Nightflyers

I really wanted to like this show. It started not bad, but with each week it is getting worse. It simply became boring, messy, not clear what is going on there, and don't let me start on logic, science or whatever scyfy is there. No tension, no action, nothing. I hope it will improve somehow but it is just getting worse...

It's not the most original story. It borrows heavily from Solaris, 2001, Star Trek, Sunshine, Strange Days, The Abyss... But the hate it gets is pretty ROFL worthy. I didn't understand why at first, until i understood that this series replaced the ultimately forgettable (yet seemingly more popular) "The Expanse". I love Sci-Fi, but honestly, all the reviews rating this below 5, you can just disregard them. IMDB should stop letting every opiniated crybaby write a review and figure out a way to filter out the petty fanboy drivel. It also seems a lot of these people did not watch the show, like they claimed to have, since they are bringing up issues, which are actually explained in the story. But as it stands, Nightflyers is rated a lot lower than shows many times worse, such as Killjoys, Dark Matter or Continuum and other cheesefests. This show is leagues better than those, yet gets rated a lot worse.

Back to the show. The setting works, eventhough it's not original (as stated above), characters and performances are better than most sci-fi series, there is enough mystery, to keep you interested without dragging it all out (like The Expanse). There are a few things that don't make sense, but ultimately don't detract from the experience, unless you have set your bar to the standard of the absolute best shows of the past few decades. If you let those things bother you, then you can stop watching about 95% of movies and shows all together.

It's a well made show, i enjoyed watching it, but does not break any new ground. If you liked the movies/shows i mentioned earlier, and wouldn't mind a "light-synthesis" version of those (content & storywise), then you might very well enjoy this.

The show starts okay and the general themes are interesting, but as it goes on it gets worse and worse. The crew makes no sense at all. People don't communicate with each other or act logically and of course everything goes wrong because of it. Later there is a lot of filler. Lots of logical inconsistencies where the show breaks rules it had established before. Sometimes characters tell others what happened wrong. This just seems like scenes were filmed out of order and messed up in editing or something. The way computers work of course makes no sense either, but I guess this is a minor gripe at this point.

So why still 6 stars? Because I think for all its flaws it was still extremely watchable. If only to get the solutions to the mysteries. I do not regret watching it, though I will not watch it ever again or a season 2 of it.

The costumes are nice, actors are ok, but it seems like the plot doesn't really go anywhere big. People talk here and there, creepy stuff happens with sudden loud sounds, nothing gets explained well or at all so you have to believe in their reality no questions asked. I know it's fiction and all but a very unrealistic one so it's very hard to believe. I'm sure Martin's book must be good, but this show isn't.

You ever come across a show you're really enjoying, come onto IMDb to look up the cast and find it has a 6/10 average with a ton of 1/10, 4/10, etc reviews? That's what happened with Nightflyers. This show has a great mix of suspense, horror, mystery, and science fiction. The sound design is absolutely wonderful (I'd recommend watching with headphones for something different), and the performances are engaging and on point. I'm not exactly sure what most people were expecting (George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones in space or Asimov/Asher level hard sci-fi?), but this is a damned decent show. Perfect? Far from it. But it's an odd, multilayered and entertaining sci-fi show - far from deserving of these silly, pretentious 4/10 reviews.