Colony

USA | Release Date: January 14, 2016

7.7	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

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CrinkyMay 10, 2019

The story line is interesting but meandering. The intended climax is just misplaced. The story line progresses without explaining the main details. The writing repeats itself creating a redundant plot. It's like the writers couldn't figureThe story line is interesting but meandering. The intended climax is just misplaced. The story line progresses without explaining the main details. The writing repeats itself creating a redundant plot. It's like the writers couldn't figure out which story line they liked better.. I'm gong to finish the show but right now I'm just fed up with the excessive story building.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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MeritCobaFeb 14, 2021

Perhaps it is unfair to opinionate on a series when you have only seen the pilot, but a pilot needs to be enticing and it wasn't for me: it was boring.
I tried to figure out what it was that was boring, but it wasn't any particular thing, butPerhaps it is unfair to opinionate on a series when you have only seen the pilot, but a pilot needs to be enticing and it wasn't for me: it was boring.
I tried to figure out what it was that was boring, but it wasn't any particular thing, but rather several things combined. The first was the protagonist. He is a pretty guy living with his beautiful wife in a house with two pretty children.
He is determined to find his third child who is lost in another part of town and was never heard from again. When trying to get to that other part of time the 'resistance' conveniently blows up the truck he is in and he, as sole survivor, gets captured by the police and then forcibly recruited into the police, because he is special. To find his third child he becomes an idiot and risks all, which, makes even less sense as the story progresses . For as we later learn that he is a special military FBI dude and in hiding as most got killed when the aliens took over. So not only does he willing endanger himself and his family but he has even more reasons not to do so. In fact, it makes no sense as it doesn't even get him nearer to his goal. But lucky for him he is wearing plot armor and the leader wants him to find the resistance and he doesn't get offed and nor is his family. Lucky guy!

The leader is a henchman for the aliens, which is convenient for the story as you don't need to show them. He is played as an amicable guy who tries to do the convincing by talking, but in the mean time hinting at worse things if you were to go against his wishes. If this was a crime series set in Chicago he would be Al Capone. A cliche.
At this point we have a pedestrian setup and nothing interesting has happened.
I don't quite see the point of aliens as they otherwise have no presence in the pilot. They might as well be left out and nothing would have changed. And yes a pilot ought to at least hint at something.

The series would be interesting if it mirrored current day events more and would cast the protagonist as a initially loyal cop who increasingly gets uncomfortable with the way things are going. Where do you stand as a policeman? You could make him an instructor with a military background, which would make him see that the police increasingly gets to be more and more like an occupation force as the training turned from policing to direct violence.
(A good way would be to have police go through military training, which is that they have to run through a maze where cardboard figures popup and they have to shoot those figures. The subtle difference here is a shift: initially it might look the same: both have to establish that the pop up is an antagonist and not an innocent bystander, but were the police would aim to diffuse and arrest, the military aim to destroy.)
Instead of splitting the city in parts you can start of with slowly building up go from more patrolling to curfews to lockdowns to searches to forcibly entries and the reactions: protests, resistance and revolution. A riot leads to a curfew, which leads to a demonstration, which leads to a crackdown, which leads to violent demonstrations. Slowly the city gets turned into a prison. The leader can be replaced by various politicians who have their own agendas. Perhaps there is a leader of sorts, a governor or a burgomeister(a mayor, but that name makes it more Germanic) You can still introduce the plot where he wants to find his son, but now he tries to do that initially via the official means and finding it gets him nowhere. He feels he is getting stonewalled. So you can then have him doing increasingly illegal things. Also it would be good to make him flawed. One way can he that he has a war injury(or ptsd) which is the reason he is an instructor. And perhaps he resents it. And perhaps a border officer or beat cop allows him to go to other parts, which is what he wants. So he fakes he is healthy, by say: using drugs or some other illegal means.

The difference here is that in my vision he is average joe trying to do his best and getting drawn into situations willingly and unwillingly. Yes, he is different because he is a cop with a military background, but he is not so special as to get the attention of 'the leader'.

In the pilot he is special: he is a good guy who has all the gifts: he is pretty, health, married with a pretty wife, he is skilled. So he gets the attention of the leader who says: hey you're so good that I want you to be part of my team, no matter what. Of course, I am bad at writing series. For the true aim of series is to create unending drama and fabricated conflicts that can last forever. I don't like drama.… Expand

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