Snowpiercer: Rompenieves

I always thought the 2013 movie was too short, so after watching the movie i found myself reading the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, later re-titled Snowpiercer 1: The Escape, created by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, and published in 1982.

In my enthusiasm, I also read the subsequent sequels, The Explorers and The Terminus.

Then years later i come across this Snowpiercer TV series and right from the start i am into it. The first 2 seasons follow the first book loosely with some additions and omissions.

The show starts strong, especially in the first two seasons, with great world-building and solid storylines. However, by Season 4, it slows down, and some parts feel stretched out. Jennifer Connelly and Sean Bean keep things interesting though, with Connelly adding real depth to her character, even when she disappears from the story at times.

Daveed Diggs doesn't quite fit the role of such a major character; there are several moments where his acting feels awkward and out of place.

Overall its a good and entertaining show, better then the movie but worse then the graphic novel series.

Whoever made the decision to film season 4 with an abundance of close-ups, hand held cameras, and what looks like cell phones in the season 4 opener, really should be forced to sit on an anthill. That's what watching this show is like. The jump cuts, shaky camera work, jeez, what are they thinking. Let me guess, some "creative thinker" thought, lets give the show a claustrophobic feel with tight shots. This is what happens when someone surrounds themselves with sycophants who tell them they're geniuses. Or it's the fall back on the back of for a show that is not very interesting and is reaching for something it has lost and can't get back. It's the cinematic equivalent of jumping the shark. It reeks of desperation. This shows camera work is physically painful to watch..

People are weird. Sometime really ridiculous TV series and movies gets very good reviews and sometime decent series gets bad. This TV series is the example of later. It's not an Emmy winning series but nevertheless quite interesting to watch. The actors are doing good job and the plot has some life to it. I am not sure, how come some science fiction movies and TV series, like Star Wars, gets high ratings, despite being quite away from reality but some get judged based on scientific laws.

First of all lets make one think clear, this is a show in a sci-fi setting and Sci-fi has always been experimenting with cheesy and illogical concepts. I don't know why people forgot that. Of cource the idea of a endlessly running train isn't realistic nor would the class system of the train work in real life, but thats not the point of the show. You wouldn't say that fighting with laser swords or travelling through time in a car is very realistic, but it is definitely fun to watch. That is why (at least for me) Snowpiercer works. Is it a show that would win awards for groundbraking acting or writing? No, probably not. But the story is definitely thrilling, the set pieces are fascinating and I am extremely invested in the show.

Like most people, I enjoyed the movie enough to give this show a chance. Season 1 was good enough, with some glaring issues but not TOO many. Season 2 was still watchable, but a clear decline in quality. As for Season 3, it has been painful just to get through each episode, and I'm only still going because I very rarely just stop watching something mid season after I've invested many hours in it already. I truly don't even know where to begin, when explaining why the current season has been so bad. Many reviews have already stated how bad of an actor the guy who plays Layton is, but even the characters who were once interesting and often likeable are barely recognizable anymore. Also, the attempts at artistic shots and dialogue fall flat every single time; it feels like a college student wrote most of the monologs. I'm currently on episode 8 of Season 3 and will, at the very least, finish with this season... but not because it is interesting or captivating. Rather, just out of a general curiosity to see where they're going with the show and to confirm my theory that it can't get any worse (even though episode 7 proved me to be painfully wrong already). You've been warned.