I jumped at the chance to watch "Helix," especially because it's not as though we're drowning in great TV sci-fi at the moment. Zombie movies meet "The Andromeda Strain" with a bit of "The Thing" thrown in? Count me in! And for a few episodes, it really did seem as though it might become the diamond in SyFy's rough.
Unfortunately, "Helix" to date has failed to live up to its potential. By the end of the first season, the familiar sci-fi/horror tropes that served as a promising setup have become a stronger prison than its isolated setting. Where tension should be building, the story instead begins to run out of steam, with each new threat and cliffhanger somehow less compelling than the last. Questions are answered, but the answers aren't as interesting as they could be, and most of them fail to produce new questions that might take the story in unexpected directions. And while a few characters may hint at multidimensionality, others do things that they simply would not do -- solely for the sake of manufacturing drama, and with little sign that we might learn something about them later that would justify it.
By the time the final "big bad" of the season (who felt more like a reject from the "Harry Potter" franchise) arrived to walk us through most of the same plot points the previous one did, I was gritting my teeth to make it through the finale. I'm glad for the sake of its more devoted fans that "Helix" was renewed, but I don't see myself sticking around for the second season.
