Masters of Science Fiction - A Clean Escape

[RimWorlder]

Anyone else watch the premiere episode last nite?

I have a mixed bag of reactions: production quality was high - although how anyone managed to get a coherent story out there with so many commercial breaks is beyond me (every 7 to 10 minutes, break for 3 minutes of commercials).

Acting was credible up to a point and then, I felt, unbelievable beyond that point. Perhaps Waterston is too familiar an actor (Law & Order) to be able to break out of predictable behavior...

The story line - well. I've not read the short this is based on, so I can't address faithfulness. I can say that the twist was telegraphed in the first five minutes and the ending twist was no surprise.

This may indeed be a very good effort for SF on tv, but it fell short in many ways. I'm afraid that any casual viewer it managed to pull in will not be back for future episodes.

I'm avoiding spoilers here which is why I'm not being specific with detail.

[LordBalthazar]

Tried to watch it but there was something wrong with the HD feed. I couldn't hear any dialogue but the ambient room noise was crystal clear. Lots of characters mouthing wordlessly while people wallah'd and clinked their cutlery to crystal clarity.

[RimWorlder]

That's a shame - I was hoping to see some feedback from others.

Like I said, not having read the short, I can't judge the faithfulness with which it was translated.

I can say that, at least for me, the "surprise" ending was telegraphed in the first or second snippet, as was the fact that Waterston was a deranged POTUS.

Spoiler here:

The female lead is the psychiatrist for the president of the US; she's dying from cancer.

The male lead is the president. He used to be a captain of industry, having developed a weapon system that can remotely detonate nuclear materials.

He's gone around the bend as a result of having destroyed the world, and is amnesiac.

She's trying to bring him back to reality so that he will suffer for his deeds.

She finally gets him to remember reality and, her mission accomplished, she kills herself.

He goes back into amnesia.

Sorry - twilight zoney or not, I was not surprised and I thought the 'last survivors living in a hole in the ground' was cliche. In reality, if this had happened, the survivors would have offed the president inside of the first 5 minutes and then gotten on with trying to survive...