Vaporo
Inkling
All right. When I was about ten years old I borrowed a complete DVD set of the original Lost in Space series from the library and ended up watching most of them before I took it back. So, naturally I was excited to see a remake coming out on Netflix that wasn't a bad movie from the 90s.
So, I watched the whole thing, and generally I thought that it was all right. Nothing amazing, but enjoyable and definitely worth your time. For the most part. All of the main characters had fine story arcs, the robot was well-designed and well-written, and the plot was generally interesting. For the most part.
The starts out roughly the same as the original. The Robinsons are a family sent into space as part of a colonization effort. However, things go wrong and they crash on an alien planet where most of the story takes place. In this version, though, they are crashed along with several dozen other colonists who they have to coordinate with to get off the planet.
The Robinsons had a good family dynamic going. The plot with the mother and father getting back together was done well enough. Penny's perpetual sarcasm is just enough to be enjoyable but not grating. Will and the robot are always excellent. Judy is... just kind of there actually. She's not a bad or uninteresting character, just not a huge focal point most of the time. Except in the first three episodes, but I'll get to that later. Don West is always fun. Yeah, no real complaints on the main character front. There's one in particular that I want to talk about, though.
A lot of people don't seem to like "Dr. Smith" in this version, but I thought she was a fine character. Maybe not GREAT, but definitely well-written and functional in the context of the show. She's a bit one-dimensional, but you what? I'm ok with that. In fact, you know what? I've had it up to about here (raises hand to about neck-level) with these boringly three-dimensional sympathetic antagonists that all of these young whippersnappers like so much nowadays. I like to see a good old-fashioned scheming, mustache-twirling, dastardly villain from time to time.
Sometimes other characters do seem to believe her a bit too much (SHE LITERALLY LEFT YOU TO DIE IN A STORM! YOU SHOULD BE SHOUTING TO ALL WHO CAN HEAR THAT SHE BE LOCKED UP!) and after a while you want to slap anyone who even thinks about listening to her, but that's kind of what Dr. Smith was in the original show. An antagonist who seeds doubt in the minds of everyone around him for his own benefit to the point where you wonder why they don't straight up cut his/her tongue out.
Some people also seem to have issues with the fact that she's a woman in this version, but I didn't mind at all. In fact, I think I prefer it. For some reason have a really hard time envisioning this incarnation of Dr. Smith as a man.
The series has some obvious problems, though. The science is atrociously bad, yes, but I've also learned that if I'm going to enjoy movies and TV then I'm going to have to ignore science. The plot stumbles at times with contrivances and conveniences, the dialogue can be a bit forced, you have to buy several new screens because of how often you've tried to punch Dr. Smith, but that's not the issue here. The real problem is the first three episodes.
Up until this point, I've really been talking more about the last seven episodes of the series. The first three, though... I have no idea what happened there. The second and third episode are mediocre at best, and the first episode is just kinda bad.
The writing here is totally ham-handed. The first scene sees Judy (one of the daughters in the Robinson family) refusing to hold her father's hand, even though it's purely for safety and they are in clear danger. That is textbook "How not to do character introduction." It seems like it's meant to introduce us to the fact that John (the father) is not popular with his children, particularly Judy. Maybe I'm forgetting some parts, but while John has made some mistakes as a father, in the rest of the show he doesn't seem to have done quite enough to warrant such blatant distaste in the first scene, and I can't remember him doing anything at all that would make Judy in particular mad at him.
I could go through every instance of forced character introductions and contrived scenarios (You are literally wearing spacesuits, have a survival tent and thick winter jackets, and are sheltered from the wind. You're telling me that you really need an extra heater to survive the night?) but that would take ages. Just suffice it to say that it's got some bad writing. Most of the bad science is also in the first episode. I don't care what is in that water, it cannot freeze that fast.
The second and third episode have a lot of the same problems as the first, but watered down enough to be a bit more bearable. Overall, the first three episodes just seem kind of slapped together.
Luckily, there was just enough decent stuff intermixed with the bad (along with a bit of nostalgia factor) to keep me going until the fourth episode, and I'm glad I did, because the series does seriously improve.
It seems to me like they originally wrote this series as seven or eight episodes, but then someone came downstairs at the last minute and said "Hey! We want this to be at least ten episodes. Get on it." Then, running low on time and wanting to preserve as much of their tightly-written script as possible, the writers desperately rewrote the first episode into three parts. There are some bits in the first three episodes that are legitimately good. The scenes with Don West and Dr. Smith aren't bad, and spite of how campy they could have ended up Will and the robot are always well done. I suspect that these better scenes may be holdovers from the original script before the first three episodes were rewritten, but that's just speculation.
Overall, I'd say give the show a shot. It isn't a masterpiece, but it's definitely worth watching. The user reviews on Netflix are extremely divided. Most people either seem to love it or hate it. But, you'll notice that the ones who say they hated it usually say that they stopped after the first or second episode. The ones who made it further usually say that they enjoyed it. So, if you do watch it, I'd suggest at least trying to make it to the fourth episode.
Anyways, now to strap myself to a chair with some popcorn and wait for Stranger Things part 3.
So, I watched the whole thing, and generally I thought that it was all right. Nothing amazing, but enjoyable and definitely worth your time. For the most part. All of the main characters had fine story arcs, the robot was well-designed and well-written, and the plot was generally interesting. For the most part.
The starts out roughly the same as the original. The Robinsons are a family sent into space as part of a colonization effort. However, things go wrong and they crash on an alien planet where most of the story takes place. In this version, though, they are crashed along with several dozen other colonists who they have to coordinate with to get off the planet.
The Robinsons had a good family dynamic going. The plot with the mother and father getting back together was done well enough. Penny's perpetual sarcasm is just enough to be enjoyable but not grating. Will and the robot are always excellent. Judy is... just kind of there actually. She's not a bad or uninteresting character, just not a huge focal point most of the time. Except in the first three episodes, but I'll get to that later. Don West is always fun. Yeah, no real complaints on the main character front. There's one in particular that I want to talk about, though.
A lot of people don't seem to like "Dr. Smith" in this version, but I thought she was a fine character. Maybe not GREAT, but definitely well-written and functional in the context of the show. She's a bit one-dimensional, but you what? I'm ok with that. In fact, you know what? I've had it up to about here (raises hand to about neck-level) with these boringly three-dimensional sympathetic antagonists that all of these young whippersnappers like so much nowadays. I like to see a good old-fashioned scheming, mustache-twirling, dastardly villain from time to time.
Sometimes other characters do seem to believe her a bit too much (SHE LITERALLY LEFT YOU TO DIE IN A STORM! YOU SHOULD BE SHOUTING TO ALL WHO CAN HEAR THAT SHE BE LOCKED UP!) and after a while you want to slap anyone who even thinks about listening to her, but that's kind of what Dr. Smith was in the original show. An antagonist who seeds doubt in the minds of everyone around him for his own benefit to the point where you wonder why they don't straight up cut his/her tongue out.
Some people also seem to have issues with the fact that she's a woman in this version, but I didn't mind at all. In fact, I think I prefer it. For some reason have a really hard time envisioning this incarnation of Dr. Smith as a man.
The series has some obvious problems, though. The science is atrociously bad, yes, but I've also learned that if I'm going to enjoy movies and TV then I'm going to have to ignore science. The plot stumbles at times with contrivances and conveniences, the dialogue can be a bit forced, you have to buy several new screens because of how often you've tried to punch Dr. Smith, but that's not the issue here. The real problem is the first three episodes.
Up until this point, I've really been talking more about the last seven episodes of the series. The first three, though... I have no idea what happened there. The second and third episode are mediocre at best, and the first episode is just kinda bad.
The writing here is totally ham-handed. The first scene sees Judy (one of the daughters in the Robinson family) refusing to hold her father's hand, even though it's purely for safety and they are in clear danger. That is textbook "How not to do character introduction." It seems like it's meant to introduce us to the fact that John (the father) is not popular with his children, particularly Judy. Maybe I'm forgetting some parts, but while John has made some mistakes as a father, in the rest of the show he doesn't seem to have done quite enough to warrant such blatant distaste in the first scene, and I can't remember him doing anything at all that would make Judy in particular mad at him.
I could go through every instance of forced character introductions and contrived scenarios (You are literally wearing spacesuits, have a survival tent and thick winter jackets, and are sheltered from the wind. You're telling me that you really need an extra heater to survive the night?) but that would take ages. Just suffice it to say that it's got some bad writing. Most of the bad science is also in the first episode. I don't care what is in that water, it cannot freeze that fast.
The second and third episode have a lot of the same problems as the first, but watered down enough to be a bit more bearable. Overall, the first three episodes just seem kind of slapped together.
Luckily, there was just enough decent stuff intermixed with the bad (along with a bit of nostalgia factor) to keep me going until the fourth episode, and I'm glad I did, because the series does seriously improve.
It seems to me like they originally wrote this series as seven or eight episodes, but then someone came downstairs at the last minute and said "Hey! We want this to be at least ten episodes. Get on it." Then, running low on time and wanting to preserve as much of their tightly-written script as possible, the writers desperately rewrote the first episode into three parts. There are some bits in the first three episodes that are legitimately good. The scenes with Don West and Dr. Smith aren't bad, and spite of how campy they could have ended up Will and the robot are always well done. I suspect that these better scenes may be holdovers from the original script before the first three episodes were rewritten, but that's just speculation.
Overall, I'd say give the show a shot. It isn't a masterpiece, but it's definitely worth watching. The user reviews on Netflix are extremely divided. Most people either seem to love it or hate it. But, you'll notice that the ones who say they hated it usually say that they stopped after the first or second episode. The ones who made it further usually say that they enjoyed it. So, if you do watch it, I'd suggest at least trying to make it to the fourth episode.
Anyways, now to strap myself to a chair with some popcorn and wait for Stranger Things part 3.
Last edited:
Myth Weaver
Dreamer
