I’ve read and enjoyed the novels. Watching the show right now, I’m in episode 3 and it’s losing me. The generator scene is bloody idiotic, and the absolute lack of respect for my intelligence has me wondering if I should just drop it right now. Does it get any better, or is this one of those shows with plotholes galore that you have to turn off your brain to enjoy?
Edit: Since I compiled this list in a comment, may as well add it to the main post.
List of stupidity:
- A generator intended to last for centuries, has no shutoff mechanism without blowing up. It was just intended to last all that time, with all those moving parts under immense pressure, without any possibility of repair.
- Steam underground can apparently heat up steel to red hot temps, while not baking the lower levels alive.
- Throwing some cold water at said red hot steel somehow relieves the pressure on the other side without turning Mechanical into a Dutch oven.
- Utter and absolute lack of any backup power beyond keeping a few fans turning. In a facility that’s supposed to last centuries.
- Sparkly angle grinders! Best repair tool ever.
- Turbine somehow works while walls are removed meaning there’s no pressure.
- Knox just yelling at everybody to hurry up. Because yes, rushing and stressing workers in a already high pressure situation works so well.
- The generator (again, the one that’s supposed to last half a millennium, and has no backup, or shutdown mechanism) is apparently fragile enough you can break it by dropping a hand tool on it.
- Rising pressure does not cause rising temperatures.
- The heroine can apparently survive temperatures that turn steel red hot.
That’s just the obvious technical stuff, without getting into things like the stupidity of turning off power to the entire facility with next to no notice.
The fantasy tech didn’t really bother me, but the pacing of the show was too slow for me.
The generator episode infuriated me greatly, yes. I still really enjoyed the show and am looking forward to more.
It’s kinda remarkable, because there’s depictions of practical engineering later on in the show that are very good.
Season 2 in particular ends with the best depiction of a particular theme I’ve ever seen.
(the theme in question)
Lovecraftian horror
Most shows don’t respect people with very specific knowledge about niche topics (like generators). They’re meant to be entertaining, not accurate.
You should know Hugh Howey, the author of the novels, is overseeing the show. He rushed the books and he’s not entirely happy with the way the books turned out, so he’s adding stuff for the show. All the changes made are with his official blessing.
A lot of people didn’t like the second season because it was too dark. It was meant to be. My vision is not that great and I thought it was fine.
As a book reader, you might be interested to know that the way the second season ended, they left off the very end of the first book (conflict between 2 characters and what comes after) and instead wrote in a teaser for the second book. It’s a scene that is not in the books, it just exists to tease the contents of the second book. So seasons 1 and 2 adapt the first book, Wool. Minus the end. Seasons 3 and 4 will both adapt the second and third books (and the ending of the first one). If you recall, the second book started as a prequel and it focuses on the main silo. Unfortunately it doesn’t have Juliette or any of the other characters in it, so the show can’t just drop all those characters for a season, so it’s going to run that plot line concurrently with the stuff with the existing characters. I think show-only watchers will hate it and book readers will be mixed on it. Personally (also a book reader) I’m looking forward to the changes. And hoping he fixes or at least tweaks the ending a bit.
Most shows don’t respect people with very specific knowledge about niche topics (like generators).
TBF, I’m not an expert in generators. But this is basic day to day physics knowledge errors I’m pointing out.
Fair enough. I never really thought much about it other than “really? they don’t have a backup or something?”.
Maybe I just default to turning my brain off for fantasy. If it doesn’t take place in the world we live in, why should we hold it to the rules of the world we live in? That’s just my thought on watching fantasy.
It does not.
I went into the show knowing nothing and really enjoyed season 1. I thought season 2 had good elements, but didn’t work overall. I’ll probably still watch (or at least start) season 3.
For me season 2 felt like a show trying at adapt a book, if that makes sense. Parts of it didn’t feel believable, but I could convince myself it made sense if someone took time to explain it, but the show didn’t. Or the opposite where a subtle reveal would beat you over the head because instead of slowly hinting, they just very clearly make odd decisions that have to have meaning.
Season two was a mixed bag.
I will be interested to see how season three goes. It looks like it might take place in the past, explaining what lead to the silo’s creation. I’m not really interested in that. And if that’s all it is, I’ll drop it. I’m more interested in the original characters unraveling the mysteries on their own.
I don’t know how many seasons are planned, but I assume the past scene was just a small tease. Assuming 4 seasons as a complete guess, would think season 3 will have 2-3 past scenes right after a character learns something, then season 4 would have an episode of parallel scenes or one full past episode.
Ultimately leading to a past scene that says “And hopefully, years from now, the human race can rebuild, having learned to treat Mother Nature more kindly”, jump to Solo people starting a new world and the the audience, knowing why, but the Solo people not, if they can rebuild.
Season 2 lost my interest halfway through. Loved the books.
