The problem with the “Halo” TV series was evident from the first episode, and it wasn’t something obvious or superficial, like Master Chief removing his helmet.
With explosive finale, ‘Halo’ ends a dramatic yet uneven first season
In their first meeting, it’s established in blistering speed that Chief killed Kwan’s mother years ago, that Chief is the legendary hope of humanity and that he’s suddenly grown a moral conscience about his entire life, just as we’re introduced to him. The first episode, like many in the series, ends with a tense, well-edited, dramatic scene where established characters face off on account of conflicting interests and motivations. When the show ratchets up the excitement during these scenes, it’s easy to forget that many of these moments aren’t earned.
We’re only told Master Chief is the hope for humanity, we’re never shown it. We’re told through Kwan’s lines that she wants to live up to her father’s ambition, but we only get this through flashbacks in the seventh episode (of nine) that feel like way too little, far too late for how much time we’ve spent with her character.
The show becomes so busy managing all these characters, worlds and motivations all while attempting to establish important world-building lore, but it never really manages to tell a well-paced story with them. Instead, “Halo” as it stands as a TV show, has its greatest successes in vignettes of exciting tense and well-acted, well-directed drama, but rarely ever earning those best moments within the context of all it’s trying to juggle.
In the penultimate episode, Chief and Covenant human spy Makee are rushed into sleeping with each other after, as one character points out, merely “frolicking” with her in the park during a single daytime walk. Master Chief having sex sent the 20-year-old Halo fan community into conniptions, as they watched their seemingly asexual cybernetic killing machine melt in the hands of a girl with a pixie haircut.
Still, Thursday’s season finale and ninth episode had plenty of reminders why “Halo” as a TV series has been an entertaining project, with practical sets and effects that are rare in an era of green screens and CGI. While the computer effects were uneven, the show committed to placing its characters in elaborately built and painstakingly realized science fiction sets. And when the CGI kicks in, it’s usually to portray electric superhuman feats of Spartan combat. It brings back fond memories of the war scene from the riveting fifth episode, one of the two standout episodes of the series.
Some highlights from the finale include Kai-125 running faster than a speeding jet, Spartan stealth sequences that feel ripped straight out of the “Halo: Reach” game and Master Chief finally fighting like he’s controlled by a silent, skilled player.
There’s also some residue from the fallout of Episode 6, the other series standout. In that episode, Chief learns the truth of his origins, and his mentor and mother figure, Dr. Catherine Halsey, is explicitly positioned as the true villain of the first season. In the finale, it’s revealed that Halsey really will go through any lengths to avoid consequences and see through her lofty, mysterious goal of elevating humanity, forcing the species to evolve by manufacturing stronger humans. The tempest of anger and frustration around Halsey and her actions is the best-developed story thread of the series so far, as she earns every bit of contempt from the rest of the cast.
Kwan, meanwhile, remains the largest and most obvious missed opportunity of the series. Her narrative arc took six episodes to even begin, and it ends abruptly and anticlimactically in a seventh episode dedicated solely to her. In the end, she is determined by destiny (by the story’s lore and the script writers) to be a thread between her father and ancestor’s legacy to the Halo ring world, but that connection comes off as flimsy at best. She discovers this by visiting a band of magical desert ninjas to learn more about her past who seem to have no identity outside of providing Kwan’s next part of the script. While Yerin Ha does her best to portray Kwan’s growth, she can only do so much with a script that fails her character in every way.
Makee (Charlie Murphy) also similarly felt largely like a tool to move the Covenant conflict forward and little else. Her brief romance with Chief felt obligatory and rote, and it was frustrating to see the all-powerful United Nations Space Command get the wool pulled over their eyes by her very obvious ploy to infiltrate their safe space for the Covenant. Chief’s quick trust of her felt rushed, and it ends with an unsatisfying climax, at least for the audience.
Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy) is a bright light in the series, owning every scene. She gives us a Spartan who’s more than eager to be comfortable in her own skin. She’s playful about her superhuman strength, deadly serious when the lasers begin to fly and charmingly enthusiastic about her lethality. She bathes in her self-awareness as a Spartan, and through her, we can see a much better series that could make a stronger connection to audiences new and old of the series. Her character is the single biggest proof that the creators of this series can write a crowd-pleasing Halo story.
Miranda Keyes (Olive Gray) is another delight. She’s a young woman rising in the ranks of the United Nations Space Command, struggling to find all the answers but burdened by her family’s sins and the life they foisted upon her. Gray proves to be a master of facial expressions as they projected so much of Miranda’s thoughts through furrowed eyebrows furrows and taut lips. Miranda Keyes was an exhibit of what the show could achieve when it finally decides to show, not tell, what these characters are about.
And then there’s Chief, where most of the action, and controversy, of the show centered. Pablo Schreiber has proved himself to be an immense talent, with the sixth episode showcasing Chief’s emotional journey. Yes, Chief seemed rather unstable throughout the series, but it’s a believable arc. Imagine being 40 years old and not only realizing your entire life is a lie, but you’re overwhelmed with a swarm of emotions you haven’t felt in decades. Schreiber was able to depict Chief’s unraveling in ways that contrasted well against the brutalist, cold architecture of his forced military indoctrination.
The problem, again, is that much of it doesn’t feel earned. We are introduced to him as his midlife crisis begins, but we never begin to understand what he’s meant to humanity, or how other humans view him, at all. There is no contrast. We’re given and left with a Master Chief who’s supposed to be a soldier who has gained the implicit trust of an entire army, yet we only see flashes of the man he’s been through the flashes of brilliant combat sequences peppered throughout the season.
Schreiber’s performance is the strongest thread in a tenuous connection with the show’s audience. He indeed becomes this universe’s Master Chief, different from the one we’ve known in the books and games. And there’s still more to know about him since we’re given so little of the soldier before the series begins.
In the end, “Halo” was an uneven roller coaster that was equal parts frustrating and brilliantly staged. It tried to handle a lot of moving parts and gave itself a bit too many in the characters of Kwan and Makee. But the overall arc of the actual Halo story was fun to watch unfold, especially given what fans of the series know of where the story goes, which inevitably will be the Halo ring world.
The already greenlit second season has a lot of work to do. If it remembers to show, not tell, the series should be able to sustain the flashes of electrifying action and drama that won over audiences, and hopefully leave behind narrative weight that drags and frustrates its pacing. It’s already got a charismatic, talented cast who are clearly enjoying themselves in this universe, as evidenced by their exuberant performances. As long as the next season’s script is able to serve them, “Halo” will keep viewers circling back.
Source: WP
