-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Raised by Wolves | It's what Prometheus should have been | Thursdays on HBO MAX
- Thread starter RatskyWatsky
- Start date
- OT
that and the howling is weirdly on-the-nose for a show called raised by wolves. i assumed it had to do with her mental state breaking down, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
Caught up with episodes 4 and 5.
The visual of Mother going Super Android is still captivating and easily one of the best visual design choices the show has made.
The Mother/Father dynamic is the most compelling thing about the show. Always have them arguing like a real married couple.
Travis Fimmel emerging as a leader whether in the past (Vikings) or in the future. They gave him and his girl messed up haircuts though. Guess there were no barbers in the simulation, lol.
The visual of Mother going Super Android is still captivating and easily one of the best visual design choices the show has made.
The Mother/Father dynamic is the most compelling thing about the show. Always have them arguing like a real married couple.
Father does slip up watching the kids though . Campion/Paul little asses risking death for some fungus and Tempest ready to meet Sol early .
Travis Fimmel emerging as a leader whether in the past (Vikings) or in the future. They gave him and his girl messed up haircuts though. Guess there were no barbers in the simulation, lol.
The show has come down quite a bit from the heights of its fucking CRAZY goat-tier pilot / first episode, but I'm still liking it quite a bit. One of my favorites of the year so far.
It's a pretty standard "mystery box" show at this point but I feel like it's been so long since we've had an interesting one... I'm here for it.
It's a pretty standard "mystery box" show at this point but I feel like it's been so long since we've had an interesting one... I'm here for it.
Questions include:
Which boy (if it's either) fits the prophecy?
What's going on with the rapist?
Why can Travis Flimmel hear voices now and why is he hallucinating? (...Is god real?)
What is the structure in the desert?
Why did the beasts not show up for years but are now very present? (This is probably answered in Ep 5 saying the crashed ship opened up deep fissures).
What is their origin?
Who is the mysterious figure?
Who is the OTHER mysterious figure, taking the form of the little girl?
Those beasts are totally sentient, right?
Some general things I like, that make this compelling TV:
The religious leader is a secret atheist.
The atheist android used to be a religious battle android.
The atheist android is developing some version of faith.
The atheist kid is secretly becoming a believer.
The religious kids are secretly becoming atheistic.
Everyone just be out here, switching sides!
Some of what I don't like:
They had TEN YEARS in the sim and didn't bone up on the scripture?!?
The Androids spent YEARS there and never thought to re test the one thing their dying kids ate? Even the techno-babble explanation was half baked. Something less obvious and immediately detectable could have been written.
Campion finds a new food for them to eat about 30 seconds he started looking. The androids never spotted it? Unless they're just lying for reasons unknown.
Which boy (if it's either) fits the prophecy?
What's going on with the rapist?
Why can Travis Flimmel hear voices now and why is he hallucinating? (...Is god real?)
What is the structure in the desert?
Why did the beasts not show up for years but are now very present? (This is probably answered in Ep 5 saying the crashed ship opened up deep fissures).
What is their origin?
Who is the mysterious figure?
Who is the OTHER mysterious figure, taking the form of the little girl?
Those beasts are totally sentient, right?
Some general things I like, that make this compelling TV:
The religious leader is a secret atheist.
The atheist android used to be a religious battle android.
The atheist android is developing some version of faith.
The atheist kid is secretly becoming a believer.
The religious kids are secretly becoming atheistic.
Everyone just be out here, switching sides!
Some of what I don't like:
They had TEN YEARS in the sim and didn't bone up on the scripture?!?
The Androids spent YEARS there and never thought to re test the one thing their dying kids ate? Even the techno-babble explanation was half baked. Something less obvious and immediately detectable could have been written.
Campion finds a new food for them to eat about 30 seconds he started looking. The androids never spotted it? Unless they're just lying for reasons unknown.
Last edited:
On these two points, they're actually answered in the show I think.
The first is that the 'scripture' was actually a children's nusery rhyme, which wouldn't exactly be something that there was an easy record of, or they just didn't think to look for it.
And they couldn't test the food because they didn't have the facilities. It was only when the Mythraic came with their lander that they were able to use it to analyse the food. I think the carbos are supposed to have come from their original lander craft and that's why they weren't suspect of them, but they were contaminated by the soil of the new planet to make the seeds radioactive.
Something tells me that Campion senior was disappointed in religion and wants those kids raised as atheists so they can start religion all over by themselves without external infulence, which Campion junior will end up doing because he's some kind of messiah.
The food testing makes sense. I didn't consider that they required the Mithraic lander to test it.
Not buying the nursery rhyme thing. They were in the sim for a DECADE. I don't care how "weird" time is in there. She got caught out by being completely puzzled by a children's nursery rhyme that the guy said literally every child would know by heart. I understand it's done for the tension of the show, but them seemingly knowing absolutely nothing about the people whose bodies they're inhabiting, or Mithraic culture, or like... Sol in general... is nuts.
You might be right on the nursery rhyme, but honestly it doesn't seem that insane to me that it might not be something you'd brush up on if you were approaching learning about a culture in an academic sense. I'm just spitballing, but there's also the fact that they were on a Mithraic ship, and so the library/academic resources may have been sorely lacking. It wasn't like they would necessarily stock anthropological studies of their own society and customs.
I mean yeah, they probably should have known it, but they could easily have overlooked it.
Man I guess. I just keep coming back to them being in there for 10 years. I've been a dad for a LONG time IRL and I have not yet been a Dad for 10 years. It feels like a lifetime ago.
In some ways one of the most interesting and intriguing dynamics of the show is that they're willing to completely go to the mat for their fake son -- they clearly have real love for him. And that's super interesting to me as a character study. It's a really interesting twist on a more typical "imposter has to fit in" trope.
But that said they're having such a hard time fitting in it strains credulity in my opinion. I think it may have been smarter t Science away the time in the sim more explicitly. Maybe 10 years passed in reality but it lasted 1 month, 6 months, 12 months in the sim. Would make it easier to explain why they're sticking out to such an extreme degree. But then if that were the case they'd have lost the family bond that's so fantastic, so eh.
In some ways one of the most interesting and intriguing dynamics of the show is that they're willing to completely go to the mat for their fake son -- they clearly have real love for him. And that's super interesting to me as a character study. It's a really interesting twist on a more typical "imposter has to fit in" trope.
But that said they're having such a hard time fitting in it strains credulity in my opinion. I think it may have been smarter t Science away the time in the sim more explicitly. Maybe 10 years passed in reality but it lasted 1 month, 6 months, 12 months in the sim. Would make it easier to explain why they're sticking out to such an extreme degree. But then if that were the case they'd have lost the family bond that's so fantastic, so eh.
I thought they did say that the time in the sim wasn't 1:1 with reality? It could have only been a few months of 'consciousness', we just don't know.
I'll admit it's quite frustrating not to know because clearly quite a lot happened in the sim. But the kids still act like kids, so I can't imagine it was a full ten years of consciousness, otherwise they'd be acting like adults in kids' bodies.
I'll admit it's quite frustrating not to know because clearly quite a lot happened in the sim. But the kids still act like kids, so I can't imagine it was a full ten years of consciousness, otherwise they'd be acting like adults in kids' bodies.
But their brains don't develop, so a 10 year old will still have a mind of a ten year old even if it's been ten years.
None of the kids on the ship at that point in seemed young enough to still be reciting nursery rhymes. I could easily see it as something that never came up organically, or if it ever did, not in a context that prompted them to internalize it as something important or worth remembering.
Seems like a real nitpicky complaint for a not that crazy thing.
I don't have the exact quote but they were deliberately wishy-washy about it. They said something like "time doesn't run 'normally'" in the sim.
The issue I have with that story is I just don't care about couple or their kid. Maybe it's the actors... something about them just doesn't click with me. I don't buy their romance or their feelings for the kid. Acting in that group is pretty terrible across the board
*shrug*
My post had lots and lots of words about what I loved about the show but people keep engaging with and quoting what I dislike :)
Haha I think we just want to explain it if you missed something, I don't think it's meant to be an attack. There was a definitive answer about the food, just a lot of assumptions necessary for the nursery rhyme so we're just discussing it.
I'm not really sure what more to say about it. I don't care how timey wimey the sim is. It felt like a hokey moment to me and wasn't believable how it played out or that that's what caught her out.
"Are you familiar with these words?"
"I'm not, Father. Is it from the scripture?"
*suspicious look*
It just didn't play. Why is he saying a children's nursery rhyme? And questioning if she recognizes it? If he's suspicious of them, THAT'S his play? It's weird. Why do these two imposters who have not getting found out as their absolute top priority not seem to really care that much about it?
It's not just the nursery rhyme thing. It's how that "we're trying to fit in with these fanatics" sub-plot is being handled in general. The show's up to 250-300 minutes of running time and it hasn't devoted 1 minute to showing them trying to bone up on the scriptures or taking really any steps at all to try and inhabit these people's skins in a more effective way.
"Are you familiar with these words?"
"I'm not, Father. Is it from the scripture?"
*suspicious look*
It just didn't play. Why is he saying a children's nursery rhyme? And questioning if she recognizes it? If he's suspicious of them, THAT'S his play? It's weird. Why do these two imposters who have not getting found out as their absolute top priority not seem to really care that much about it?
It's not just the nursery rhyme thing. It's how that "we're trying to fit in with these fanatics" sub-plot is being handled in general. The show's up to 250-300 minutes of running time and it hasn't devoted 1 minute to showing them trying to bone up on the scriptures or taking really any steps at all to try and inhabit these people's skins in a more effective way.
Yea, it's def weird that they didn't familiarize themselves with scripture after having all that time in the Sim.
It has been quite some time since I've come across I show I like and dislike almost in equal measure.
My favorite thing about it(besides the opening credits) is the cast but even then you have these weird clashes in tone, on the one hand you have Amanda Collin who is just perfection as Mother contrasting with Travis Fimmel's mannered but fun performance and it is awkward to watch them in scenes back to back. Even the kids are fine, the writing with them is a bigger problem then their performances, although I am constantly distracted by Campion's actor looking like exactly like Kiernan Shipka in her younger Sally Draper days.
The rest of the show has this same type of fluctuation between "That's great!" and "That's kinda dumb." for me. The wonderfully simple design of Mother and Father(and Mother's attack mode)on the one hand but then you have the goofy Mithraic outfits and their chintzy looking sun logo. You have these potent images cast about(the pits, the giant serpent skeletons, the "Temple" that is found in the desert) but then you have those creatures running about and their lackluster design and cgi. Even the whole Atheist/Mythraic war/backstory seems kind of interesting at times and then kind of nothing at others(it is always unwise to judge something before it is finished but I have the sinking suspicion that this show doesn't actually have much of a point view on the topic).
Three final points I want mention:
My favorite thing about it(besides the opening credits) is the cast but even then you have these weird clashes in tone, on the one hand you have Amanda Collin who is just perfection as Mother contrasting with Travis Fimmel's mannered but fun performance and it is awkward to watch them in scenes back to back. Even the kids are fine, the writing with them is a bigger problem then their performances, although I am constantly distracted by Campion's actor looking like exactly like Kiernan Shipka in her younger Sally Draper days.
The rest of the show has this same type of fluctuation between "That's great!" and "That's kinda dumb." for me. The wonderfully simple design of Mother and Father(and Mother's attack mode)on the one hand but then you have the goofy Mithraic outfits and their chintzy looking sun logo. You have these potent images cast about(the pits, the giant serpent skeletons, the "Temple" that is found in the desert) but then you have those creatures running about and their lackluster design and cgi. Even the whole Atheist/Mythraic war/backstory seems kind of interesting at times and then kind of nothing at others(it is always unwise to judge something before it is finished but I have the sinking suspicion that this show doesn't actually have much of a point view on the topic).
Three final points I want mention:
- The crashed piece of the ship that allows Mother to "sim" is the laziest plot device I've seen in a long time and all to, I guess, justify her flashbacks.
- The quasi-romantic thing they tried to add between Mother and Campion(the man) was very poorly handled.
- I'm pretty sure I would've dumped the show by now if Amanda Collin wasn't as amazing as she is as Mother.
the cgi in the pilot ep is comical compared to hbo standards. feels like these hbo max original show budget is similar to those of netflix. ill give the next ep a try
OP
OP
OP
OP
I'm so cautiously enjoying this show. I feel like I'm really enjoying what's happened so far, but I'm so worried that it's going to shit the bed with any reveals that happen later on.
In a way, it reminds me of Scorsese's Silence, in that it's a really interesting meditation on religion and faith, and then it might spoil it all by coming down on one side or the other and ruining any ambiguity.
We'll see!
In a way, it reminds me of Scorsese's Silence, in that it's a really interesting meditation on religion and faith, and then it might spoil it all by coming down on one side or the other and ruining any ambiguity.
We'll see!
*hears about the season 2 news* - Yay!
*watches episode 6* - Meh.
I'm guessing I'll stick out the season at this point but these last few episodes have been trying for me. Episode 6 in particular just didn't work for me on any level.
It is so weird to me, the show feels like it has a very clear vision for itself but at the same time it doesn't seem to using that vision to go anywhere.
*watches episode 6* - Meh.
I'm guessing I'll stick out the season at this point but these last few episodes have been trying for me. Episode 6 in particular just didn't work for me on any level.
Campion's characterization is so slapdash that it basically feels nonexistent, he feels like he is whatever the show needs him to be at the time. Mother in the sim and the romance with her "maker" is dumb and rushed, the Mithraic are still an ill defined concept(beyond being vaguely Abrahamic monotheism rebranded with Sun imagery as its focal point) and a bunch of non-characters to boot, with Marcus' ascent to the top of the religious food chain getting no air time or examination, and poor Sue being left to "I just want my kid back."
It is so weird to me, the show feels like it has a very clear vision for itself but at the same time it doesn't seem to using that vision to go anywhere.
