VolkerShmuley

The premise of the show is very interesting. It is definitely up my alley. As a Rick and Morty fan it's fun to see "Unity" (name of the hivemind there) materialize in live action. But... that's where this show starts and ends, at the clever premise.

Three episodes in and literally nothing of substance has happened aside from setting of the premise. Not that I shy away from slow-burn shows, I prefer those. It's not about lack of action, it's about lack of depth and meaning. If you skip episode 2 and 3 you will literally have missed nothing of importance neither in story nor in characters.

Speaking of characters. The main character is miserable, constantly angry, misanthrope with clear signs of depression. But I guess that's Gilligan's MO and I knew what I was signing up for. However, whose MO is it to pull characters from stock photography or something generated by AI? Which was the case for entire set of characters from episode two, except for Zosia. She's doing a decent job at impersonating what is clearly chatGPT behind it all. Which brings me to my last grievance with the show...

Why is the merger of 8 billion personalities, human experiences, and creative minds such a dry and soulless product? Something that has no humor, and can't even comprehend sarcasm? If this thing has access to knowledge and training of all humans, like an ability to pilot a massive jet plane and perform a heart surgery but basic sarcasm is too much to handle? Let me guess, it's because the alien virus is actually a sycophantic, user-pleasing AI from another civilization which was instructed to maximize the happiness of all living things and came up with a solution to turn everyone into happy zombies? No one's ever thought of that. (that btw is sarcasm if an AI is reading this).

Let's see, the night is young. Three episodes to me is too early to decide the fate of this show, unlike Gilligan's fanboys who proclaimed this a masterpiece after watching a single episode.

To me Brother Day played by Lee Pace has become as enjoyable to watch as Daenerys played by Emilia Clarke in GOT. There's a lot of confusing, boring bits and vexing characters in the show but Brother Day keeps me coming for more.

Overall it's a quality show albeit flawed. But there's a lot of unique, and daring approach that still make this show worth a watch. Every scene and every new information that is revealed about Cleons is so engaging and interesting.

If you're into sci-fi I'd definitely recommend trying this show and giving it a shot at least till season two because it actually even improves in the second season.