Ryan Shoots First: Halo (S1 Ep1) “Contact”
Halo is here and Master Chief is ready to deploy….about 15 years too late. While Halo is indeed one of the most recognizable game properties of all time it’s popularity has been waning, especially in the last 3 or 4 years. As each new release comes it fails to capture the magic of those early years held up in your friends room playing multiplayer all evening long. The name does still carry some cache and even though the likes of Call of Duty and Fortnite have long since made Halo niche Paramount+ deemed it time to finally resurrect the Chief.
Side Note: Isn’t it funny how all these projects that we’ve known about and heard about for years, that have passed from creative team to creative team, lingering in development hell, are now finally seeing the light of day as each studio scrambles for anything with a pulse to put on their streaming network. But that’s for another time let’s see some aliens get shot and tea bagged!
I will admit I was more of a Playstation guy and have very little connection to Halo. I did at one time buy a 360 so I could play Mass Effect and I tried Halo at the time it just never resonated with me. I know! I am as shocked as you are as I am a sucker for almost anything sci-fi. I tried multiple times but it just never hit. I never despised it though and as a sci-fi fan I am really hoping the narrative elements of a show based around the lore will pull me in. So with my Halo cred laid out for all to see let’s dive right into the first episode.
The goal of any first episode of a genre show is to do two things, set the world and set the stakes. In that respect the show does a good job in episode 1. We get a little bit of world building, I’m sure there is more to everything but this was just enough to give you an idea what the greater world can hold. As for the stakes we get a good sense of that as well, alien tech discovered that can tip the scales, a civil war of humanity needed to be put aside for a greater threat. All that is hinted at or shown to help give us an idea of what is in store for the rest of the season. When it comes to the Spartans themselves and Master Chief they are set up well as the badasses they are built to be. He is billed as the hired gun who doesn’t ask questions but that never lasts long before he starts asking questions. While its clear the Covenant is the bad guys I’m sure there will be a little bit of gray throughout the show and it’s various factions.
The overall look of the show is solid. I wouldn’t say it’s anything special, it looks like Halo people running around in real life. Some shots look hokier than others but it’s solid. It feels like a slightly higher product than what you typically see on a Broadcast TV show that may be on CBS. It lacks a sense of grit as everything seems to have a clean bright shine to it. Not that I need everything dark but it just seems slick, which I guess if I think about it now was always the way the game felt so maybe that is a conscious decision.
It’s a solid show, I just wonder if it will find an audience. Hardcore Halo fans will likely be split on it as is the case with most fanbases about anything and I don’t know if the appeal to people with no interests in Halo will be great enough. I look forward to watching how it is received throughout the season and beyond.
Observations
- This feels like a live action game trailer and I can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing.
- I like how the outfits of these villagers are clearly supposed to be dirty scavengers but their clothes don’t have a hint of dust on them.
- Yikes this town brought knives to a plasma blaster fight.
- Had to get that FPS view in there
- Some shots look amazing but others not when Chief threw that gun down yikes.
- Of course Dad has to die in episode 1
- They Def booked the Spartans to look like Badasses
- This thing has commercials? Am I watching CBS?
- Would they really consider cutting funding for the Spartan program? Like what’s the alternative?
- They can’t give that girl a rag to wipe the blood of her dead family and friends off her?
- Where are the other spartans is only Chief on this ship.
- We’re jumping right into the “Chief is done with sketchy orders” storyline huh
- This all feels a bit rushed
