Halo: The Series Season 2 Discussion Thread

[SgtSaint]

Just saw this... Apparantly some "screeners" got advanced copies of the first few episodes.
As I came to Halo from the show first, and am getting into the games I think I'm personally closer to his views on accepting some changes that go along with a different medium (TV not game), same as how most books get changes for shows & movies. But overall I'm liking the positives he brings up in this **spoiler free** review of episodes 1-4 of season 2.

 

[SgtSaint]

~Does anyone there in the USA have an actual air time for it? I assume its going to be like 2000hrs/8pm Eastern time zone.
Oddly, I can't find anything to confirm that.~
Disregard, its coming down now

 

[SgtSaint]

There's one costume continuity point that's irking the sh*t out of me from episode one.

Spoiler

We see 117 with a knife in his armor, at the shoulder, at the connector between back and chest, no sheath. Just the handle sticking out like its just been shoved between the two bits of armor. Ok, I'm good with as its something he's newly decided to add and that's a safe point to put it.
He kills an elite or two with it.
He puts it back. I repeat, we watch him put it back.
Then it is never seen again. Next shot of him walking away from that fight, and from then forward. No knife again.

Its petty, but its pissing me off.

 

[Cadet]

The only thing that bugged me from the first Episode was the interaction between Silver Team and Cobalt Team in the locker room, and this goes back to my earlier post about falling into clichés and tropes for this style of Sci-Fi action Universe, and that even 343 has not been able to avoid it.

In the original Lore, the SPARTAN IIs were a close knit family. They'd trained together since they were 6 years old, and while there were groups of SPARTANs that were closer to each other, like Blue Team with John, Kelly, Linda, Fred, and Sam before his death, they all viewed each other as Family and worked and operated well together with tremendous respect and Trust. But, as time went on and more and more stories were told and the Universe expanded and more characters were added, we started to get deviations from this, like Black Team who were suddenly at odds with every other SPARTAN-II and even had infighting and interpersonal conflicts amongst themselves. Eventually we got the SPARTAN IVs in Halo 4's Spartan Ops mode who acted, well, exactly like Silver and Cobalt in this scene. More traditionally rivalry. Not good natured ribbing and friendly joking banter, but borderline mean spirited or antagonistic banter. Showing off or being smug. acting like kids in a Halo Multiplayer Lobby.

So, just like Season 1's Emotion Suppression Pellet and Erased Memory, I don't agree with it, I don't like it, but, I understand it. These are Tropes and Clichés, and there is a reason they are Tropes and Clichés. It's what audiences have come to expect and anticipate. Which is why it was so refreshing to encounter the strong familial bonds of trust and respect in the original lore, and why I wasn't surprised that as time went on Bungie allowed it to be degraded in further extensions of the Canon and why 343 ultimately leaned into it in themselves in Spartan Ops.

That said, what I did like was that John did not participate in this behavior, stayed professional, and even took the time to express concern and warned Cobalt to stay on their guard, expect trouble, and treat it Real, even if it seemed like an absolute milk run of an Op. That's the kind of behavior and leadership I like to see from Chief.

 

[SgtSaint]

The only thing that bugged me from the first Episode was the interaction between Silver Team and Cobalt Team in the locker room,

This has been running over and over in my mind but for a different reason.
Silver Team have all removed their pellets - so we accept them behaving all emotional and less cardboard.
Cobalt Team was just as 'playful' (which is how I saw it; as sibling banter) and just as emotionally invested in getting a rise out of Silver Team as Silver Team was in dishing it out to Cobalt.
So what's the take away here?

• All teams have gone pellet-free?
  • I don't think so as that would create havoc and they'd all be off-line for evaluation.
• All teams were always pellet-free except Silver Team who were experimented on more by Halsey than the others? So for them handling emotions as a new thing as an adult is what destabilized them for a while, but wouldn't be the case for the other teams.
  • Just part of Halsey's next steps, testing it on her pet team first.
  • I'm leaning this way because of the line by Val-015, said in a very playful way:
  • "Careful - silver's got feeeeeelings now"
  • Kinda like he's making fun of them for only just recently getting something that everyone else has always had.

 

[Lojak]

I am now of the mind that the Halo show that should have been made is an adaptation of Kilo-Five.

You get to explore the wide halo-verse. You get Spartans that can take their helmets off. Relatable ODST and ONI agents. Flash backs to the legendry but now missing Master Chief/flash back episodes to game events. Plenty of naval gazing about the horrors of the Spartan Programs. Its more intrigue than action, so easier on production.

IDK. I just don't know why the writers of the show are trying sooooo hard to write their own Halo story from the ground up when there is plenty of material already available to them.

Im still sitting here fingers crossed season two will wow me. Also, I'm waiting for some behind the seasons on the costume updates.

 

[SgtSaint]

I'm waiting for some behind the seasons on the costume updates.

Yep... I've been scrubbing through and screen grabbing/cataloging.

 

[James]

There's a great shot in the Unclassified that came out before the first episode showing them suiting up Chief and putting on the shoulder. Shows that the bicep is a wrap-around thing with the shoulder armor attached to it instead of the slide-on thing that we usually see.

 

[ThreeEvening158]

To be honest I'm really enjoying this new season! I did not like Season 1, not because of things like Chief's helmet off or the new lore they're building. What did it in for me was that the action you'd expect from Halo wasn't there, and I think it could be a really good show if you had Silver Team fighting the Covenant and looking for the artifacts while all the political drama is going on. Cut out Makee, Kwan, Soren, and this season would've been what I'd expect from a Halo series. I'm reviewing Season 2 weekly for my school newspaper at Halo Season 2: Weekly Reviews
(shameless plug!)

 

[SgtSaint]

There's a great shot in the Unclassified that came out before the first episode showing them suiting up Chief and putting on the shoulder. Shows that the bicep is a wrap-around thing with the shoulder armor attached to it instead of the slide-on thing that we usually see.

You can do that when you have a team of handlers/dressers. I for one, would not be able to use that system getting dressed by myself; sometimes in the parking of the convention.

 

[Caboose1993]

I just want to see some ODSTs this season

 

[SgtSaint]

s2e03 - personal opinion without spoilers

Spoiler

Good episode with a good story - see sides of characters to make them more 3 dimension.
A solid episode - if - you are running a 22 episode network season. But burning 12.5% of a 8 episode season here... well... not a management decision I would have made. Personally, I hold to my call that if they had dropped the entire B plot with Kwan, Soren, The Rubble... despite the vering from canon... when making an 8 episode show you have to stick to a single plot line and that's the war, the UNSC and the Spartans. I'm honestly tempted to make my own little cut-up version of the entire seasons 1 & 2 and I bet it become a single movie with some attitude by doing nothing more creative than a leaving the B story on the editing room floor.

 

[marinesniper]

Now before i get into this, i like the show because it is based on halo and my love of the halo style armor. with that said.....
I think that had they stuck to the canon of halo and the true part that we all fell in love with the fight (war) with the covy. i am just not into the hole kwan fighting her own war for her planet i understand that they went there with that story waste of time. now that the new season has started i wish they had stuck to the canon side it was still early enough to correct the show. the special effects are awesome they really went all out on that and kind of fell short on other stuff. Again this is just my opinion so no hating its what makes the world go round others may have a different view and thats great.

 

[ThreeEvening158]

I'm honestly tempted to make my own little cut-up version of the entire seasons 1 & 2 and I bet it become a single movie with some attitude by doing nothing more creative than a leaving the B story on the editing room floor.

I'd actually love to see this! I didn't enjoy this episode as much, especially considering the B-plot on the Rubble, but next episode should be really good as the creators have said that it's pretty much nonstop action. To be honest, I hope they don't show Noble Team at all unless they're completely game accurate (unlikely) or it's just a mention in passing. I'd guess that we'll see a few members of Silver Team die, along with other Spartan teams, but we'll see! My full review should be out tomorrow.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

That said, what I did like was that John did not participate in this behavior, stayed professional, and even took the time to express concern and warned Cobalt to stay on their guard, expect trouble, and treat it Real, even if it seemed like an absolute milk run of an Op. That's the kind of behavior and leadership I like to see from Chief.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. But, once Chief really started going to bat for Cobalt with command then I realized the razzing and puffed up chest talk in the locker room didn't take away from the "Spartan Family" concept, but more added to it. That's how military guys talk to each other. "You're trash, I wouldn't want you anywhere close to me in a fight". But, when crap hits the fan they've got each other's back.

 

[Lojak]

Spartan 3s be coming... oh boy... Stong personal opinions ahead from a lover of stories.

Firstly,
I love all the hard work that prop and stunt department are putting in. Actors are giving it, especially Akerson (Joseph Morgan). I'm so so glad this show is creating jobs and portfolios for all involved. And I want everyone to keep on enjoying the show. If it's bringing a smile to a face, the show has won. End of discussion.

... I just want it to win bigger and better

Spoiler: Strong Opinions

This show really just feels like it doesn't know what to do with its lore and worldbuilding. It comes off like they read a one sentence blurb for each topic and character then slapped that on to a storyboard. Then to connect it all, they reinvented the entire story of Halo (which in itself has dealt with retcons and "certain point of views"). They have thrown in so many elements of Halo world building in all at once, when it took years and multiple medias and stories to flush out the universe: Master Chief, Spartans, UNSC, ONI and its player, Colonies and rebels, Covenant, Forerunners, Spartan IIIs, Fall of Reach, the propaganda, Halsey, the Key's, and stuff I'm forgetting. All of that is already in show and each fighting for dominance every time the camera is on it. Slow down! Trust your source material, its already captured millions of fans and earn millions of dollars. It's what you freaking paid for anyways.

Instead of just listing grumpy fan person complaints, how about I pull a Nando v. Movies and offer a rewrite that could have been feasible (disclaimer I know little to nothing of how tv show production works) before principal photography. Should that be a separate thread?

Oh, if only I could master channeling this energy into more productive things, maybe bills would be more manageable.

 

[SgtSaint]

I'd guess that we'll see a few members of Silver Team die,

Well... There are only a 4 member of a team to start with. If a few die, that's the entire team.

Spoiler: Predictions

Prediction: Nobody in Silver is going to die. Because they are all under contract for more seasons. They didn't even get rid of Kwan or Soreen's+family. With silver stood down, they'll get re-assigned but that will take them all off-world or away from the heavy fighting and thus they survive. Kai will go train the new batch of IIIs and so on. Ackerson already told capt Keyes that "a plan is already in place to move vital assets" and silver is one of those assets. They idea that its all hush-hush when dealing with their own military people however pisses me off. But that's brass for ya. The less people you tell the less chance of a leak especially with people that have ethics and morales and wouldn't keep their mouths shut.

Common sense tells us the Covenant can't glass Reach until they have recovered both artifacts, and this is why they've done all this training and build up to invade stealthy and search facility by facility. They showed Makee with the big one, but ackerson with the small one and he's leaving presumably with it. So that give us the lead into battle not just orbital bombardment. Basically its going to be block-by-block clearing... using those locator wands we saw in the first season...

- update / addition -
Just watched the Declassified s02e03... Had a trailer for eps4 at the end. It looks like an all action episode at least by the cut of the trailer.
I think I'm seeing a pattern.

• High cost episode
• Budget saving episode
• High cost episode
• {...}

 

[FalseShepherd]

I am enjoying this second season so far. I like the action sequences, but I think the story is kinda tired. Idk if these will technically be spoilers but just in case...

Spoiler: Spoilers maybe?

my main issue with this season is not dissimilar to my main issue with the first season. I feel that they are moving too fast through a massive swath of the universe. This show could do everything it's doing and people would love it, if they did it over the course of several 20+ episode seasons. They could expand out and tell these stories in a more meaningful way if they had the time to do so.

Another gripe I have is that they moved too quickly into all the subplots. I feel like between these two seasons they have jammed in l the stereotypic sci Fi and tv tropes. We have cool ass soldiers doing cool ass things (which is the main thing we all wanted from the show), but we also have the distrust in the leadership and seemingly distrust of the main soldiers by the leadership, we have the "you are a soldier, follow orders" vs "I'm a person who can make my own decisions" thing, we have sketchy government doing sketchy things thus furthering the distrust, we have a random romance jammed onto the main character that doesn't really add to the story at all, we have the "ends justify the means" government spy guy, and the good soldier who has had enough of that approach, the pirate who left the government for personal reasons and pretends its about freedom. I mean the list goes on and I feel like we can see all these stories in other sci Fi sources. Not to mention the soldier who is injured and is learning that there is more to life than being a soldier, and the younger soldier dealing with PTSD. Etc

And these are all part of the halo universe, or at least aren't bad stories to try to tell, but squishing them all into 10 (?) Episodes of a TV show makes them shallowly done and not as gripping as they need to be.

I still think the show has potential and I bet by the end of the 3rd season it will wrap together nicely and be a very fun journey. I just wish they had taken the time to tell these stories well and build the world in a meaningful way the way we fell in love with halo - slowly, story by story and character by character.

and also yeah, I can do without makee, or kwan, both of which seem like stories that would make fine books, but are irrelevant to the main story line. I frankly enjoy Soren and his wife is starting to grow in my but again seems like it would be a good book story or something that isn't such a large part of the show.

 

[SgtSaint]

Trends in TV. (Streaming effect)
FalseShepherd Sounds like you and I are of a similar mind when it comes to the episode count being a problem for the story telling. I'd extend that to being a pattern outside of sci-fi as well. This all feels very much like the shift in SEAL Team, when they went from being a broadcast show to a streamer. There was a steady decline in episode count but tried to keep just as much story per season.

At this point its 7th/final season is only supposed to be 8 episodes. I don't see them running a real mission plus tieing up loose plot threads in 8 eps.

Its been happening throughout the TV industry. I first noticed it when "Defiance" was calling 10 episodes a season which at the time (2013) was like... "My arse 10 episodes is a season. This isn't the BBC". And to give credit where it is due, Defiance had tons of make-up, CGI, conflict, story, family... all the things Halo is claiming they are inventing for the TV show scale and they did it well a decade earlier. While at the same time managing to do integration between the show and their multiplayer on-line game. Sound familiar to anyone? Or Farscape was basically doing movie-budget make-up and effects shows 22 episodes a season (adjusting for the production year of 1999-2003).

All I'm saying is it can be done, it has been done and it could be done again - if it weren't for this trending of 8-10 episodes a season. Battlestar 2005 did big story arcs, effects and all the rest of it in 20 episode seasons. 8-10 is just not enough time to cover all the bases to be covered. If you want to have a 10 episode season you have to limit the scope of the show like they did with Silo. There was one story line, a glimpse of backstory, and basically a straight line from start to end. Even Foundation's 10 episode seasons aren't trying to run 3 parallel stories: Its all Empire v. Foundation. Halo is trying to run
1. UNSC story
2. Makee story
3. The Rubble story
4. The Insurrectionists story (at least they killed this off for season 2)

So yeah, totally agree that what's killing the show is trying to cram too much into a compressed show schedule. On this schedule it either needs to be a normal 20-ish episode season, or a single story line.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

I am enjoying this second season so far. I like the action sequences, but I think the story is kinda tired. Idk if these will technically be spoilers but just in case...

Spoiler: Spoilers maybe?

my main issue with this season is not dissimilar to my main issue with the first season. I feel that they are moving too fast through a massive swath of the universe. This show could do everything it's doing and people would love it, if they did it over the course of several 20+ episode seasons. They could expand out and tell these stories in a more meaningful way if they had the time to do so.

Another gripe I have is that they moved too quickly into all the subplots. I feel like between these two seasons they have jammed in l the stereotypic sci Fi and tv tropes. We have cool ass soldiers doing cool ass things (which is the main thing we all wanted from the show), but we also have the distrust in the leadership and seemingly distrust of the main soldiers by the leadership, we have the "you are a soldier, follow orders" vs "I'm a person who can make my own decisions" thing, we have sketchy government doing sketchy things thus furthering the distrust, we have a random romance jammed onto the main character that doesn't really add to the story at all, we have the "ends justify the means" government spy guy, and the good soldier who has had enough of that approach, the pirate who left the government for personal reasons and pretends its about freedom. I mean the list goes on and I feel like we can see all these stories in other sci Fi sources. Not to mention the soldier who is injured and is learning that there is more to life than being a soldier, and the younger soldier dealing with PTSD. Etc

And these are all part of the halo universe, or at least aren't bad stories to try to tell, but squishing them all into 10 (?) Episodes of a TV show makes them shallowly done and not as gripping as they need to be.

I still think the show has potential and I bet by the end of the 3rd season it will wrap together nicely and be a very fun journey. I just wish they had taken the time to tell these stories well and build the world in a meaningful way the way we fell in love with halo - slowly, story by story and character by character.

and also yeah, I can do without makee, or kwan, both of which seem like stories that would make fine books, but are irrelevant to the main story line. I frankly enjoy Soren and his wife is starting to grow in my but again seems like it would be a good book story or something that isn't such a large part of the show.

I'm really enjoying Season 2. Feels more like bad ass Spartans counterset with shady ONI. ArcSol had an interesting idea about Kwan.. What if they are setting her up to be Spartan IV? Events are lining up for it.