Discuss The Crossing
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Pilot Episode Reactions (Spoilers!)
posted by chrisjdelSTAFFMOD on March 30, 2018 at 2:12 AM
If you haven't watched this episode, look away now. You've been warned!
An interesting debut. They took a completely different approach from Lost though. Rather than keep everything veiled in mystery and consistently raise more questions than they answer, it seems like they're laying out the backstory right from the start. Or should we call it forestory? Whatever. They've told us exactly what these people are fleeing from in the future. We know about the enemy, these genetically engineered Apex humans who are busy exterminating the normals. We also know the character Reece (and presumably her little daughter Leah) is one of the Apex. Doesn't seem to be bad though. She's avoided killing anyone so far, even that prick who tried to rob her at the dock. So obviously things are more complicated than they first appear. Some of the Apex must be against the regime and may even be responsible for the evacuation of refugees into the past. It'll be interesting to find out - and the episode summary for next week promises a Reece flash forward to the year 2187, so we won't have to wait long. They also revealed the existence of an earlier group of normal humans who went back to infiltrate governments, possibly corporations, etc. We assume to prevent the rise of the Apex but they haven't confirmed that yet.
Where Lost sustained itself largely on dangling never fully resolved mysteries in front of the audience from week to week, The Crossing seems like it's going to do most of the explaining up front and rely on plot development to drive the show after that. My sense is that it's either going to get more deeply engaging as it goes or turn lame really fast. This is hardly the first show to try its hand at a similar concept - The 4400 comes to mind, as well as a short lived Spanish production called Refugees that most Americans haven't seen (it hasn't been on Netflix). There are even echoes of the Terminator franchise. So if it's not done well people are going to yawn, say 'been there, done that', and tune out. I hope that doesn't happen. The scenario they're creating has potential if it's properly developed.
Reply by Innovator
on April 5, 2018 at 12:58 AM
Time to start the man pile. https://vimeo.com/44050826
Reply by Byrd
on April 10, 2018 at 8:45 AM
I watched the first 2 episodes and really like it. Although it is predictable and cliche. I've always liked Steve Zahn, as an actor, so it helps me overlook the shortcomings.
Reply by chrisjdel
on April 12, 2018 at 5:12 PM
Yeah, no big surprises so far. Solid enough sci-fi action/drama with some interesting plot possibilities. A lot will depend on what they do with the time travel angle. People coming back from a future that keeps changing because of events in the present, mass migrations showing up around the world, even an Apex invasion and relocation of the war to our present. Temporal conflicts can become really convoluted. It's only been two episodes so far. I'll be interested to see whether they stick to a straight shooting action show or delve deeper into the sci-fi aspects of the story.
Reply by Patrick E. Abe
on April 12, 2018 at 5:33 PM
So, SkyNet didn't nuke mankind into (near) extinction? Terminator droids don't roam the earth, but a "Nazi-wet-dream Waffen SS" does? I'd still like to know what Reese said to that store clerk at the end of episode #2. (Closed Captioning is displaying "a language other than English," which I have to use when aircraft fly over and drown out puny TV audio.) Will Reese cobble together a late 22nd century "electronic pulse rifle" from early 21st century "stone tools"?
Reply by chrisjdel
on April 12, 2018 at 9:18 PM
I'm guessing the story is something like this. The Apex began as a small minority, who were treated like freaks. A young activist emerged and led the movement to win acceptance for the Apex. And that was their goal at first. To be accepted in society and not be second class citizens. Then of course, these people - who probably grew up getting picked on and then arrested when they fought back and seriously injured the bullies - decided hey, why should they be equal to normal humans when they're so far superior? Their charismatic leader (the former young idealist) gets more and more ambitious and power hungry, and well ... you know how the rest of it goes.
The ancient Greeks were experimenting with chemical batteries. They had good enough craftsmanship to build a crude radio if someone had been around to instruct them. All the experimentation and theoretical advances leading ultimately to Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, which predicted the existence of radio waves - that's the part they were lacking. So who knows what someone from the late 22nd century could build with a pile of present day hardware? Come back in 200 years and maybe I can answer that question for you.
Reply by Patrick E. Abe
on April 17, 2018 at 12:58 PM
One small things about "The Crossing" bothers me to no end. Closed Captioning on "The Crossing" delivers Gibberish! I live under an aircraft corridor, and when military helicopters roar over, I have to turn on CC to "see the conversation." From the the start, "The Crossing" closed captioning has been THE WORST I've ever seen. It's not bad enough that actors slur and mumble their lines, soundtrack and SFX drowns out everything else, or the frequency of "back closet sex" turns me off, what am I to make of "Cwofunkg%"? As a result, I have no idea what the "wounded female ex-APEX soldier" said to the store clerk at the end of episode #3. I'm on the verge of ignoring this intriguing show for, say, a Korean language pot boiler. Even with tiny white characters on a white/light colored background, KBFD delivers, unlike ABC TV.
Reply by chrisjdel
on April 24, 2018 at 4:21 AM
Back closet sex? There hasn't been a lot of sex on this show, maybe I missed something. If you're having that problem where you have to turn up the volume to hear the diagloue, and then the music and sound effects are overpowering, or turn it down to where the action scenes don't blow out your eardrums but then can't hear what people are saying, you need to make some adjustments to your TV audio settings (or the home theater audio if you're using external speakers). As for the closed captioning, I'd go to my favorite place - The BitTorrent store - and download the web-dl version of the episode if I really needed the subtitles.
You know, they do sell wireless headphones. I have a set myself. The big old school kind that fit over your ears and block outside noise. There's a charging stand that also connects to your TV or home theater system, and the headphones themselves run on batteries. It'll cost you about $100 (if you see a cheapo pair well below that price don't do it!) but you'll be able to hear everything, and the audio quality is actually a lot better than built in TV speakers. If your viewing is constantly being disrupted by the sounds of aircraft you'll wonder how you got along without them. No more fiddling with the volume or using the closed captions.
If that $100 price tag is too much you could just get a pair of ear huggers and an extension cable. You might also need a little 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adapter if it's got the large plug. I'd find a long wire snaking across my living room to be a major annoyance but maybe that works okay for you. Go to a store like Best Buy and tell them what you need. They'll fix you up.
Reply by ScorpionQ2
on May 21, 2018 at 10:06 AM
The Crossing has been canceled:
https://www.imdb.com/tv/canceled-renewed/ls063853872/mediaviewer/rm277554688
Reply by Byrd
on May 21, 2018 at 3:26 PM
This is disappointing. It is the only show I actually looked forward to watching every week. I wish it was given a chance, considering how many shows that have lasted that are total garbage.
Reply by ScorpionQ2
on May 21, 2018 at 3:29 PM
@Byrd said:
This exactly.
Reply by Patrick E. Abe
on May 21, 2018 at 4:53 PM
As expected, the stories were complex and there wasn't enough "back room/on the table sex" to pique Hipster interest. (No "Gray's Anatomy" hanky panky = Cancellation!) Oh well, I upgraded to digital-tier-one-premium-level and can watch the dozen or so good movies per year on HBO/Cinemax/Showtime as well as the consistently better Turner Classic Movies. Time to dump the "ABC TV" bookmark, since there's "nothing to see there."
Reply by chrisjdel
on May 24, 2018 at 5:26 PM
The old "big three" networks are dinosaurs now, pandering to the lowest common denominator. Unable to compete with the quality of cable and streaming service programming they've become producers of content for the bottom 50% of the intelligence scale. Junk for the masses. Anything that demands some attention and thought is doomed to cancellation. Agents of SHIELD is the only other thing I can remember watching on old school network TV in the last few years. Everything good is on cable, Netflix, or Amazon. A few things on Hulu too - although I don't have a subscription to them. Which is why ABC, CBS, and NBC are facing a long slow slide into Chapter 11. It may take a while, but their market share declines slowly with every passing year. The reality is, we're not living in the 1980's and don't really need them anymore.
I understand the producers are going to try and get someone else to pick this series up before throwing in the towel for good. So there's some hope we'll get a season 2, elsewhere. Fingers crossed!