Contrasting Threshold Reviews
I didn’t get a chance to watch the new sci-fi show Threshold myself. I’m finding myself increasingly short of time and I’m not sure how many of the new genre shows I’ll actually be able to sample at this point. I was curious to see what people’s reaction to the show as and it didn’t take me long to find some contrasting reviews.
On the one hand the good folks over at Bureau 42 were none too impressed by the new show. While they didn’t hate Threshold, the tone of their review clearly shows that they weren’t grabbed by it either. Weaknesses in the plotting and the general staleness of the concept combined to underwhelm them.
Cleveland.com has a more positive view of things though. They make the good point that these shows are as much horror shows as sci-fi tales and describe the pilot episode as exceptional. Their comments on the effect of current events on Sci-fi pretty much hits the nail on the head too.
So why such different responses to the same show? I wonder if this is the difference in reaction between a general tv viewer and the sci-fi fan? What might seem as old hat and seen it before to a genre fan, may be relatively new and enjoyable to more casual viewers.
So what about you? Did you watch Threshold and if so, what did you think?
Link: Bureau 42 - Threshold Review
Link: Cleaveland.com - On the Threshold of something good
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
JELIEL
I thought it was OK.
I wrote a review for it which can be read here.
http://mindblender1618.blogspot.com/2005/09/2005-fall-line-up-reviews-take-4.html
It’s about 3 pages long, so I won’t copy it here.
Sep 17th, 2005
Brenda
I enjoyed it. I am a science fiction fan but not a hardcore one so not sure what category I fall in (general vs. genre viewer). But while the pacing of the plot may have been a little slow, I thought the performances alone were worth viewing. This is an excellent cast dealing with interesting material. Well worth the time of any sci-fi fan to check out for themselves. And besides - the show has Brent Spiner! Show some love for Data.
Sep 18th, 2005
Eoghann
Well there’s a nice symetry to the posts so far. 1 pro and 1 anti, just like the reviews I mentioned. I guess we’ll get a better feel for how people are reacting to the show after the second episode airs.
I hear that ratings were poor, but considering it was shown on a Friday night, thats not really surprising.
Sep 18th, 2005
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