Dark Matter

:

Season 1
  • Network: SyFy
  • Series Premiere Date: Jun 12, 2015
Season #: 3, 2, 1
User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 219 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 182 out of 219
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 219
  3. Negative: 17 out of 219
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  1. chillgreg
    Jun 13, 2015
    3
    From the first scene to the closing dialog, this was just plain B-grade rubbish. Amateur acting with wooden delivery, clichéd casting, tied together with woeful scriptwriting. The premise and sets are ok, but only just. Avoid.
  2. Raven25
    Jun 13, 2015
    0
    More SJW screenwriter nonsense:

    1. 'The symbol of freedom in the face of oppression' pendant - sound familiar? 2. The over the top white alpha male who has been cast as a downright ass who is obsessed with big guns, hates helping people and is sexist and ageist...they might as well have gone with a white male master race as the bad guys and every minority as the good guys...oh    More SJW screenwriter nonsense:

    1. 'The symbol of freedom in the face of oppression' pendant - sound familiar?
    2. The over the top white alpha male who has been cast as a downright ass who is obsessed with big guns, hates helping people and is sexist and ageist...they might as well have gone with a white male master race as the bad guys and every minority as the good guys...oh wait...they practically did.
    3. The asian guy who walks around with katanas...in a sci-fi...a racist SJW TV series - who would've thought?
    4. The token black guy who is clearly just that
    5. The two females who contradict gender roles by being nerdy and/or leaders...so edgy.

    The 'plot' is a bunch of people who have no idea who they are or what they're meant to do on a ship. So basically, no real plot, no character development, and to the extent there is any, the characters are one dimensional. The themes are transparent SJW ones that aren't discussed at all beyond being noted.

    Ultimately, this is a TV series that is either so scared of being criticized for not being PC enough that it can't make a single interesting character or plot point OR that this is a TV series that genuinely believes that putting a critical theory essay onto the small screen somehow makes a good TV series. In either case, it fails. Please do not watch.    … Expand
  3. original_ctiric
    Aug 31, 2015
    0
    After watching the first season I have come to the conclusion that this is only a good sci-fi show if you've never seen a good sci-fi show before. The show seems to want to be Firefly but without the charismatic characters or witty writing. There are some blatant ripoffs. Watching Anthony Lemke is like watching a terrible impression of Adam Baldwin. Jodelle Ferland also seems to channelingAfter watching the first season I have come to the conclusion that this is only a good sci-fi show if you've never seen a good sci-fi show before. The show seems to want to be Firefly but without the charismatic characters or witty writing. There are some blatant ripoffs. Watching Anthony Lemke is like watching a terrible impression of Adam Baldwin. Jodelle Ferland also seems to channeling her inner Summer Glau. The majority of the acting is as bland as cardboard and equally banal. When Will Wheaton puts in the best performance of the first season you know it's pretty bad. Nearly the entire cast is miscast. Melissa O'Neil is horribly miscast as the ship's "leader." I can't stop laughing at her fight scenes because she can't even manage a believable kick above her waist. Note to those casting a show: Make sure an actress is athletic enough to carry out a fight scene before casting her in an action role. She is also easily the most annoying character in the show largely due to the material given to her. Every episode I find myself hoping that the show will kill her off only to be disappointed. Zoie Palmer would have been a much better choice for that role. Her talent is wasted as the android (although her performance is one of the few positives ... even though it's unoriginal). Roger R. Cross is the only other actor to put in a worthwhile performance. The show would have been better off casting him in the lead. As far as the stories go, nearly every episode is predictable since most of the material is ripped off of superior intellectual property.… Expand
  4. Rattazustra
    Jun 26, 2015
    0
    The series feels like it has fallen out of time. The production standards are more 1995, with some 2005 cgi. The storytelling is bland and superficial and the pilot certainly wasn't very impressive. So far it feels as if someone had picked up discarded pieces and left-over bits from Farscape, Enterprise and the SyFy series in general and made a polished homunculus out of that. Better thanThe series feels like it has fallen out of time. The production standards are more 1995, with some 2005 cgi. The storytelling is bland and superficial and the pilot certainly wasn't very impressive. So far it feels as if someone had picked up discarded pieces and left-over bits from Farscape, Enterprise and the SyFy series in general and made a polished homunculus out of that. Better than the junk we got force-fed under the science-fiction disguise recently, but not really a good show so far. If it wants to become one it has to improve FAST.… Expand
  5. smb12321
    Jul 5, 2015
    2
    It's Syfy and our spaceship has candy bars, a sexy android, six youngish crew folks with the correct diversity mix - black, Asian, female, youth, bad boy, model guy. They use pistols (!!) to fight armed mercenaries except the Asian who uses (what else?) a sword. Let's not typecast, folks. For some reason their memories have been wiped and when their names are revealed they soundIt's Syfy and our spaceship has candy bars, a sexy android, six youngish crew folks with the correct diversity mix - black, Asian, female, youth, bad boy, model guy. They use pistols (!!) to fight armed mercenaries except the Asian who uses (what else?) a sword. Let's not typecast, folks. For some reason their memories have been wiped and when their names are revealed they sound suspiciously like porn stars. .

    It won't rest on just the story so it constantly throws in human at the dumbest times (middle of a fight, facing death, etc. It could have gone all dark and moody or high tech and ironic but it's a godawful combination of big spaceship, 1950's science fiction and the Old West. There's FTL yet we drive Ford pickups. Bar scenes resemble the 1970's and nurses are from 1950 (white with white pointed caps). It's hundreds of years in the future and despite 3d printers folks live in shanties and work in mines for the (you guessed it) evil corporation. Can this get any more conventional and banal?

    Dialogue is juvenile, trite, dull (you get the pic) and the actors look embarrassed, confused or bored. Much of the time is spent running up and down long corridors (the ship must be the size of Rhode Island). Unlike Stargate Universe or Battlestar Galactica this has about as much depth as a cosmic ray.    … Expand
  6. Sulriel
    Feb 18, 2016
    2
    Dark Matter, plenty of pizazz with none of the chutzpah.

    Why?! Why?! I really REALLY want to like this show, I tried, but you had to make it so hard! So hard! Why?! First of all, I don't think calling this show cliche quite fits the bill. Though it's obliviously trying to replicate Star Trek, Firefly, and maybe even Battlestar Galactica as a trendy epic. Nice try! Sucks, you    Dark Matter, plenty of pizazz with none of the chutzpah.

    Why?! Why?! I really REALLY want to like this show, I tried, but you had to make it so hard! So hard! Why?!

    First of all, I don't think calling this show cliche quite fits the bill. Though it's obliviously trying to replicate Star Trek, Firefly, and maybe even Battlestar Galactica as a trendy epic. Nice try! Sucks, you lose! Could have seen past all that but there's quite a few weaknesses sucking up all the... what's the word?

    Let me explain something to you writers and directors... NOBODY cares about a team of space adventurers in a space ship unless you FEEL like you're part of the crew. If it's not for the unsettling acting that goes with every scene, it's the direction that doesn't know how to film a bloody scene. How many opportunities can you miss to convey an emotion to the viewer? You let them walk in , hold a shot, deliver lines... what was that? obviously there's suspicion but you can still show the view, the story observer what else is being said. It's called body language. Something none of these characters have. I can't believe anybody, well, I could if they had some chutzpah!

    I really like the concept if they could have just taken into account a little more understanding of the story. I can watch Dark Matter and get so annoyed because I admit to myself "I could have done it better". It's that feeling like I see what was supposed to happen there and... flop, bad timing, no connection, and One is a total **** oh god I want to rip his head off and through into space! At times it felt as if things, the awkward stances and line belting, were about to lift and like a ship leaving the station things were gonna get better. Awwwwwww and then CRASH you just couldn't fly the sucker!

    Actors are actors and I believe a good director can use even the most mediocre one and make a good scene. But in this case, holy mother, there are two outstanding misplaced boys on this ship, and that's Six and One. I mean, they are ALL mediocre just because they don't know what else to do but be actors. Honestly I think half the crew are bad ass, or at least could have been. Even if Anthony Lemke's Three is a direct rip-off of Jayne, I wouldn't care. Every ship need's their muscle, whatever.

    Alex Mallari Jr. is a bad ass, I don't care what anyone says.

    Melissa O'Neil has nothing to do but give orders with a flair of the dramatic walkaway with (please stop the big dramatic speech, walk out of the room crap) waving her ass like the pirate ship ride at the fairgrounds, but I don't care, whatever.

    Jodelle Ferland is cool, though an obvious mod combination of both Kaylee and River of Serenity (gotta have the funky one), and I think she does a fine job with what she's got, I don't care, whatever.

    The Android. More robots learning emotion. I Don't CARE WHATEVER.

    All these things were in the "let it slide" zone but...

    Roger R. Cross. I like him, but unfortunately he hit's the **** list because although in a scene or two he eloquently shows his caring and nurturing side of himself with some tangible feeling, he is absolutely unable to carry on a sense that he was ever a bad-ass, and nothing more than a big soft teddy bear.

    And now for the bane of it all, One. Yes, Mr. Marc Bendavid. I mean that pubescent, tin-man, toddler trying to meander around in big people clothes. If I could stick him in an airlock for every line that comes out of his doe-like expressions of terrible execution he would need quite a lot of clones... Even his "original face" actor was way better! I could tell he should of gotten the role. LOL! I thought Three might actually kill him, but things took a turn for the worst, and now they seem like they're getting along, which means more empty space for Anthony Lemke to fill with his rapscallion-like front on and on.

    The concept of this series is based on a Dark Horse comic. I think the story would pan out to be spectacular and it really could've been an amazing sci-fi show, but you just can't throw a bunch of people in space suits and call it Dark Macaroni. Too bad... The background of it all definitely had some coolness of the space trek genre.

    If you haven't seen this yet and you're a sci-fi fan, get ready to watch the entire thing cus you need it to fill the sci-fi void, while wishing to throw cans at the TV periodically, because the same people who brought it to you managed to take it away at the same time.    … Expand
  7. Satanski
    Sep 9, 2018
    2
    Everything about this movie is cheap, but the worst of it all is terrible acting. I mean TERRIBLE. I saw better performance in comercials.
  8. shag00
    Jan 11, 2022
    2
    The most interesting fact about this series was that it survived for 3 seasons. The standout word for this series is puerile, best encapsulated by the Asian guy twirling sticks and swords in the early episodes closely followed by some meathead with a passion for extraordinarily large guns. Political correctness is not ignored either with the now de rigueur appearance of a roughly 50kgThe most interesting fact about this series was that it survived for 3 seasons. The standout word for this series is puerile, best encapsulated by the Asian guy twirling sticks and swords in the early episodes closely followed by some meathead with a passion for extraordinarily large guns. Political correctness is not ignored either with the now de rigueur appearance of a roughly 50kg chick regularly throwing around multiple guys at least twice her size. Oh god, will the **** never stop.

    The show is primarily set on board a space ship which is just breath taking in it's size. The crew of 6 seem to be onboard a ship the size of the Enterprise which has a crew of over 1,000 people. Important maintenance areas of the engine are only accessible from outside the ship, which is very odd to say the least. We have a band of galactic criminals (mercenaries) who behave to situations like ordinary mum & dads who prefer to run, hide and cry than resolve a threat.

    This is a really bad show with very little in the way of redeeming qualities.    … Expand
  9. CinemaSearch
    Sep 1, 2017
    3
    I can see what some may enjoy with this predictable and uninspiring show. It's filled with standard sci-fi and TV tropes we can't help but love. But, are we seriously not bored enough yet? Dark Matter would be well served (as well as the viewing public) with a subtitle along the lines of Cliche' ex Machina. No that's terrible.

    Point stands. The ham-handed stories, all-over-the-place    I can see what some may enjoy with this predictable and uninspiring show. It's filled with standard sci-fi and TV tropes we can't help but love. But, are we seriously not bored enough yet? Dark Matter would be well served (as well as the viewing public) with a subtitle along the lines of Cliche' ex Machina. No that's terrible.

    Point stands.

    The ham-handed stories, all-over-the-place (and yet predictable...how?) character development, worn out themes and bland acting (except for Android, she's fantastic).

    It's almost like some screenwriters and directors said, "Hey, I really hate these 7 actors. Let's see if we can get them in a show and ruin their careers with it."    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    Jun 15, 2015
    40
    Dark Matter is a dud, and likely to make as much of a dent in the pop-cultural consciousness as the invisible substance it’s named after.
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  2. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    Jun 15, 2015
    50
    A lethal robot (Zoie Palmer), who tries to kill one of the six before they wipe her memory. She then sets about reconstructing the ship’s data, eventually learning the ship’s destination and their possible purpose that throws everything the audience has learned in the show’s first hour into question. It’s a good twist. What Dark Matter makes of it in future episodes remains to be seen.
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  3. Newark Star-Ledger
    Reviewed by: Vicki Hyman
    Jun 12, 2015
    50
    A workmanlike space opera.
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