An exciting and near-solid premiere, Halo the series straddles a difficult line between fidelity to the source material and telling its own story. For the most part, aside from some nitpicks and one particular trip up, this first episode works as an introduction.
If you’re a fan of science fiction and action adventure then this may likely appeal from the get-go. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool fan who has wrapped their entire personality to the original video games then this is going to be a difficult one to sell to you.
I’m going to avoid most of the spoilers about this first episode, however, I feel like I need to explain one MAJOR moment and will be hiding that in a click-box for anyone that is curious enough to read.
As context, I’ve been a fan of Halo since the very first game on the original Xbox so I’ve been looking forward to a live-action adaptation for quite a while. Forward Unto Dawn felt like such an excellent tease and Nightfall was… interesting. When the television/streaming series was announced to be non-canon and “it’s own thing” I wasn’t worried. As a Trekkie, we’re used to other media not being canon to the main product. It didn’t need to be a completely faithful adaptation, as long as we’re presented with a compelling story I was just fine with that. Cautious about the quality of the story telling, sure, but mainly open to it.
So far, the first episode, “Contact”, has really grabbed my attention. It doesn’t exactly hit the ground running but there is a fantastic action scene in the first act, introducing the Spartans of Silver Team, that does imply the level of excitement you can expect to see. A lot actually goes on in this premiere episode, more than one would expect and so the pacing is faster than most prestige televisions shows that have a season-long story arc. We’re presented with the story’s main mystery very early on as well as a bit of drama in the final few minutes. The latter doesn’t quite works as well as the former because it seems like it’s out of nowhere but at the same time it’s still too early to tell.
Like many of the aforementioned prestige series it wants to emulate, this is one of those “morally grey” kind of stories, which isn’t surprising considering the Master Chief’s origins are pretty much the “for the greater good” kind of despicable. It doesn’t paint the UNSC, the main human government, in a particularly good light as opposed to one of the rebel colonies we’re introduced to at the beginning. That’s already pretty spot on with the source material.
The cast all put on great performances, even despite some corny world-building exposition but that’s part-and-parcel with this sort of writing. Pablo Schreiber may not have that iconic droll but he is actually really great as Master Chief and Natascha McElhone appears perfect as a younger version of Doctor Halsey. In fact, many other characters like Captain Jacob Keyes and Miranda Keyes seem to be younger than the games depict them and that’s all fine too as they give solid performances.
The visual effects look great for the most part. There are a few instances where they seem “off” but that’s to be expected when you palm off work to multiple companies. The Covenant characters we’ve seen so far are all CG and they look good. The money is definitely on the screen.
The Spartans all look fantastic too so I never understood the complaints that “cosplayers do it better” that went up when we saw them in the trailers (I’ve cosplayed Chiefy three times now and I don’t agree with this sentiment). My only nitpicks would be that their colours are a touch too dark (possibly to avoid comparisons to Power Rangers) and a couple of them look to still be adjusting to moving in the suits.
I have little problem with telling a completely different story to the games not because I believe some nonsense about video games being difficult to adapt but more because I am curious in what story they want to tell. And for now I’m interested and so diverging from the source material hasn’t bothered me yet. But there is ONE denouement that doesn’t work for me, regardless of being a Halo fan or not.
This moment is an important character bit that makes sense on paper, however the way it’s presented ruined the final 5 minutes of the episode and potentially undermines a lot as well as creates a different problem.
One of the running gags from the Halo games is that Master Chief’s face is never seen. However, many people mistake this as “never taking his helmet off”, which is incorrect because he has done so a few times in cut-scenes but it’s never shown to the audience. That’s important to remember.
In the show, Chief takes his helmet off as a way to elicit trust from another character who is aiming a gun at him. He’s basically saying you can end this by aiming at his head (instead of his armour) and showing that he’s human too. Now on paper that sounds great but on screen the execution is clumsy, because the audience is shown his face full on. The optics that result from the reveal are problematic.
Basically, it appears that this tiny Asian woman changes her mind to trust this big lug of a super soldier because he’s a handsome white-passing guy (yeah they do nothing to Schreiber’s face and he does look very handsome).
Honestly, this moment could have been achieved in the same way but shot differently, obscuring the Chief’s face from the camera. You could have satisfied both the drama as well as the hardcore fans instead all mystery is lost. The Mandalorian already showed us that you can create a compelling character whose face is unseen for nearly an entire season and reward viewers by eventually revealing it. Sadly, those lessons were completely ignored here and it may undermine the rest of the show.
One episode in and I’m entertained and definitely looking forward to more. It’s only with a full season can I truly judge the success of this venture. It may be great, it may be average, I doubt it’ll be terrible like some of the naysayers have proclaimed but for now I’m enjoying it.
Halo the series is now streaming on Paramount+ and new episodes are added every Friday evening Australian time.
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