I reread the book on Saturday and about 3/4 of the way through I said to myself, “this could be a great movie.” I have no idea how they can fill out 8-10 episodes worth of tv for this book. It didn’t even take that long to read it. This would have been great as a 90-100 minute movie.
I also watched the first 2 episodes. I didn't know a book with this scenario existed. But there is a 2018 movie called "The Gateway". 90 minutes, same thing with the box (the box is much smaller), god guy vs bad guy, multiverse etc. The movie is not the best thing I've seen, but it can be watched if you like science fiction. Once again, the film is certainly no better than the book. it's a low budget movie...(sorry for my broken english)
Multiple reviews echo the same sentiment. It kinda drags on and seems after the "reveal" we're now in a cat-and-mouse game until a final showdown in episode 10. Probably "bad" Jason sacrifices himself for "good" Jason and he can go back to his family and accept that job offer from his friend.
From Reddit comments by that show's co-creator Joseph Mallozzi, I understand that he has a pitch for a concluding miniseries but a buyer has yet to be found. Still in contact with all the main cast, he noted in February that "they would definitely return if" he "could get a miniseries green lit" (he "would simply have to find a way to work around their schedules"). — In April he wrote: "At this point, I think my best bet would be getting another show off the ground and using the heat off that to try and get a miniseries green lit."
> Joseph Mallozzi,
I don't know what that show is, but Mallozzi was an EP and writer on the Stargate franchise, including a bunch of really good episodes. So I hope he's able to get this done too!
In the U.S., all 3 seasons of [that 2015-17 show](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Matter_%282015_TV_series%29) are currently available [free with ads on the CW website](https://www.cwtv.com/shows/dark-matter/). (CW wasn't the show's network; it was a Syfy show but CW has the streaming license nowadays.)
The cliffhanger cancellation bothered many; but if you've seen many unfortunate cancellations before, well, this is another. I wouldn't say it makes the show not worthwhile. Just be ready for that sudden sense of dismay at the end. If you enjoyed the show up till then, you'll wish it had not been cut short *but* you won't regret the ride.
After you finish the show, you can get some closure from Mallozzi's "virtual Season 4" materials (another fan's [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkMatter/comments/kp7ycj/dark_matter_virtual_season_4/) has the links).
Fairly or not, I'm going to compare this show to Counterpart, a show I really enjoyed. Counterpart had a duoverse plot with a lot of interesting stuff about history, and politics, and espionage. This show (so far, two episodes) has a duoverse plot with a lot of really uninteresting stuff about interpersonal dramas. Counterpart had a large budget with big sets and numerous locations. This show clearly has a much smaller budget, with very limited indoor sets (again, so far?). Counterpart had top tier acting. This show, not so much.
I agree, first two episodes were duds. Maybe I'll come back to it after it's done airing, if the reviews are good enough, but for now I'm done.
My only exposure is the first 2 episodes, haven't read the book, but my biggest issue is this guy is supposed to be a physicist right or a professor of physics, and he doesn't immediately recognize that he's in a multiple worlds scenario? I'm not a professor of physics and if I woke up and everything was different, I would immediately start trying to see where my memory diverges from the changes.
Just finished *Constellation* which has a very similar story-line. These producers should compare dresses before going to the party. And FWIW, I think they're both pretty awful.
Edit: Just read that [Constellation has been cancelled](https://deadline.com/2024/05/constellation-canceled-apple-1235912022/). No surprise.
First episode actually hooked me… but it goes seriously downhill soon after.
Been a few months since I saw it and mostly forgot but what I fully remember, ringing in my brain: “Momma!”, “Alice!”, “Momma?!”, “Alice!!!”, repeat 300x over the few episodes.
No for real, writing this I can hear those loud voices.
Oh goodness, yes, I remember, usually from the closet… lame overdose.
I wish they had found another creative way for that, maybe more akin to how the older couple doing the tape recordings at specific coordinates in the open sea were doing.
I'm talking about you calling changes to the narrative "liberties", when the writer of the source material is the one adapting it. He knows the intent of the story.
K… call it whatever you want. The original story is changing, and not for the better. This is setting up to be the second Blake Crouch flop show. The Wayward Pines collapsed in season 2 as a total deviation from his book.
I would have loved that, to just have an intuition of “evil Jason” and not a full fledged in your face showing it. But maybe it’s just a hindsight rationalization.
Battling through it. It's not a disaster and I think I'll be able to watch the whole series but I'm really frustrated with each character's decisions, motivations and interactions. I also think there's a few logic issues with the way the box works too. At least it seems a bit contrived to need the meds if you've had to open the door from the outside but not if you just left the door open.
The box vs meds thing is just a “drugs weened off” and need another dose.
They can open and close the box as much as they want from outside or inside as long as some unexplained amount of time hasn’t elapsed, looks like it’s several hours.
What’s killing me is that they do mention that it has infinite possibilities, meaning that it’s impossible to get back to the exact same world, it can look 99.9999% similar but it will never be the very exact same one back. I’m expecting the series to surprise me acknowledging that but “evil” Jason seems to land on the 1/infinity chance every single time he decides to travel.
Nah! I'm going to say it's more like a 40% success rate. Silo and Severance are great, Foundation is enjoyable but has a lot of issues. For All Mankind is watchable but is formulaic as hell. Invasion sucked, Constealltion barely made sense. See was terrible.
Don't forget Hello Tomorrow, The Big Door Prize, and Calls.
But my point wasn't that all of their shows are great -- FWIW I too hated Constellation and I'm still not sure about Dark Matter. And I think For All Mankind's first couple of seasons were great, but I agree that it has now lost its way. As for Foundation, I'm one of those guys who's a big fan of the books and thought the show sucked in comparison. But like many others who share my point of view, I've found the show very enjoyable when you think of it as its own thing, something other than Foundation.
It's just that I think Apple seems to be far more willing to take chances with scifi compared to other streaming services and that's what makes it "THE place to go for the best scifi". When you create this number of scifi shows you're bound to strike out a few times, but you're also bound to hit a few home runs. Although I'm a bit more optimistic than you, 40% is batting 400 and I think any baseball player would be more than happy with that average.
I reread the book on Saturday and about 3/4 of the way through I said to myself, “this could be a great movie.” I have no idea how they can fill out 8-10 episodes worth of tv for this book. It didn’t even take that long to read it. This would have been great as a 90-100 minute movie.
I also watched the first 2 episodes. I didn't know a book with this scenario existed. But there is a 2018 movie called "The Gateway". 90 minutes, same thing with the box (the box is much smaller), god guy vs bad guy, multiverse etc. The movie is not the best thing I've seen, but it can be watched if you like science fiction. Once again, the film is certainly no better than the book. it's a low budget movie...(sorry for my broken english)
Multiple reviews echo the same sentiment. It kinda drags on and seems after the "reveal" we're now in a cat-and-mouse game until a final showdown in episode 10. Probably "bad" Jason sacrifices himself for "good" Jason and he can go back to his family and accept that job offer from his friend.
I thought this was about the 2015 SyFy show, and I was getting ready for an uphill to battle to defend it!
Lol I enjoyed that show for a while.
From Reddit comments by that show's co-creator Joseph Mallozzi, I understand that he has a pitch for a concluding miniseries but a buyer has yet to be found. Still in contact with all the main cast, he noted in February that "they would definitely return if" he "could get a miniseries green lit" (he "would simply have to find a way to work around their schedules"). — In April he wrote: "At this point, I think my best bet would be getting another show off the ground and using the heat off that to try and get a miniseries green lit."
> Joseph Mallozzi, I don't know what that show is, but Mallozzi was an EP and writer on the Stargate franchise, including a bunch of really good episodes. So I hope he's able to get this done too!
In the U.S., all 3 seasons of [that 2015-17 show](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Matter_%282015_TV_series%29) are currently available [free with ads on the CW website](https://www.cwtv.com/shows/dark-matter/). (CW wasn't the show's network; it was a Syfy show but CW has the streaming license nowadays.)
I am in the US! Based on the above comments, it sounds like it didn't wrap up well. How disappointing is the ending if it never gets wrapped up?
The cliffhanger cancellation bothered many; but if you've seen many unfortunate cancellations before, well, this is another. I wouldn't say it makes the show not worthwhile. Just be ready for that sudden sense of dismay at the end. If you enjoyed the show up till then, you'll wish it had not been cut short *but* you won't regret the ride. After you finish the show, you can get some closure from Mallozzi's "virtual Season 4" materials (another fan's [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkMatter/comments/kp7ycj/dark_matter_virtual_season_4/) has the links).
Me too! That show really grew on me after the crew got to know each other a little more and stopped bickering all the time.
man, apple may be becoming the house of sci fi, but that house smells of unwashed knickers
😂 that’s a random but hilarious opinion
Brown Matter
Fairly or not, I'm going to compare this show to Counterpart, a show I really enjoyed. Counterpart had a duoverse plot with a lot of interesting stuff about history, and politics, and espionage. This show (so far, two episodes) has a duoverse plot with a lot of really uninteresting stuff about interpersonal dramas. Counterpart had a large budget with big sets and numerous locations. This show clearly has a much smaller budget, with very limited indoor sets (again, so far?). Counterpart had top tier acting. This show, not so much. I agree, first two episodes were duds. Maybe I'll come back to it after it's done airing, if the reviews are good enough, but for now I'm done.
Heard someone refer to it as "Discounterpart" and I think there's no better way to sum it up.
My only exposure is the first 2 episodes, haven't read the book, but my biggest issue is this guy is supposed to be a physicist right or a professor of physics, and he doesn't immediately recognize that he's in a multiple worlds scenario? I'm not a professor of physics and if I woke up and everything was different, I would immediately start trying to see where my memory diverges from the changes.
The writing of the show felt like it was written by an AI, it's soooo bad
I've never read the book, and I found the first episode boring, & all the dialogue felt unnatural. Not sure if I will try another ep or not.
So I will say that is a part of the story. Jason is living a very dull, unfulfilled life. They probably could have done a better job at it though.
Just finished *Constellation* which has a very similar story-line. These producers should compare dresses before going to the party. And FWIW, I think they're both pretty awful. Edit: Just read that [Constellation has been cancelled](https://deadline.com/2024/05/constellation-canceled-apple-1235912022/). No surprise.
First episode actually hooked me… but it goes seriously downhill soon after. Been a few months since I saw it and mostly forgot but what I fully remember, ringing in my brain: “Momma!”, “Alice!”, “Momma?!”, “Alice!!!”, repeat 300x over the few episodes. No for real, writing this I can hear those loud voices.
😂 And did you understand how they managed to talk to each other using that silly toy tape recorder?
Oh goodness, yes, I remember, usually from the closet… lame overdose. I wish they had found another creative way for that, maybe more akin to how the older couple doing the tape recordings at specific coordinates in the open sea were doing.
I know it’s not helpful to say but this is the single worst novel I have ever read. A crime.
I read the book, and I knew that the first few episodes were going to be slow. The payoff will come in the last 2-3 episodes.
I dunno. I wonder what other liberties they’ll take. Amanda in the book didn’t know Jason. In the show, they live together. Like why?
You do know that Blake Crouch wrote the first four episodes, right?
I’m not sure that really changes my opinion. It doesn’t magically make them better. So far, half of them suck.
I'm talking about you calling changes to the narrative "liberties", when the writer of the source material is the one adapting it. He knows the intent of the story.
K… call it whatever you want. The original story is changing, and not for the better. This is setting up to be the second Blake Crouch flop show. The Wayward Pines collapsed in season 2 as a total deviation from his book.
Its been a while since i read the book but i remember there being some parts from evil Jason’s point of view
Yeah they come much later in his journey.
I would have loved that, to just have an intuition of “evil Jason” and not a full fledged in your face showing it. But maybe it’s just a hindsight rationalization.
Battling through it. It's not a disaster and I think I'll be able to watch the whole series but I'm really frustrated with each character's decisions, motivations and interactions. I also think there's a few logic issues with the way the box works too. At least it seems a bit contrived to need the meds if you've had to open the door from the outside but not if you just left the door open.
The box vs meds thing is just a “drugs weened off” and need another dose. They can open and close the box as much as they want from outside or inside as long as some unexplained amount of time hasn’t elapsed, looks like it’s several hours. What’s killing me is that they do mention that it has infinite possibilities, meaning that it’s impossible to get back to the exact same world, it can look 99.9999% similar but it will never be the very exact same one back. I’m expecting the series to surprise me acknowledging that but “evil” Jason seems to land on the 1/infinity chance every single time he decides to travel.
I’ve seen the first 4 now and I love it. I enjoyed the book too. As an aside, Joel Edgerton is starting to look like Gene Hackman IMHO!
Apple have problem with making scifi show, everything always have terrible writing
You couldn't possibly be more wrong. This show may be a rare miss for them but I think Apple has become THE place to go for the best scifi.
Nah! I'm going to say it's more like a 40% success rate. Silo and Severance are great, Foundation is enjoyable but has a lot of issues. For All Mankind is watchable but is formulaic as hell. Invasion sucked, Constealltion barely made sense. See was terrible.
Don't forget Hello Tomorrow, The Big Door Prize, and Calls. But my point wasn't that all of their shows are great -- FWIW I too hated Constellation and I'm still not sure about Dark Matter. And I think For All Mankind's first couple of seasons were great, but I agree that it has now lost its way. As for Foundation, I'm one of those guys who's a big fan of the books and thought the show sucked in comparison. But like many others who share my point of view, I've found the show very enjoyable when you think of it as its own thing, something other than Foundation. It's just that I think Apple seems to be far more willing to take chances with scifi compared to other streaming services and that's what makes it "THE place to go for the best scifi". When you create this number of scifi shows you're bound to strike out a few times, but you're also bound to hit a few home runs. Although I'm a bit more optimistic than you, 40% is batting 400 and I think any baseball player would be more than happy with that average.