This installation was created to study the Halo TV show

[warty goblin]

The first episode of this is out, and I watched it last night.

Non-spoiler impressions, it's good. Maybe even very good in parts. They definitely mess with the Halo lore a fair amount, which, honestly, good. The setting is cool enough, and overarching narrative is fine, but to work as a story you watch as the main attraction, instead of brief pauses in Grunt murder, it's just not gonna work as-is.

That said, the people in charge certainly know their Halo. Everything looks right, the weapons, armor, even the low shield beeper and recharge sounds, it's solid on the nerd fan service front. About the only real changes I could see were making the Spartans a bit less stupid tall, and making plasma bolts travel way, way faster.

Also the action scene at the opening was really good. Best sci-fi gunfight I've seen in ages. It isn't egregious, but they're definitely taking full advantage of being able to show some gore effects, so plasma rifles are now properly terrifying. Some of the effects for the covenant weren't super great looking, but they were all good enough, and sticking an action scene full of nine foot tall blue aliens with goat legs has to be a huge pain in the arse.

Right, spoiler impressions below.

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They're definitely leaning into the UNSC is not actually the good guys really hard in the first episode. I like this, it's always been there in the backstory, but bringing it to the foreground makes the whole conflict a lot more grey, and allows for some character growth and conflict. Humans good, aliens bad would get old fast, humans and aliens both do good and bad things gives a lot more narrative space. And makes the eventual Elite rebellion and peace treaty a lot more satisfying, if they stick that close to the games.

I like that they had Chief take his helmet off early on. It's a fun gimmick in the game that he doesn't, but it'd be pointless here, and feel like too much of a copy of the Mandalorian, the other sci-fi show about a dude in super armor with limited emotional range.

I'm not totally sold on the whole now Chief has emotions thing. Could be good, could be cheap, will have to see.

On the one hand, the escalation at the end of the episode felt a little overly dramatic. On the other I think it reinforced just how total the UNSC thought their control of the Spartans was/should be, and how dangerous an asset they were. In particular that Halsey personally had enough control over them to order them to disobey orders and fire on UNSC forces is telling. I wonder if they're setting up a parallel with the Elites here.

Speaking of Elites, I have a feeling thst the Elite that escaped becomes the Arbiter.

Overall I had a blast.

[Peelee]

There's a Halo TV show?

For those of us who have been living under a rock, where could I watch it?

[Precure]

There's a Halo TV show?

For those of us who have been living under a rock, where could I watch it?

For legal? Paramount+

[Peelee]

For legal? Paramount+

Yes, always assume legal on this site.


And thanks!

[Palanan]

I've just started seeing TV spots for this, and I have to say it looks pretty good.

I don't know beans about the games, but it sounds like the show is worthwhile. I'll bide my time and see what my viewing options might be.

[runeghost]

As a long-time Halo fan, I pretty much agree with warty goblin's take. It was good to very good, and absolutely feels like Halo, with enough indulgent moments for us long-time gamers and fans, but without leaning so heavily into the game-nods as to make it harder for new viewers who've never played a minute of Halo to get on board.

And as someone who find a lot of TV unwatchable due to pacing issues, I though it was very good there, too. Nothing felt indulgent for more than a moment, everything hung together, and we follow a solid cast of actors for enough time.

Spoilers:

Spoiler: Possible Spoilers

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This is definitely Halo, but equally definitely not a clone of the games, when it comes to plot or characters. I suspect that will serve it well but folks who wanted the game plot, but on a tv show, are going to be disappointed.
All the key points of the mythology of Halo are here.

And the Spartans live up to their reputation. The opening does an excellent job of giving us a feel for the human rebels, then showcases how deadly the elites are, and then uses that to show us just how potent the Spartans are.

[Rynjin]

I didn't necessarily want the plot of the games in a show, but I'd be lying if I said the creators' comments about how they were proud of having never even looked at the game didn't rub me the wrong way.

I was kinda hoping the show would take the existing lore, maybe even the novels, and do something with that rather than just take the Halo aesthetics and make their own thing.

If others are saying it's good, though, despite that, I'll probably at least watch the first episode.

[warty goblin]

I didn't necessarily want the plot of the games in a show, but I'd be lying if I said the creators' comments about how they were proud of having never even looked at the game didn't rub me the wrong way.

I was kinda hoping the show would take the existing lore, maybe even the novels, and do something with that rather than just take the Halo aesthetics and make their own thing.

If others are saying it's good, though, despite that, I'll probably at least watch the first episode.

They definitely looked at the game. The show has a couple first person sections, and MC's HUD is lifted straight out of Halo 2, radar on the lower left, shield bar across the top, everything except an actual blue aiming reticle. The guns look like Halo guns, the Elites are Elites, it is very, very much Halo.

And all of one episode in, I don't think they're really changing the important core of the lore/setting. We get the UNSC being questionable now rather than later because it would be a real asspull to do that in something as plot heavy as a TV show.

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I think they're changing how they find Halo itself, based on the Artifact they find. IIRC in the game's it's based on an excavation on Reach, but this is the sort of detail I really don't care about.

Oh and I guess Kwan will probably be tagging along, which I'm also fine with. TV is not a medium conducive to telling a story ny having one dude walk around, shoot some things, then get told to walk to a different place and shoot things there. You've gotta have some characters interacting.

[Satohika]

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I don't get why they need to kill the girl. If UN supposed to be "fascist", can't they just arrest her? Or just lock her up and not telling anyone?

[runeghost]

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I don't get why they need to kill the girl. If UN supposed to be "fascist", can't they just arrest her? Or just lock her up and not telling anyone?

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I think that's rather the point. They don't need to kill her. But having her alive is inconvenient and has the possibility of negative outcomes down the road. Killing her is simple and easy. And, I'm presuming made technically easier because she is a "rebel" rather than a everyday civilian.

I think "fascist" isn't really the right take on the UNSC. They know they're facing a strong existential threat to the human race, and part of their response is to toss a lot of norms and legal niceties right out the airlock, which makes them Totalitarian Utilitarians in TV Tropes terms. I think that can make them interesting to watch if done well in the show, sort of a trolley problem on the scale of billions of lives and all of civilization.

In story-telling terms, bad-guys who don't think of themselves as bad guys often make better opponents. And while even the Covenant don't think of themselves that way, although from the perspective of the show, they do fit the role of "mindless baddies", at least for now.

I suspect they're going to be laying groundwork for the eventual heel to face turn by (some of) the Covenant, particularly after we encounter the pure horror of the Flood.

[GloatingSwine]

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I think "fascist" isn't really the right take on the UNSC. They know they're facing a strong existential threat to the human race, and part of their response is to toss a lot of norms and legal niceties right out the airlock, which makes them Totalitarian Utilitarians in TV Tropes terms. I think that can make them interesting to watch if done well in the show, sort of a trolley problem on the scale of billions of lives and all of civilization.

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I'm not sure how this TV series is handling things, but all the fascist things the UNSC is doing whilst fighting the Covenant are also things it was doing to its own people to fight rebels and separatists trying to break away. Things like kidnapping children to turn into the SPARTANs was intended to create a terror weapon to fight against rebel colonies, not a protector for humanity.

Of the two Microsoft series with a fascist government in crisis though, the UNSC was always less critically presented than the COG. The COG generally always make their own problems and enemies specifically *because* their approach to problem solving is authoritarian and destructive. The UNSC is quietly fascist in the backstory, the COG repeatedly kicks itself in the **** because it's too fascist not to kick *someone* in the ****.

[Satohika]

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I think that's rather the point. They don't need to kill her. But having her alive is inconvenient and has the possibility of negative outcomes down the road. Killing her is simple and easy. And, I'm presuming made technically easier because she is a "rebel" rather than a everyday civilian.

I think "fascist" isn't really the right take on the UNSC. They know they're facing a strong existential threat to the human race, and part of their response is to toss a lot of norms and legal niceties right out the airlock, which makes them Totalitarian Utilitarians in TV Tropes terms. I think that can make them interesting to watch if done well in the show, sort of a trolley problem on the scale of billions of lives and all of civilization.

In story-telling terms, bad-guys who don't think of themselves as bad guys often make better opponents. And while even the Covenant don't think of themselves that way, although from the perspective of the show, they do fit the role of "mindless baddies", at least for now.

I suspect they're going to be laying groundwork for the eventual heel to face turn by (some of) the Covenant, particularly after we encounter the pure horror of the Flood.

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Considering how little risk there is to let her live, it's more of "kick the dog" moment for them. Even if she somehow escape, I can't see how can she spread her lies about the invasion. And even then why would anyone believe it, considering whole thing is recorded.

[Ramza00]

I was kinda hoping the show would take the existing lore, maybe even the novels, and do something with that rather than just take the Halo aesthetics and make their own thing.

Which Novels specifically? There are like 30 novels for Halo (28 as of the video below)



So what specific details and lore do you want?

[Rynjin]

I'll tell you after I get around to the episode, probably tomorrow. Was waffling on whether it was worth renewing Paramount+ for.

I read the first...7 or 8 novels I think. Really getting into the nitty gritty of HOW much shady **** ONI was up to in the background was a big appeal for several of the novels, so a show really going deep into that side of things would be fun.

The biggest thing the novels did IMO was flesh out the characterization of a lot of the flatter characters like Halsey and even John Halo himself.

[Palanan]

Just watched the first episode. I’d only planned to check out the first couple of minutes, but it pulled me in and kept me hooked.

I just barely know what Halo is, and I’ve never played the games, so I probably didn’t get nearly as much from it as fans of the franchise did. For me the first part was the strongest—attack on the colony, funky alien artifact, spunky lone survivor, all adds up to a solid and well-paced beginning.

But once it got into the murky politics and morally compromised decisions, I enjoyed it much less; the acting was decidedly uneven and the dialogue even more so. Production values were impeccable, but the story’s video-game origins really showed. I didn’t much like any of the characters apart from Kwan herself, and a lot of the elements verged on cliché, even if they were beautifully filmed clichés.

Spoiler: Why, Why, Why?

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I also didn’t really get the deal with the UNSC trying to kill Kwan. After one short conversation, they decide to kill her? I’m not sure how much of a threat she could possibly be. Do they just really like killing rebel kids? Yes, evil military alliance, but that seems to be going overboard.

I’m also not sure what was going on with the oxygen levels on the ship—were they trying to kill Kwan remotely? Why not just do a remote override on MC’s armor and punch her into a bulkhead?

Also, I was expecting the rest of MC’s team to jump onto his ship and join him as he blasted out of Mos Eisley quarantine. I had the impression they were looking at him flying away and thinking, “Dude! Seriously?!”

Spoiler: Conversation Starter

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Also, the UNSC come across as morons for using a junior military officer to try establishing contact with a rebel survivor. If they had any sense they would’ve used a slightly older, clearly nonmilitary counselor, someone who could reach Kwan with a better show of empathy.

As it was, they seemed to be going out of their way to antagonize her with the uniform and all the attitudes just beneath the surface. Other than establishing Miranda’s character, I’m not sure why they did that—either UNSC or the showrunners. It ends up making UNSC look even more heavy-handed and not especially bright.

I enjoyed the first episode, but mainly the first half of it, and not feeling especially compelled to continue. If it picks up from here I might follow along at some point.

Originally Posted by warty goblin

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They're definitely leaning into the UNSC is not actually the good guys really hard in the first episode. I like this, it's always been there in the backstory, but bringing it to the foreground makes the whole conflict a lot more grey, and allows for some character growth and conflict.

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Trouble is, they hit it so hard that for those of us without any grounding in the Haloverse, we’re left not knowing who if anyone we should be believing in. “Trust no one, keep your laser handy” could be the motto, but it makes it more difficult to get a read on who exactly MC is.

And the parallels to Mando are hard to shake, especially with the setup for MC's own version of lone-wolf-and-cub.

[warty goblin]

Spoiler: Why, Why, Why?

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I also didn’t really get the deal with the UNSC trying to kill Kwan. After one short conversation, they decide to kill her? I’m not sure how much of a threat she could possibly be. Do they just really like killing rebel kids? Yes, evil military alliance, but that seems to be going overboard.

I’m also not sure what was going on with the oxygen levels on the ship—were they trying to kill Kwan remotely? Why not just do a remote override on MC’s armor and punch her into a bulkhead?

Also, I was expecting the rest of MC’s team to jump onto his ship and join him as he blasted out of Mos Eisley quarantine. I had the impression they were looking at him flying away and thinking, “Dude! Seriously?!”

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They're an essentially unconstrained military ruling body (note how there was no mention of a civilian ruling body or guarantee or constitutional rights) waging a years-long anti-insurgency. Killing vaguely inconvenient people, particularly those of military age with known links to rebels, is exactly the kind of thing organizations do. Frankly trying to recruit her for propaganda purposes, however hamhandedly, is nearly bleeding heart of them.

Spoiler: Conversation Starter

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Also, the UNSC come across as morons for using a junior military officer to try establishing contact with a rebel survivor. If they had any sense they would’ve used a slightly older, clearly nonmilitary counselor, someone who could reach Kwan with a better show of empathy.

As it was, they seemed to be going out of their way to antagonize her with the uniform and all the attitudes just beneath the surface. Other than establishing Miranda’s character, I’m not sure why they did that—either UNSC or the showrunners. It ends up making UNSC look even more heavy-handed and not especially bright.

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Again, military pseudo-dictatorship. These are not people who do empathy, by and large. Kwan is a basically irrelevant person teetering between mildly useful asset and mildly inconvenient liability. Putting enough thought into it to pick a better person would imply they care, the whole point is that they don't.

If this makes you think you're not really supposed to be on their side, no, you aren't. I think it's smart of the show to make this clear from the word go, something the game's very much do not do. In something as story-minimal as an FPS, you can totally have high command turn out to have been horrible the whole time and you just never noticed. It'd be a real ass-pull in a TV show though. Also emphasizing that thus is on fact bad from the get-go is good because, well, extra-juducial homicide is bad.

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Trouble is, they hit it so hard that for those of us without any grounding in the Haloverse, we’re left not knowing who if anyone we should be believing in. “Trust no one, keep your laser handy” could be the motto, but it makes it more difficult to get a read on who exactly MC is.

And the parallels to Mando are hard to shake, especially with the setup for MC's own version of lone-wolf-and-cub.

I think who MC is is supposed to be a question, one that being familiar with the game's doesn't really help answer, because this is very much a different continuity, and even if it wasn't Chief isn't exactly a well defined character in the games. He only talks during cutscenes, and is pretty laconic (har har) there. Which works fine for an FPS protagonist, but is a lot harder to hang a show on. Having Kwan be the viewpoint character is a smart choice, since it allows the audience uncertainty to be expressed in the show.

And while there's some definite immediate similarities with Mandalorian, I expect those to fade pretty quickly. If they follow the game plot at all, it goes in a pretty strongly different direction, not least because the Covenant are fairly interesting antagonists. Also Kwan is an actual character, rather than a walking deus ex machina/marketing opportunity.

That said I'm away from streaming things for the weekend, so I haven't been able to watch the second Halo episode yet. I'm looking forwards to it though.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by warty goblin

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If this makes you think you're not really supposed to be on their side, no, you aren't.

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Yeah, got that in spades. Trouble is, it makes it more difficult to understand where MC is coming from, and what his role is in it all.

I’ll be watching this space for thoughts on the second episode. If it improves on the second half of the pilot, I may come along for the ride.

Originally Posted by warty goblin
…pretty laconic….

Yup, I saw what you did there.

[warty goblin]

Watched the second episode last night.

Non-spoiler version, this ain't your granddaddy's Halo. Overall I like it though, seems to be thinking pretty hard about how you turn a videogame about shooting day-glow aliens in vaguely sinister feeling ruins as a faceless dude who's personality begins and ends at badass, and turning it into a functioning narrative for TV. And I think most of the solutions are good.

It also did a lot to tell us who the Chief is. Or at least who is currently, and why he is that way. I really liked these parts.

And now I spoil all the things.

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So we get a Spartan deserter, and another look at some non-UNSC controlled space. This is fun in a very "we too watched The Expanse" way, but I'm cool with that. I liked that they made it clear that staying a emotionless husk is a choice, that allows for character growth and agency instead of just being a traumatized badass.

We get the first mention of the ring, which is obviously Halo. Also that the Covenant think it is a weapon, which is a bit of a change from lore. I thought the reveal of this was reasonably well done, some definite Lovecraft vibes going on.

I don't think I'm wild about Blessed Ones. That's just an adjective shift from Chosen One, but eh. Slightly generic, functional, not bad as story choices go.

More UNSC politics. I like these parts fine, though there's maybe slightly too many characters. On the other hand, having a lot of characters keeps the story from just collapsing into Terrible Space Family Drama and maintains the political element as politics. Also the UNSC continues to be horrible, which is good.

I expected MC to be cool, I didn't expect to feel sorry for him, but I do. Partly this is down to a really strong performance, the lead just radiates this sort of confused tragedy that I find extremely compelling. Having him take off his helmet is clearly the right choice, it just wouldn't work half as well without his face hammering home that this man is a shell and doesn't even know it.

The girlfriend also seems to like it, and she knows nothing about Halo. I remain excited.

[Peelee]

Loved the first episode. Not so much the second. I dont mind changing the lore for the most part, I liked how they played with it at first (with the exception of people being related to other people and just being the best at their respective things). The only real lore thing I think they should stick to is the events of Halo CE. Second episode made it very clear they are moving far away from that and doing their own thing. It may well be nostalgia talking, but all the reveals and mystery of pretty much everything about Halo was perfectly done in CE, and I don't like the idea of them eventually finding it and not going in completely blind.

I also don't think they've handled the musical Halo theme terribly well either. It fit the game perfectly, conveying myserty, majesty, and awe (the latter two sig ifixanrly more). There hasn't really been much of any of that so far except mystery.

[warty goblin]

Loved the first episode. Not so much the second. I dont mind changing the lore for the most part, I liked how they played with it at first (with the exception of people being related to other people and just being the best at their respective things). The only real lore thing I think they should stick to is the events of Halo CE. Second episode made it very clear they are moving far away from that and doing their own thing. It may well be nostalgia talking, but all the reveals and mystery of pretty much everything about Halo was perfectly done in CE, and I don't like the idea of them eventually finding it and not going in completely blind.

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The games already retconned them finding the first Halo blind. If you play through Reach you find a Forerunner structure under the planet that points to Halo; the major plot of the climax of the game is suppressing the Covenant long enough to allow the Pillar of Autumn to take off.

Which makes a lot more sense than just blind-jumping there. The galaxy is preposterously huge, and Halo is pretty small. You don't just find that by accident.

I don't really care if they monkey around with how they find Halo, I don't think that's super important to the plot as a whole. So long as they keep the Flood, and the reveal of Halo's purpose, roughly as is I'm good.

Also they need to add stuff before getting to Halo; there just isn't enough story there to make more than two to three episodes out of.

I also don't think they've handled the musical Halo theme terribly well either. It fit the game perfectly, conveying myserty, majesty, and awe (the latter two sig ifixanrly more). There hasn't really been much of any of that so far except mystery.

This I definitely agree with. Unfortunately I think the original Halo music is tied up in some sort of legal quagmire hell at the moment, so I suspect they're pretty restricted in what they can use. Which is a pity, because while the shows music isn't bad, it's nowhere near as good as the game's OST.

[Peelee]

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The games already retconned them finding the first Halo blind. If you play through Reach you find a Forerunner structure under the planet that points to Halo; the major plot of the climax of the game is suppressing the Covenant long enough to allow the Pillar of Autumn to take off.

Which makes a lot more sense than just blind-jumping there. The galaxy is preposterously huge, and Halo is pretty small. You don't just find that by accident.

I don't really care if they monkey around with how they find Halo, I don't think that's super important to the plot as a whole. So long as they keep the Flood, and the reveal of Halo's purpose, roughly as is I'm good.

Also they need to add stuff before getting to Halo; there just isn't enough story there to make more than two to three episodes out of.

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Reach didn't retcon it that much, really. At worst, Cortana had coordinates she was keeping secret (Keyes said "we made a blind jump", clearly showing that he had no knowledge), and I always interpreted it as more of a "something is a that way" type deal. But even with the actual coordinates, they still had no expectation of what to find there or what it was. Here, they open up in Ep 2 with "there's a ring, it's a weapon!" Big gulf between that and what Reach did, IMO.

Also finding it by accident was part of the mystique in CE. Sure, galaxy a big place, but how far out is UNSC's sphere of influence? The Covenant found at least five other alien races while the humans hadn't found any until they met the Covenant, so they couldn't have expanded that far out, and given that

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Forerunner are humans and Earth was always the homeworld

, it really isn't that much of a stretch that it'd be relatively close by.

For the music, ODST also had an amazing score that really helped achieve the ambiance and atmosphere they were shooting for. The games had great music, and I'm not sure if they weren't able to get the original composers or if what the show runner's wanted was just different.

[warty goblin]

So watched Episode 3, which again I overall liked.

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New look Cortana is fine. The redesign is completely unnecessary, but it's fine. I think they're doing a reasonable job of establishing her and Chief's relationship early on; I like that Halsey is smart enough to want Chief to like Cortana even if it means he's temporarily farther out of her control. It's nasty cold and manipulative, but that's very on-character.

Speaking of which, I thought the conversation between Halsey and her clone was really superbly written, the ways the clone kept trying to get Halsey to see her as, well, herself through little changes in language, and Halsey kept her at an emotional distance. A much worse, much easier to write version of that scene would have just had clone Halsey yelling about how she is Halsey and doesn't that mean anything, which wouldn't have been faithful to Halsey's character at all, both because she's too cold for that, and because there's no way clone Halsey would have thought it would work.

Also well done was MC getting his feeling back. Again that could have been painfully over the top, big emotional meltdown tears in the rain sort of thing. Instead it was quiet, took time to breathe and sold itself mostly through subtle acting, and felt suitably weighty.

I'm less enamored of Chief's super special childhood backstory, but I'm still willing to see where it goes.

I think I'm liking Makee, or whatever the human Covanent lady is called. Her existence is a pretty big departure from normal Halo lore, but I'm pretty OK with that. For one thing it recontextualizes the Covanent from hating all humans everywhere as a matter of religious principle, to being willing to work with them when it suits their interests. That's smart, sets up the eventual fissure much more sensibly. It also makes them, at this point, about as sympathetic as the UNSC leadership, which is fairly interesting. Shifts the story from being about how bad aliens are the problem to unaccountable military dictatorships are bad.

Also, this is about the only sci-fi show I can think of where people have pet dogs. That's major bonus points right there.

[Sapphire Guard]

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My exposure to HALO begins and ends with the novelisation of the first game, but this is a weird one. Seems to be going for the most generic choices possible. If they wanted nuance, they could have done anything -literally anything- other than a ' decide whether or not to kill the girl' plot.

If Chief has to discover his emotions, have something happen to him emotionally rather than having a literal chip that can just be removed or damaged. That's just emotional development via magic artifact, freeing the scriptwriters from having to write a reason themselves.

They're making all of the easy choices that don't take as much work as plotting it themselves rather than following generic tropes.