[tidenly]

I feel like the pacing was awful, and especially as its Netflix, I don't even trust they'll finish it. I really dug all the SF stuff, but the human drama aspect of it really ate a lot of time.

(spoilers)

- So much time was spent on the cancer story, only for it to lead no-where. Especially toward the end of the show, increasingly more time was spent with the characters doing nothing and sitting about, still refusing the call to action. It was bizarre seeing there were only 2 episodes left to go, and still no-one was doing anything or even really caring.

- The video game was odd. I'm supposed to believe only advanced scientists can solve it, but actually only one of the levels seemed to be solved with actual science. The rest were just deductions about the society - I really doubt many people would struggle passing through it.

- After the reveal that it is aliens, the show seems to just wander about not knowing what to do with itself. Only the reveals about the cult are really consequential after that, and when it's all revealed you're basically spent just following this rocket story that only 1 character really cares about. Again everything takes too long here too.

- The show didn't seem to care about the interpersonal relationships of the characters at all, but then toward the end spent an insane amount of time forcing us to watch them. The actors couldn't sell it, and the script was bad too. The show only really shone during the sci-fi stuff, but drips it out at a snails pace.

- The ending was silly and didn't land for me. My boyfriend and I laughed at the head going off course because it was just so bizzare, especially as the show had forced us to sit through the the pondering and fake in-fighting about the decision to choose the cancer guy as the candidate. What was it all for?!

- The ship nano-wire scene was insane. Like an amazing sequence we were "holy shit!"ing our way through. But after it all happened and the ship is utterly destroyed it's like.. was I really meant to believe this was better than a missile to disarm it and swatting the place?

[avidiax]

I don't want to spoil the series, but there are some long term payoffs lying in wait.

> I'm supposed to believe only advanced scientists can solve it

Only advanced scientists will realize that solving the problem is intractable. Regular gamers will assume that there is a solution to be had. They probably only invite advanced scientists, however, so there's probably some selection bias.

> After the reveal that it is aliens, the show seems to just wander about not knowing what to do with itself.

Yeah, this part of the books, if I recall, talked about the various opposing factions of humanity that developed from this revelation. The show turns that into interpersonal drama, mostly.

I, personally, recommend the show, having read the English translation of the books. But I obviously experience it with some additional depth and anticipation as a result.

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

Everything has a meaning but I cannot spoil anything.

The big deal about the ship, which the show failed miserably to deliver, was that nobody could have noticed what was happening. It was meant to be a stealth action and they took particular effort to measure where the hdd would be so that it wouldn't be affected. Nobody noticed anything because people did not "explode" like in the show, no alarm rang, nothing. It was an incredibly stealth action, way better than a missile.

But yeah, Hollywood and all that