The Stars Our Destination

The Stars Our Destination slows down a bit compared to previous episodes, giving us time to understand how the characters are feeling after everything that's happened and is happening now. It's more about their emotions and decisions than big action scenes.

Actually, i think that the episode could've been wrapped up in a 10-15 minutes in the previous one or adding it up to the next episode. More or less, it didn't feel quite right.

While yes it might feel a bit slow, it's important for setting up what comes next in the story. Overall, it's a thoughtful episode that gets us ready for the next part of the adventure.

This show has had issues before but they are amplified now that it's mostly become a melodrama about uninteresting characters and petty issues. Many characters don't seem to actually care about the events that just unfolded or the impending alien invasion. They are too busy being involved in their own personal problems rather than putting all of it aside. The narrow focus on the 4 scientist friends group drama is mind numbingly boring to watch at times. Saul and Will are often uninteresting at best. The Jin and Auggie characters are very arrogant and entitled.

This is extremely off putting as most of their esteem is completely unearned. They do their level best to show you how foolish, naive or immature they are. These characters are not believable as the elite and accomplished scientists that they are supposed to be. They act morally superior and make derogatory remarks against Raj and Wade (who are actually trying to win a war of survival) while acting like spoiled children and moody teens. It is completely out of hand and they are in need of adult supervision (along with the writers apparently).

The writers seem incapable of actually making these characters behave intelligently. They can't decide if they should grace humanity with their unique knowledge or do...nothing. It's unbelievable that these 2 can't be replaced. There are 1 million physicists in the world and millions of other intelligent people that apparently don't hold a candle to an alcoholic that never does any work but somehow produces cutting edge fibers or a physicist that has nothing going for her other than a BF out of her league. Auggie doesn't even run the company that makes the fibers! Meanwhile Raj and Wade are out there actually making a difference.

This is the lowest rated episode of the season and yet all the negative (and accurate) reviews are being downvoted. Strange. I guess only fanboys read reviews.

Anyway, if this were edited down to 22 minutes (the length of half and hour network tv) it would be a good episode. Keep the stuff that moves the way plot forward and get rid of the relationship stuff.

Episode summary: The "giant eye" formed in the sky by the San-Ti Sophon causes panic in the global population, leading to turmoil in major cities. Jin Cheng visits the imprisoned Ye Wenjie, questioning her about the need to attract the San-Ti to Earth.

For those who had read the book, it's quite clear that this chapter is from book 3 and it's a preparation for something very important later on in this book. I immediately recognized the setting for the later events and tears almost rolled out of my eyes knowing what the scene will lead to. But for the general audiences who did not know what's going on then you might think it's a drag. Consider the very fast pace of the season in general, I'd think that this chapter is not an exception, just it's something that the viewers won't know until season 2 or 3. Or maybe it's the intention of the writers to lay something in the mind of the viewers and they will receive the explosive "revelation" later on.

A mini-series has to have a time to look into the heads of the characters once in a while. I know with the short attention spans out there, if there isn't some sort of overt action every two minutes they lose interest. Here we get to see what the consequences of the Panama incident are for individuals. On the one hand we have the loss of life and the judgment made by a small group; on the other the fallout in individual societies. The people are panicking, even though what they fear is 400 years in the future. Meanwhile, a plot is hatched to circumvent the attack. When is too soon? What sort of technology is available to even do what they have planned. One sort of sweet thing is the young man with the death sentence (pancreatic cancer) viewing the beauties of the world in the time he has left.