MovieChat Forums > Travelers (2016) Discussion > holes in the plot and external critics

holes in the plot and external critics

posted 8 years ago by wmeyerson-119-935702
7 replies | jump to latest

EASY GOER

This is why I can't give much weight to the external critic reviews for TV shows. They are made up of nobody (I mean truly unknown) critics.

How does a show like this get such stratospheric "ratings"?

As far as the plot holes, I do not know where to start. I will give my primary issue with them:

The entire team invariably chooses the more difficult path; for example, move out of your social worker's apartment already. Let the bad father take the baby yesterday, etc. But nooooo, they have to do the next right thing, instead. No way.

Travelers can best be compared to (in the real world, today) an undercover or clandestine agency, like the NSA, CIA, FSB, etc. There is no way anyone like that who would risk blowing all their covers, so to speak.

The reason it is done in the show is simple: so fans will be able to identify and feel sympathy (even empathy) towards the "team". Covert organizations have no room for such feelings; that would be an ill afforded luxury.

Being human, we need to feel, and show our humanity; the beauty of life with all our good and bad behaviors: our fallibility is part of that beauty. Therefore, on this show, fans want to choose "good" over "bad". It's only human However, as a major part of the plot? I don't buy it. If all the Travelers behaved this way, they would ultimately fail in their primary mission: right or wrong, good or bad: these things would be obstacles, and they would not complete their "Directive". It is that simple (or complex), I think.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

So you would be happier if the show were just about teams like Hall's who have basically become dehumanized in the process? One of the consistent themes in Brad Wright's Stargate series was making decisions that placed humanity about the pragmatic, or basically, every conflict between Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill (two l's). Send back a team of terminators who will get the job done, regardless, except, that what they are trying to preserve is something quite different than a terminator. In fact, while many in the future decided that it was best to have a machine make decisions for them, like the evil AI machine in PoI, what we are being confronted with is a re-evaluation of that decision based on a future outcome which indicates that it might not have been the best choice. And if "our team" were composed of a bunch of automatons, they wouldn't find themselves in the position of even questioning what is going on.

IOW, probably every weakness you see in the show I see as a strength, even more so having just finished a snowed-in, dome collapsing, weekend of weather, marathon re-viewing

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] wmeyerson-119-935702 8 years ago

Actually what I wrote has nothing to do with whether or not I am happy. I was simply critiqueing the show.
I love the Stargate franchise, considering it was a TV show; That's is very little I watch other than films. There re exceptions.

My favorites line in Joss Whedon's film "Serenity" is the line Kaylie says right before the big fight (River has). Kaylie says "I've been carryin' such a torch-I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers didn't run on batteries in almost a year" It's truly brilliant writing.

[–] wmeyerson-119-935702 8 years ago

My bad! App ogied for off topic quote. But I got it wrong. I just realised Kaylie says "Goin on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!" sorry about that...

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

There have been a couple of Jack O'Neill lines, the basic "so there's that" comment, and the classic "and this concerns us, ... how?" Not quite a "sorkin level" show creation by simply rearranging the dialogue from a previous series, but still recognizable.

Have you watched Castle? The Firefly callbacks were everywhere.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] wmeyerson-119-935702 8 years ago

And good luck with the snowstorm, my friend.

[–] mobocracy 8 years ago

I assumed the reason they didn't abandon their "actual" lives was due to some cause/effect dependency that made their continued participation at some level more or less a requirement. Unfortunately, if you think about it too hard they do deviate -- living with the social worker, the heroin addict living in their warehouse space, but maybe those deviations are allowable (no cause/effect issues).

And the FBI agent is valuable to their mission, enabling them to gain access to lots of intelligence and access they couldn't get as just random citizens.

Time travel has a lot of inconsistencies, though, if you look at it closely so you can always find problems with it. This one is an interesting enough premise that I'm willing to overlook the problems with it and their situation.

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

I think the point they were trying to make with Hall and his group was, this is what happens when the mission becomes all you live for. They are encouraged to keep up their hosts' lives in the present not just for their covers but to hold onto their humanity. Considering it's a one way trip and, for better or worse, they're stuck here for good, your agents need to have a little happiness and human closeness in their lives if you want them to remain mentally sound.

Time travel stories always have a few nonsensical elements. For example, within a very short time of his arrival Phillip's bets should have become no better than random guesses. It's the good old butterfly effect. The slightest alteration to events propagates and quickly changes everything. I have yet to watch or read a single piece of time travel fiction that didn't have questionable bits and pieces. As long as it gets a lot of stuff right, just sit back and enjoy the story. That's what really matters. Is the story thought provoking and entertaining? If so, the people behind it are doing a good job.