1899 was terrible. vent topic. spoiler heavy

Submitted by blacktuxedobrownshoe t3_z7kiox in television

1899 was a terrible show and certainly not as original as people think. It's meretricious with an absurd amount of empty padding. Masquerading as something deep when it's shallow and vapid. 8 hours wasted. Everything was so pointless. The other characters didn't matter in the slightest. On two levels they failed. They didn't matter to the main plot, and since it was all a fake simulation, we don't know anything about them. So there's no investment in them for the future either. I gotta say it again, they accomplished nothing, and nothing they did nor anything about them mattered to the main plot. And since it's fake, it was all EXTRA worthless. Their backstories weren't even real so all that time spent going through them was also worthless. Emotional manipulation when it wasn't stupid in itself. So much empty padding! No payoffs!

The show broke it's own internal rules and some almost immediately. We learned nothing of value, other than they were in a simulation and in space. But since there were no stakes to get invested in (partially because no one knows what the truth is, so the audience can't even get attached) even those reveals didn't matter. 1899 and the ship backdrop were utterly pointless. It could have been any time period and any location. Which makes it a bad title. Unless even the title was meant to misled but we can't be sure of that. But All of that to lead up to a reveal that we knew was coming since episode 3! It was obvious it was a simulation and obvious it was in the future (from the parts of the environment the showed like wires, to the logic that a simulation can only be created with future tech.) The mental health thing was a red herring. So again, so much was pointless. Double obvious if anybody recognized the Alice In Wonderland song in the goddamn James Bond title opening.

There were no stakes, there was no tension/immersion (especially when they played those terribly out of place licensed songs) past the first two episodes. What they played off as reveals at the end of episodes are things we already knew from previous events/dialogue during the very episode!

It's a cashgrab to make money on the selling of a mystery box that ultimately was a commercial for another show or 2nd season. Getting Lost flashbacks. That's cruel.

And not to mention the entire plagiarism claims from Black Silence. Not to mention it's ripped off the Matrix, Truman Show, Control, Danganronpa, Soma, Remember 11, the Nonary games, pretty much any loop story to cobble together this psuedo-philosophical monstrosity. As well as the super tired cliche of the whole thing being a result of a character who can't deal with loss. Why is that nearly every story? I just got done watching Midnight Mass before this and it had many similar problems (and it's own big ones) but even it didn't have such useless characters in it's cast.

How many times was conflict/drama/suspense contrived because a character was asked a direct question, and they decided to walk away and were just allowed to do so. It was great when that one coal shoveler attacked David because why wouldn't he? David had bad dialogue and even threatened the guy. It was all to deliver his line transparently meant for the audience of "You don't understand, if I don't turn that thing off, everything will start again." As if that guy would go, "oh sure sounds important." Bad writing and this happens in multiple scenes. Characters can't be smart or we might have to actually speed up the story to relevant things.

The kid doesn't talk but then reveals he can write and actually speak, and then in his very next scene after saying they are being observed, he calls across the room in a loud voice, "Don't be afraid". Literally forgetting the very reason he had to remain quiet and just told her moments before. The show breaks it's own internal rules and very quickly.

The philosophies by grandpa there were overly simplistic, almost mustache-twirling cartoon villain, levels of stupid. "Oh how these silly humans keep making the wrong choices because they got emotional." Emotions are absolutely core to being human and with no help or guidance, how could he ever expect them to change? Especially with false traumatic backstories? And the kid was stupid, "sure grandpa I've been convinced was the villain this whole time, I'll let you inject me with stuff I don't know nor understand. You seem super trustworthy because you said trust me."

People confuse convoluted for complexity. This show was just stupid. The tried and true format has always been simple stories, complex characters. We have neither. The characters are blank slates and the story was convoluted, not complex in any good or substantial way. It was obscured by the vapid character backstories and red herrings. Take those out and it's super easy to understand. How am I supposed to get invested by a little girl being dead when I was just laughing at two guys jacking each other off through a gate? Those scenes were right next to each other. Utterly tone deaf show.

So many things just ignored for no reason (like why David "killed" the little blonde girl) and I doubt they would be explained in any followup which I will not be watching anyway.

The did it. They got dummies to like the worst and most pernicious story trope in all of fiction: it was all a dream. Arrogant of them to assume a season 2 and 3. Need to make the first one worthwhile first which they didn't because it was all fake and therefore pointless. Might as well start with season 2 for all the good the characters have done.

We all need to have higher standards so crap like this can't pass and people stop thinking this type of pretentious junk is actually good when it's total shit.

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Spiritual_Caregiver9 t1_iycvbxf wrote

You can thank J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof for inspiring this kind mystery box rubbish.

1899 had a decent a enough premise that, had they tightened up the story and dumped all the needless padding, could've made for a good sci-fi thriller movie. Rather than a simulation in space that didn't totally rip off 'Dark City', it would've worked better if they went the Bermuda Triangle route and the two ships were the same ship from either two different time periods or from a parallel universe with little wormholes spreading throughout the ship one could pass through to the other ship(s).

The use of White Rabbit in the opening credits to Hendrix and Bowie is absolutely cringe-inducing.

1899 is pretentious and thinks it's smarter than it really is.

That's 7 hours of my life I'm not getting back.

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absent_minding t1_iy7i0dn wrote

i agree with what feels like low stakes when it's 'all a dream'. but optimistically i also think that the show kind of acknowledges that and is just about a trippy multi-lingual dream boat ride and hey let's play with that.

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ArthurSaga0 t1_iy7528v wrote

I agree. I’m stunned by how disappointed I was in the show.

I wouldn’t say it’s the worst show I’ve ever seen and I’d give a season 2 a try, but something that really stood out to me is how poor the character development is. Eyk and Maura have no inner conflict to speak of, they don’t go through growth or have an arc of any sort. They’re just...beacons to move the plot along. I wouldn’t know how to describe their personalities or what makes them unique- Maura is stoic. Eyk is stoic, and he likes alcohol. That’s it. I dare you to name other personality traits they had.

All of the side characters are flat. I guess the Asian woman and the euro dude had some chemistry, and Jerome was alright but...that’s about all I got. There’s no dilemma with the side characters as gripping as the love triangle with Ulrich, Hannah, and Katarina in Dark Season 1. And any information we DID learn about the side characters? Doesn’t matter, apparently. It’s all a simulation, those are fake memories and not their actual backstories.

I love the writer/director team behind it and will watch anything they do, including season 2, but I really hope they make changes going forward.

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HiveMindKing t1_iy9fty6 wrote

Having the characters not be able to communicate was an interesting idea but quickly fell flat

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blacktuxedobrownshoe OP t1_iya82e6 wrote

And it made it really funny when characters would monologue because you know the other character is like "wtf is this person doing."

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NamisteHome t1_iy7gofy wrote

>Not to mention it's ripped off the Matrix, Truman Show, Control, Danganronpa, Soma, Remember 11, the Nonary games, pretty much any loop story to cobble together this psuedo-philosophical monstrosity. As well as the super tired cliche of the whole thing being a result of a character who can't deal with loss.

A more concise way to reword this paragraph would be: "This is Silent Hill at Sea."

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blacktuxedobrownshoe OP t1_iya7x7n wrote

I don't know because this show wasn't horror-based. Does Silent Hill have a loop? Or a theme about it all being a dream/simulation?

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TiredCoffeeTime t1_iy7wzdp wrote

I can understand you not liking 1899. I personally thought it was more of "so-so". I think need to rewatch it later on to form a more concrete opinion.

However, I disagree with the whole Black Silence plagiarism accusation. Because of her accusation, many people read her comic only to realize how they don't actually share any similarity other than the triangle eyes & pyramid visual.

So much of what she said was extremely far fetched and it seems that she has not actually watched the show but only saw a couple of scenes before going with the whole plagiarism accusation.

There's a thread going on comparing how 1899 and Black Silence share many similarity but many of them are not only very reaching but not even true. Some of the accusation is hilarious like "similar uniforms" when they look nothing alike or how both series shows space craft in space being used as an evidence as if other space related medias don't show that.

The author herself can't even say anything concrete other than vague comparisons like "there's mysterious event and death" in both series while unable to give any real comparison. Using her argument, you could compare her comic to Dead Space and several big named movies out there and call it a plagiarism.

Regardless of that though, I'll have to rewatch it to see if I'll be invested enough for season 2 or not care if it doesn't get another season. I think overall it could have been a bit better but not sure what could/should have been changed.

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blacktuxedobrownshoe OP t1_iyab1pk wrote

I appreciate your comment.

I didn't look into it a lot yet, so my knowledge could be barely be considered a glance; all I know is that it happened and that was cause for concern to me. But given how much it borrows or homages or whatever from other things that I mentioned in my original post, maybe it's not plagiarized at all; but I hate how it's been talked about as if it's original when it isn't. I don't know. The emptiness of it, the pointlessness. I hate that feeling it gave me.

Analysis is important. I know it's tough to figure out what can/should be changed. But it's so rewarding when you can. Hopefully you can come to some conclusions for your own satisfaction.

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TiredCoffeeTime t1_iybi0ej wrote

Agree with everything you mentioned. It may not have been plagiarized but I'm currently not sure with myself if it deserved as much praise it got.

Hell, this is coming from me who have been hard defending the show being plagiarized work. But yeah, I'm kind of hopping that my second viewing later is more rewarding overall.

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blacktuxedobrownshoe OP t1_iycv2uo wrote

It's important to keep a reasonable mind focused on the facts and you did that, you helped me not get hyperbolic in regards to the plagiarism and I thank you.

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rcanhestro t1_iyemq95 wrote

i can't say the show is terrible since i havent finished it (watched 2 episodes).

but i really don't feel like continuing it...it's just so boring.

there are slow burner shows, but fuck me, 1899 is really slow.

ep 1 i randomly falled asleep during it, and ep 2 i had to force myself to remain awake to finish it.

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salutarykitten4 t1_iy8iduv wrote

I wouldn't mind all the characters stories being fake if they were even a little interesting. I never cared about anyone other than Maura and we wasted so so so much time on everyone else and I have no idea why. Everyone else's story was just the most cliched bullshit, I felt like I was watching Days of Our Lives, and while I liked Maura's a bit more because it was tied into the mystery, "I put my child in a coma to stop him from dying" has also been done dozens of times before, and better. (I only watched the first few episodes of Dark so I don't really have any frame of reference, but this wasn't an amazing introduction honestly)

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Sluggrinder t1_iy8zthh wrote

I watched that show a week ago, and i couldn’t recall anything memorable from it.

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mountainhighgoat t1_iy71qoy wrote

I fully agree. It was disappointing especially because I was interested in it from the creators of Dark. Now I saw Dark is a fluke.

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WordsAreSomething t1_iy73nmm wrote

Tons of great writers have had bad shows. Alan Ball had Here and Now, David Miltch had John from Cincinnati. Mike White is a credited writer on the Emoji Movie. That doesn't mean their past work was a fluke or that they can't make other great things

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ArthurSaga0 t1_iy75kmx wrote

I agree. The director Baran Bodar and his wife made a hit German movie in 2014 that was great, made a 2017 movie called ‘Sleepless’ with Jamie Fox that was TERRIBLE- and then made Dark, which is great. It would be a damn shame if Netflix decided they were a fluke after their first big Hollywood film failed and never greenlit dark!

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Archamasse t1_iy7jsa7 wrote

I quite like Sleepless. Scoot McNairy was an unexpectedly good villain.

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kideternal t1_iy82x79 wrote

FWIW, I originally thought the same about John From Cincinnati, but upon closer inspection finally "got" what he was doing and fell in love with the show. Truly amazing original stuff. While Deadwood was "life with the devil in your midst", John is the opposite. Plus there's a deep love for the Zen of surfing; gliding effortlessly over noisy dramatic turmoil of dysfunctional family life.

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mountainhighgoat t1_iy76zdj wrote

I’ve also seen two of their movies tho. Dark remains a fluke in their filmography. 1899 was at least better than their movies.

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StarshineSolid t1_iy73otv wrote

Definitely. We are thousand online viewers to think this way....

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marfaxa t1_iy7oikb wrote

We are thousand...

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StarshineSolid t1_iybpj0s wrote

Can you believe some of us aren't native English speakers ?

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marfaxa t1_iyc0r17 wrote

I can. I was just referencing "We are legion".

Not everything is a criticism.

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x6ftundx t1_iy8p6zl wrote

All I want to know is if it has anything to do with the Aliens franchise. They are on the promethius and it kinda looks like a wayland ship. I don't know.

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Palmerstroll t1_iy7geuh wrote

I stopped watching after the 2nd episode. It dies not lure me into the show like Dark did sadly.

The characters i just don't care about the characters and the show feel not well written and the acting is not that great also. It's a bit of a mess. Still it is not really bad. you can see they trying.

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alixbd t1_iy73rv2 wrote

Agree as well. I COULD see it using what it’s established for some pretty cool ideas in subsequent seasons, but to waste a whole season on setup would be pretty darn despicable. Disappointed in the people that put out something as awesome as Dark.

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shit_post_thenyoudie t1_iy73aga wrote

I watched ten seconds and was picking this vibe up. What gave it away was the terrible show titles. Turned it off after about 10 min. Thumbs down

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