It's hard to give a basic description of Apple TV+ the final frontier This doesn't sound like a good time.
it is United Airlinesif the prisoner's plane crash-landed in Alaska!
the final frontier
bottom line
Turning something that was supposed to be exciting into something arduous.
Air date: Friday, October 10 (Apple TV+)
Throw: Jason Clarke/Haley Bennett/Dominic Cooper/Simone Kessel/Tate Bloom/Dallas Kingtooth/Alfre Woodard
Creator: Jon Bokenkamp and Richard Dovidio
it is Yellow shirt armywith criminals instead of high school football players!
It was the kind of high-concept, highly serialized show NBC had been trying to produce ever since, without success. blacklist ended its run – which makes sense since it comes from blacklist!
In a television environment desperate for escapism, the final frontier Sounds like an interesting recipe.
The only problem is, after the pilot hinted at dozens of ways the final frontier What could be an exciting thrill ride—vaccinating against an avalanche of self-righteous serial killer dramas that forces your friendly neighborhood TV critic to consider Prozac— the final frontier It turned out to be no fun at all.
It's the antithesis of the fast-moving, clunky yet fleshed-out ride, which stretched a two-hour story into ten, bogged down in overwrought twists, empty military jargon, and insufferable domestic melodrama, squandering much of the entertainment value of its premise and bogging down its largely overqualified cast.
I almost checked it out the final frontier Episode seven begins with a horrific, unearned emotional punch in the groin – but I'm glad I stuck with it, if only for the 30 minutes in which the same sub-par car-rolling stunt (or CG effect) is used so many times that, like everything else here, the effect wears off.
look, the final frontier It started well.
The show, created by Jon Bokenkamp and Richard Dovidio, begins with prisoners on a plane. Some of them—Johnny Knoxville, Clifton Collins Jr. (or their characters)—are instantly recognizable. One of them, Virus Cyrus of the group, was taken to the back of the ship under heavy guard, with a hood over his head.
The plane rose, then descended just as quickly. There are explosions and collisions, and if the special effects weren't great, that's television, so you keep the special effects to a low standard. By the halfway point I couldn't do it because the final frontier These effects are weak by any standards, and after a while there isn't an action scene in the series that isn't dominated by these weak effects.
Apparently the crash landing is in Alaska, because we soon meet U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick (Jason Clark), who soon encounters a moose on his morning jog. (“Will the moose show up again in the episode?” “Meese?” “Moose?” “Whatever.” “No. There won't be any more moose, but at least you know we're in Alaska, even though the show was mostly filmed in Quebec, and it doesn't feel like Alaska at all.”)
Regardless, Frank has a wife named Eventual Abductee (Simone Kessel) and a teenage son named Eventual Abductee Too (Tate Bloom), and is about to retire, which is always a good sign. He's also hiding a secret, and part of the reason I stayed through episode seven is because the exact nature of that secret is the only mystery I'm still curious about.
Since the plane was a prisoner transport, it fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals, but since the man's name on the hood was not Virus Cyrus, the CIA had a very specific interest in the crash and the 18 missing prisoners who survived but remain unaccounted for. Agency boss Bradford (Alfre Woodard) reluctantly summons Sidney (Haley Bennett), an agent with daddy issues, one of those alcoholic issues TV shows love to reveal by having characters show up drunk at nieces or nephews' birthday parties, as if that's the best way to express “rock bottom.”
Sidney – No, naming your spy “Sidney” after daddy issues is not a good idea, just Alias Streaming is still available – there's a connection to the guy in the hood, whose name isn't Cyrus Virus, but “Havlock.” Bradford sends her to Alaska to coach her on how to manipulate Frank, who everyone thinks is a redneck. He is not.
So I think, there are two ideal ways to draw the final frontier Can be expanded. This could be a two-hour movie, probably starring Liam Neeson as Frank, because at this point in his career, kicking ass in the snow is what Liam Neeson does best (or is best at). Or it could be a broadcast-style series where each episode finds Frank and Sidney working together to capture a different Orange Man, which is basically the plot blacklist and hunting party There are a dozen NBC TV series in between.
clearly, the final frontier It won't be the former, but it won't be the latter either. Even though the prisoners are played by various well-known guest stars, the things they do and the things they worry about aren't all that interesting and interesting. the final frontier Committed the cardinal sin of still being self-righteous.
This is the kind of show that absolutely has to move quickly and be efficient, but the final frontier But nothing. I could tolerate the pilot being 60 minutes long because it had a lot of exposition to go through and also built up to a climactic twist that every viewer would have expected, but was still viewed as exciting. Every one. single. audience. member. (My guess is that only 85% of viewers expected the twist at the end of episode seven.)
Subsequent episode lengths were still almost all between 55 minutes and an hour, when they should have been a suitable 40 minutes for airing, as nothing was gained from the extra time. Frank's wife and son are kidnapped in different places and by different people, and the incident turns out to be fatal. Flashbacks reveal that Sidney's connection to Havelock (the only actor in the main cast I haven't mentioned yet…try to be surprised) is fatal. Each procedural episode involving a different fugitive was deadly, and by the second half of the season, the writers were starting to joke about how easily and gently they could be stopped.
Unfortunately, the deadliest thing is the show's serialized mythology, a Russian MacGuffin nesting doll with titles like “File Six,” “The Atwater Accords” and “The Strange One.” It all involves all sorts of secret government programs and surveillance state mumbo jumbo, but none of it makes any sense other than making me nod and say, “Okay, that sounds bad.” I'm not exaggerating when I say I don't understand the origins or motivations of the Havelock character at all. not at all. And the actor who plays the character (again, the only actor in the main cast I'm not mentioning because I'm avoiding spoiling a twist that definitely won't surprise you) can't figure out how to play Havelock in any way.
Many things are boring the final frontier This could be fixed by aggressively pruning the storyline and adding scenes that actually move the needle. There's a scene where a car dangles over a chasm and everything looks fake when a character falls hundreds of feet into a chasm, and then, the next scene, with no explanation, is alive and completely healthy, and I didn't even try to figure out the logic beyond “CGI falls can't kill CGI people.” There's a scene where the characters ride horses, which is a great idea, but nothing comes of it – like a lone dogsled scene.
Performances range from “vague and sullen” (Clark) to “generally sullen” (Bennett) to “wasted” (Knoxville) to “not entirely wasteful but without purpose” (Collins). Throughout her career, she's often been asked to inject effortless authority into otherwise recognizable roles, and Woodard may have her most recognizable role to date (despite some of the stuff she did in the finale).
Most disappointing is the underutilization of Aboriginal writer and producer Dallas Goldtooth, best known as William Knifeman. reservation dog. Gold Teeth plays one of Frank's fellow bailiffs, but his character only alternates between scenes in which he spots Frank sullen and asks “What's up, boss?” the final frontier There is no in-depth look at Alaska's white or Native communities (one of the featured villages is treated to an anonymous infirmary).
The pilot and finale ended up being the only series the final frontier The only show I recommend that has a creative spark to match an enjoyable premise. The finale sets up season 2, but it's the last for me border.