily as we get older we stop caring. I’ve sat through plenty of shows that other people were watching throughout my life. I’ve watched more movies at this point in my life than most people will in their lifetime. I’ve read more books than most peoples’ pets have. I’ve played my share of video games.

MV5BMTc1NTg1MDk3NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNDYyMjI3._V1_SY317_CR16,0,214,317_ — From IMDB

As far as anything with a story goes these two shows are better than most. Battlestar Galatica bis more of an action story, with some of the best characters I’ve seen written. I won’t lie and say 100% of the episodes are amazing, as few shows ever can accomplish, but nearly all of the episodes stay on the main story line, while presenting a new issue each week. There were times I found myself awake at sunrise because I couldn’t stop clicking next episode.

MV5BMTYwNzQyMzEwMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjA0ODYyMQ@@._V1_SX214_ — From IMDB

Farscape is a far more lighthearted show, but creates a full universe for the show to exist within. The aliens have their own languages and phrases. The planets they visit vary from the dark ages to technology beyond our imagination. Though the show does have a central story line that is stays relatively true to, it does jump off track every few episodes. Sometimes these jumps are much needed and enjoyable, sometimes I wanted to click next to get back to the story. The characters are all amazing, each with their own imperfections and needs. The one thing I truly loved about the show was how often a minor character would revisit the story line.

Bottom line, if you have Prime both of these are worth watching. I’m not here to sell anyone on these shows though, I just wanted to apologize to SyFy for not paying any attention to their programming before now. Based on these last two shows I have moved over to see what Alphas is about, however seeing as it was canceled in season two I am less hopeful.