SummaryThe long-gestating series based on the 2013 film by Bong Joon Ho finds humans living on perpetually running trains for over seven years after the world froze but after so many years, class divisions have brought tensions to a breaking point.
SummaryThe long-gestating series based on the 2013 film by Bong Joon Ho finds humans living on perpetually running trains for over seven years after the world froze but after so many years, class divisions have brought tensions to a breaking point.
Instead of a more straightforward rebellion pushing Evans’ Curtis from the tail to the front of the train, the series takes advantage of its multi-chapter format to present a complex web of lies, false identities, and complicity.
What follows is a soapy, ambitious sci-fi season that takes big swings and follows through, engaging with not just class struggle but also leadership, loyalty, compromise, and coalition.
Having just watched the original Snowpiercer again, then watching the Pilot episode of the TV series, I'm hopeful for what Snowpiercer 2020 will have to offer in the coming season. I really liked the movie, however I believe that there's certainly room for improvement and further exposition of various aspects of the Snowpiercer **** the movie the main character has little background development, aside from the monologue about his boarding of the train and the events that ensued. What were his motivations, aside from guilt and perhaps atonement? In the show, the first episode alone gives Andre a more solid character development as defacto leader of the resistance with a former love interest and career. In the movie, discussions of balance are had in a mostly pseudo-religious tone, while in the show balance is stressed as a scientific necessity. Andre is given an insider perspective of how the train works, as opposed to an outsider perspective that's given in the movie. Overall, the train in Snowpiercer 2020 seems more futuristic and bright. Not quite as dark/dingy as the movie train, though I think the train car design in the movie was more realistic in terms of how large the interior space could be. Also, the events in the TV show occur nearly 7 years after the train departed vs 17 years, so that could explain why things on the train haven't devolved quite as much. The class system on the train is also different and more stratified in the show, there are 3 classes plus the tail section as opposed to the tail section and everyone else in the movie. This makes more sense, in my opinion, because like in our society the first class passengers would still need the proletariat to make things function. We also get a peek at the locomotive at the end of episode one, and it actually looks like a futuristic train would instead of a cavernous sparkly nebulous black box engine like the one in the movie. I'm not sure why the show is getting so much hate on here, but I'm definitely looking forward to more of Snowpiercer 2020.
There’s a compulsively watchable (if ultimately uninventive) gumshoe show baked into TNT’s interpretation of the material, but the extras—even at their most glamorous, vivid, and licentious—overwhelm the best that “Snowpiercer” has to offer.
The fact that it lands somewhere in the slack middle of the quality scale is bound to be disappointing for fans of the film hoping for better. ... Helpfully the TV adaptation deviates enough from the film to keep viewers guessing about a few things.
A mess, full of half-developed characters, illogical plot choices and incompletely realized social satire. But it's not awful. Thanks to solid production values, maybe a half-dozen amusingly pitched performances and several moments of giddy lunacy, Snowpiercer settles into a watchable rhythm.
It’s a show that’s so overtly plot-heavy that it has no time for little things like character and setting. It just keeps pushing forward, completely unwilling to give you people to care about in this vision of the future, hoping that you’ll just go along for the ride.
Snowpiercer doesn’t even get out of the station before it goes off the rails. ... The standout performance comes from The Americans’ Alison Wright as Connelly’s second in command—she does a nice riff on Tilda Swinton’s gonzo performance from the film—but in general, the quality of the writing and acting are very basic cable, even for basic cable.
The 2020 video series Snowpiercer is of the steampunk genre like the original 2013 movie. So, there is that retrofuturism that seems to be widely appealing - but, the series and the movie have different plots.
I am writing about episode 1 of season 1.
I found it interesting that animation was used as an introduction to the series. I think we are seeing animation used more frequently to keep projects on budget.
There was some very good acting. I can't list them all - but, I especially enjoyed:
Jennifer Connelly as the "Voice of the Train"
Mickney Sumner a brakeman (later a hostage)
Alison Wright another brakeman
Iddo Goldberg a train engineer?
The train is obviously a metaphor and (to me) an interesting plot device.
The technical aspects of the series are of very good quality. Perhaps the editing was somewhat too fast paced - but, I can understand how there was a lot to cover in the first episode.
I will be watching the second episode.
I anticipate that this will be enjoyable entertainment if you like to think about things.
A lot better than people are going to give it credit for.
Yes the premise is incredibly stupid on multiple levels. But the performances do a good job at making it easy to suspend disbelief and enjoy the development of the plot threats.
Definitely worth watching for a few more episodes to get a better feel if this is something to follow or not.
A rather disappointing series.
Daveed Diggs is so wooden and difficult to watch in the lead role.
Just a bloated and convoluted mess at times but the elements are there for something decent though. Hopefully in the 2nd season.