Killjoys/Dark Matter renewed for third seasons

[Borgminister]

Happy that both shows were picked up as a fan of the genre, but I crossed Killjoys off my list of shows to watch for hackneyed writing and headache-inducing camerawork. Dark Matter is passable; I especially like the android, as the actress plays the part very well. I did prefer the blue outfit on her though...

 

[Christopher]

Happy that both shows were picked up as a fan of the genre, but I crossed Killjoys off my list of shows to watch for hackneyed writing and headache-inducing camerawork.

I think the writing this season has been excellent and very imaginative, not hackneyed at all. The first season was fairly good, but the second has been very good.

 

[Borgminister]

Maybe I just caught the wrong episodes... the banter between the leads seemed 6th grade, eye-rolling level to me. To each their own though!

 

[Christopher]

Maybe I just caught the wrong episodes... the banter between the leads seemed 6th grade, eye-rolling level to me. To each their own though!

Well, I'm not crazy about the banter, but the stories and characterization are quite good. Tonight's season finale was pretty awesome.

 

[Borgminister]

I was intrigued by the story line initially, so I'll revisit it and see if I just jumped the gun!

 

[Captain Shaw]

I like both these shows and I was a bit worried about the viewing figures so 'm pleased by the news.

 

[Wouter]

I don't know if I'd describe Dark Matter that way. It's more like a bunch of unrelated story arcs going in parallel, though I guess there's more of a larger series arc emerging this season. Killjoys has always felt to me like it was building to something bigger and had a unifying thread behind it all from the getgo, but DM has taken longer to give the impression that it was really going anywhere.

Impressions can be deceiving. Things that are introduced in an episode, can be dormant but come back to be relevant some 10 episodes later. Mallozzi seems to feed info on his world and characters gradually - something Killjoys also does when it comes to Khlyen, for example, even if the basic worldbuilding is done faster - but he has always been adamant he knows where things are going. The way S2 has been shaping up, I believe he has been claiming this in good faith.

The latest episode (S02e10) is again an excellent installment that is clearly moving 2 storylines (related to Four and Android) that were started or hinted at in the very first episode. And while you could call them "unrelated" to each other, they still influence one another.

It may take its time to follow up on some things, but IMO that's part of the charm; a bit of mystery doesn't hurt, if there is a resolution at the end. I believe there will be, even if the show gets cancelled, as Mallozzi has promised he would let the fans know how it would have continued.

 

[Christopher]

Impressions can be deceiving.

But still important. After all, what a show makes us feel is pretty much the whole point. A show that has a long-term plan but ends up feeling unfocused and directionless is not executing its plan as well as one that feels from the start like it's building to something.

It may take its time to follow up on some things, but IMO that's part of the charm; a bit of mystery doesn't hurt, if there is a resolution at the end.

But there's a difference between being mysterious and being vague. There's a difference between measured pacing and meandering. I have never denied that both series are trying to do the same sort of thing with their story arcs; after all, most shows do. I just don't think Dark Matter has been anywhere near as deft or focused about it as Killjoys.

 

[Cyrus]

I find Dark Matter mildly entertaining and it has kept my interest so far, So I am glad it will be back. I bailed out on Killjoys earlier this season, so not watching that one any more.

 

[Wouter]

But still important. After all, what a show makes us feel is pretty much the whole point. A show that has a long-term plan but ends up feeling unfocused and directionless is not executing its plan as well as one that feels from the start like it's building to something.

Feelings are subjective though; opinions obviously differ on that matter (DM is not directionless IMO) and everybody who is watching will have to form his/her own opinion on that. And as a counter example, I offer nuBSG: it was a show that, probably for many, felt like it was focused and knew where it was going, but in the end the show runner threw up his hands and said "it's about the characters". And he wrote a finale, or rather, a final stretch of episodes that was very underwhelming, IMO.

 

[Forbin]

The varying views here are interesting. Personally, DM is the casual fun watch, and KJ has become the essential OMG don't-miss-a-moment watch.

 

[Christopher]

And as a counter example, I offer nuBSG: it was a show that, probably for many, felt like it was focused and knew where it was going, but in the end the show runner threw up his hands and said "it's about the characters". And he wrote a finale, or rather, a final stretch of episodes that was very underwhelming, IMO.

Heck, that show lost a consistent focus much earlier than that, when it decided that "guess who the next secret Cylon is" should be the entire focus of the narrative, then did a Cylon-rule arc where the only Cylons we saw were coincidentally the seven we already knew about, so then they handwaved that contrivance away by inventing the whole "Final Five" thing out of thin air, and so on and so on. That was a classic example of a show that kept changing its mind about its focus. Dark Matter may have been slow to reveal its focus, but it's been much more consistent (aside from the treatment of One and Devon, which feels to me like they've changed their minds as they went).

Besides, I wasn't comparing DM to every show out there, just to Killjoys. Of the two, Killjoys has always felt more focused, in part because it has only 77% as many episodes per season and thus has to advance its story arc faster.