Urgh! SyFy's Helix is bad…

YenChih Lin

YenChih Lin

Master Member
I just watched the pilot episode of Helix and it's badly written with a good basic premise.

- science facts are wrong, for example: a virus is show on a light microscope which is not possible (yet) - only a so called kendroskope would made it possible. The virus has a nematode appearance, which is a worm, inconsistency about the type of virus, first they say it's a retrovirus, the next scene, they don't know what it does…

I wanted to bang my head on the desk - I may have basic training in biology and bio-tech, but this was insulting my intelligence…

- still very flat characters with no interesting edge, and if they come over as jerk.

And this was written by Ronald B. Moore! Holy *****, what is wrong with you?
 
At this point, my only question is "Who's still surprised that SyFy's anything is horrible?" They've been putting out utter tripe for what... a decade? Why do people even give them a chance any more?
 
I have put up with bad science in TV and movies my entire life. I just grit my teeth and try to get past it.

Sent from my Etch A Sketch.
 
:lol Amen! :lol

Jedi2016 said:
At this point, my only question is "Who's still surprised that SyFy's anything is horrible?" They've been putting out utter tripe for what... a decade? Why do people even give them a chance any more?
Click to expand...
 
Jedi2016 said:
At this point, my only question is "Who's still surprised that SyFy's anything is horrible?" They've been putting out utter tripe for what... a decade? Why do people even give them a chance any more?
Click to expand...

Because we're all starved for quality scifi? :lol
I gave Defiance a solid chance and watched the full first season, and regretted that. Then on the other hand there was this new show called Continuum, and I figured they'd screw up such a good premise, and that it would be a huge letdown, so I didn't even bother watching it. After two seasons someone pushed me to give it a try, so I finally gave it a chance and I'm still kicking myself over missing out all that time!
Despite the stream of crap we get these days, it only takes that one diamond in the rough to make it worth it.

(says the guy who hasn't actually given Helix a chance either)
 
BlobVanDam said:
Because we're all starved for quality scifi? :lol
I gave Defiance a solid chance and watched the full first season, and regretted that. Then on the other hand there was this new show called Continuum, and I figured they'd screw up such a good premise, and that it would be a huge letdown, so I didn't even bother watching it. After two seasons someone pushed me to give it a try, so I finally gave it a chance and I'm still kicking myself over missing out all that time!
Despite the stream of crap we get these days, it only takes that one diamond in the rough to make it worth it.

(says the guy who hasn't actually given Helix a chance either)
Click to expand...

Technically Continuum is produced by Canada. Syfy just has broadcast rights in the US. So really they don't have their clumsy fingers in that show at all which is, I agree, very good.
But on topic, I gave Helix a few episodes and really wanted it to be good and have an engaging story, but it just didn't. Seems like Canada is doing better science fiction these days. Hopefully they'll continue to do so and maybe make more.

Sent from my Droid X using tapatalk.
 
If you've only watched the pilot episode, than you not really giving the show a chance. I've watched the whole season, and the science isn't the focus of the show. It's the characters and the situation. Just give it a couple of more episodes. If it doesn't work for you, give it up. A lot of shows have a slow start (there's a lot of people I've recommended "The Walking Dead" to. Most of them have said the show seems to be very slow. It's only after the first season does the show begin to pick up its pace).
 
Fsyemogushi said:
Technically Continuum is produced by Canada. Syfy just has broadcast rights in the US. So really they don't have their clumsy fingers in that show at all which is, I agree, very good.
But on topic, I gave Helix a few episodes and really wanted it to be good and have an engaging story, but it just didn't. Seems like Canada is doing better science fiction these days. Hopefully they'll continue to do so and maybe make more.

Sent from my Droid X using tapatalk.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know Continuum isn't really a SyFy show, and it shows! :lol All hail Canada, the home of scifi!
I'm feeling a lot better about giving Helix a pass after reading this thread. Doesn't sound like I'm missing out on much.
 
CB2001, I went in with an open mind, but the longer the pilot progressed to the middle, they screwed up with the scientific terms, it's not funny anymore. From a quality sci-fi I can expect hard scientific facts paired with good fiction, not just some people spewing some "cool" sounding procedure to "make-believe" nor some facts like you can't see a virus under a light microscope or saying it's a "15nm" small virus while the display shows the length in the larger µm range of the wrong worm-like virus that squirms like a living organism, while a real virus is a container for genetic information and doesn't posess any form metabolism. It's badly written and there's no denying if you are trained in the scientific field. Entertaining Sci-Fi today is not just a shallow escaptism, but a good combination of compelling stories, well-written interesting characters and the newest scientific knowledge. SyFy has cut the corners on the wrong end by not hiring an science consultant.
BlobVanDam: Continuum is a solid scifi. What I like are the characters, the premise implication of how much the past can changed, if ever, and what outcome it has in the future. There are a lot of indirect technological mentionings of spider-web silk, smart clothes, etc. and some real physic terms like the Novikov self-consistency law. It's much better than you think and things really got complicated in S3. In an intersting way.

CB2001 said:
If you've only watched the pilot episode, than you not really giving the show a chance. I've watched the whole season, and the science isn't the focus of the show. It's the characters and the situation. Just give it a couple of more episodes. If it doesn't work for you, give it up. A lot of shows have a slow start (there's a lot of people I've recommended "The Walking Dead" to. Most of them have said the show seems to be very slow. It's only after the first season does the show begin to pick up its pace).
Click to expand...
 
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YenChih Lin said:
@CB2001, I went in with an open mind, but the longer the pilot progressed to the middle, they screwed up with the scientific terms, it's not funny anymore. From a quality sci-fi I can expect hard scientific facts paired with good fiction, not just some people spewing some "cool" sounding procedure to "make-believe" nor some facts like you can't see a virus under a light microscope or saying it's a "15nm" small virus while the display shows the length in the larger µm range of the wrong worm-like virus that squirms like a living organism, while a real virus is a container for genetic information and doesn't posess any form metabolism. It's badly written and there's no denying if you are trained in the scientific field. Entertaining Sci-Fi today is not just a shallow escaptism, but a good combination of compelling stories, well-written interesting characters and the newest scientific knowledge. SyFy has cut the corners on the wrong end by not hiring an science consultant.
Click to expand...

Okay, let me put it like this: if you're too busy focusing on the science in a science fiction show, then you're more than welcome not to watch. But if you're going to judge if it's good or not, base it in the work as a whole, not just one specific area. Because if you based it on just one area, that being how inaccurate the science is, then you would be hating all works of science fiction, which includes Star Trek and Star Wars.
 
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Really, it would be like a critic giving Gravity a bad review because it wasn't 100% accurate.

Now I will say that the show seems to be missing something. The actors are all decent, except maybe the Army major and the Inuit chick. It's probably because it's shot low budget, it gives me this dirty feeling after watching it.
 
I watched the entire season and rather enjoyed it, I thought it was very interesting and believe when I tell you that what you see in the first few episodes is definitely not what the show is about. You just have to get over the bad science, face it, it's just a sci-fi show and not some sort of procedural where getting the facts right or close to right really matters; on Helix the science is just the back drop and just a small part of the bigger picture.
 
YenChih Lin said:
@BlobVanDam: Continuum is a solid scifi. What I like are the characters, the premise implication of how much the past can changed, if ever, and what outcome it has in the future. There are a lot of indirect technological mentionings of spider-web silk, smart clothes, etc. and some real physic terms like the Novikov self-consistency law. It's much better than you think and things really got complicated in S3. In an intersting way.
Click to expand...

Maybe I worded myself badly, I LOVE Continuum. It just took me a while to give it a chance, because I had low expectations, as I do by default with all modern scifi. It's one of my favourite scifi shows of all time now, and one of maybe 2 scifi shows I watch at the moment.
 
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I want to see Continuum. I was behind on other shows, watched the first ten minutes or so of the first episode. Then decided that I wanted to really enjoy it. Somehow time flies and they are on Season 3 now.

But yeah Helix sucks. If the OP is just starting I would stop now because it only gets worse. To the point of bad comedy. I can't believe Rocketeer is in this.
 
Bad sci-fi is better than no sci-fi.

- - - Updated - - -

fwiw, put aside the idea of a sci-fi show being realistic, and you will enjoy them far more. Suspension of disbelief is something you can willfully achieve to enjoy entertainment.

Pacific Rim. Nuff said.
 
I actually enjoyed the first few episodes. I stopped watching after the third episode though. Too many other shows in the list. Didn't have time to keep up on it
 
YenChih Lin said:
I just watched the pilot episode of Helix and it's badly written with a good basic premise.

- science facts are wrong, for example: a virus is show on a light microscope which is not possible (yet) - only a so called kendroskope would made it possible. The virus has a nematode appearance, which is a worm, inconsistency about the type of virus, first they say it's a retrovirus, the next scene, they don't know what it does…

I wanted to bang my head on the desk - I may have basic training in biology and bio-tech, but this was insulting my intelligence…

- still very flat characters with no interesting edge, and if they come over as jerk.

And this was written by Ronald B. Moore! Holy *****, what is wrong with you?
Click to expand...

God did it.

There. Now you can stop watching, since I've solved the mystery. ;)
 
If you want to watch something bad watch some of those Metal Hurlant Chronicles on SyFy. I caught two of them last night. Wow, is it bad!!!
 
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