Thoughts: Tomorrow People (2013)
Sep. 3rd, 2015 02:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
argentum_lsI’ve been rewatching the last few episodes of The Tomorrow People (CW) and have decided that they really encapsulate my biggest problem with the show: too much plot and not enough character.
While the back half of the show feels really rushed to me, I’ll grant that this is likely because the the producers saw the writing on the wall and wanted to provide a complete story line, thus forcing them to compress a much longer arc into the remaining episodes.
That said, the problems to me go back to the first episodes, though they don’t start to get really bad until episode 6 or so (IMO). The first few episodes introduce the characters; these are my favorite episodes because there are solid interactions that don’t involve hitting, shooting, or otherwise trying to pummel someone. But then there’s the plot. The first episode alone introduces the TP, ULTRA, the shadow war, Jedikiah’s plans for TP extermination, and Stephen as a double agent. That’s a lot of material! By the fifth episode, we’ve seen multiple examples of people betraying or being betrayed by ULTRA, learned about the Annex project, and been introduced to a number of new characters. The pace only picks up after that.
The Tomorrow People as a concept are always about saving the world, often with the threat being fairly absurd, so I’m willing to suspend a lot of disbelief there. However, the threat of the Founder and the Machine were so convoluted, and required so much rearranging of the pieces as to who’s on which side at any given minute (and who’s involved with which other character at any given minute), that the show turned itself into a Gordian Knot of motivation.
I think the show would have been much better–and might even have been successful–if the producers had taken the same approach to it that they brought to The Flash and simplified the overarching plot and provided a lot more opportunity for the characters to just be.
Thoughts?
While the back half of the show feels really rushed to me, I’ll grant that this is likely because the the producers saw the writing on the wall and wanted to provide a complete story line, thus forcing them to compress a much longer arc into the remaining episodes.
That said, the problems to me go back to the first episodes, though they don’t start to get really bad until episode 6 or so (IMO). The first few episodes introduce the characters; these are my favorite episodes because there are solid interactions that don’t involve hitting, shooting, or otherwise trying to pummel someone. But then there’s the plot. The first episode alone introduces the TP, ULTRA, the shadow war, Jedikiah’s plans for TP extermination, and Stephen as a double agent. That’s a lot of material! By the fifth episode, we’ve seen multiple examples of people betraying or being betrayed by ULTRA, learned about the Annex project, and been introduced to a number of new characters. The pace only picks up after that.
The Tomorrow People as a concept are always about saving the world, often with the threat being fairly absurd, so I’m willing to suspend a lot of disbelief there. However, the threat of the Founder and the Machine were so convoluted, and required so much rearranging of the pieces as to who’s on which side at any given minute (and who’s involved with which other character at any given minute), that the show turned itself into a Gordian Knot of motivation.
I think the show would have been much better–and might even have been successful–if the producers had taken the same approach to it that they brought to The Flash and simplified the overarching plot and provided a lot more opportunity for the characters to just be.
Thoughts?
no subject
Date: 2015-10-06 07:17 pm (UTC)And their answer to all of the above was YES.
I really think they needed to either start the show with Stephen in Ultra and focus there, with him not really interacting with the rest of the TP until we'd gotten a good feel for Ultra -- or they should've started him with the TP and no idea what Ultra was like on the inside or that his uncle worked there.
Personally, I like the second one. You could come up with a hand-wavey reason why the TP would decide not to tell Stephen about his uncle. And then you're just following various TP plots for a while, and you'd have a chance to get to know the characters before expanding the scope of the series to include Ultra.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-06 09:23 pm (UTC)Starting with Stephen in the TP would have been in keeping with the adaption, as that's how the original show began. I think him meeting his uncle right away could have worked if there'd been some way for Jedikiah's role in ULTRA to be withheld from him (but, perhaps, not from us) until a few eps in. Seeing the TP dealing with ULTRA and/or having the TP deal with their other stuff while ULTRA menaces in the background for a few eps could have been really interesting. And it would've given us the chance to get to know everyone, because there's nothing like inconsistent motivations to make a show hard to believe in.
One of the things I did like about the '13 version is that the TP we met were losing their war. As I've said elsewhere, at the time we meet them, they've essentially lost and all ULTRA has to do is sweep up the pieces. That's not the superhero story we usually get, and it definitely isn't the TP story we've ever gotten. There's a great story that was almost told in how Stephen turned the tables, in part by getting his uncle to switch sides. But that requires everyone having a clear and consistent role so that we can care about why they're making the choices they are.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 12:14 pm (UTC)(Also more Charlotte. *ducks and runs away*)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 07:21 pm (UTC)You can have your more Charlotte if I can have my more Luca. Deal?
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 09:14 pm (UTC)I wonder what trouble Luca and Charlotte could have gotten into together.