I've been a fan of Sam & Nikos videos on YouTube, so I was excited to see YouTube give them a budget to do something more serious.
From the first episode, however, I quickly started getting confused trying to keep track of all the characters. A lot happened over the first few episodes, but it eventually jumped ahead 6 or so years into the future and things started to settle down. After this point, I finally started feeling like I was getting to know the characters.
Throughout the series, the owner of the company, Nathan, was made out to be the bad guy. But when Norah and Jack were trying to stop him from saving lives, I sided with Nathan instead! After all, Nathan was saving lives, albeit in a different time line, or this time line, or whatever, but saving lives somewhere none-the-less.
The set for the company, Lifeline, felt really lacking. It looked like they were trying to convey a wide open modern look for the company, but the 10 or so tables they set up with computers on them made it feel very empty. Also, all of the establishing shots felt like an afterthought. More often than not, it starts with a wide-open city, and then just cut to inside a home or warehouse. The inside of the time travel room looked really cool, though, and I dare say it was physical set piece too.
By the end, I felt like it tied up a lot of loose ends, but I was still wondering why Conner didn't go back in time further to be with his wife again. And what did Norah learn? To leave Lifeline alone and settle for some guy that lives for getting drunk and high?
One side note, as a Christian I was frustrated about the portrayal of Norah's Christian foster parents. The father was extremely overbearing and the mother's excuse was they were a traditional family; the father is the (strict) leader of the household. Sure I'm not saying that all Christian's are above that, but the writers certainly could've come up with a more general excuse rather than throwing Christian families under the bus. It took me a bit to come to terms with that for the sake of the story, but once I finally did that I was able to continue watching.
So I don't recommend this if you don't already have YouTube Red. If you do, sure, go for it when you board one night. It at least had enough action to keep me interested.
From the first episode, however, I quickly started getting confused trying to keep track of all the characters. A lot happened over the first few episodes, but it eventually jumped ahead 6 or so years into the future and things started to settle down. After this point, I finally started feeling like I was getting to know the characters.
Throughout the series, the owner of the company, Nathan, was made out to be the bad guy. But when Norah and Jack were trying to stop him from saving lives, I sided with Nathan instead! After all, Nathan was saving lives, albeit in a different time line, or this time line, or whatever, but saving lives somewhere none-the-less.
The set for the company, Lifeline, felt really lacking. It looked like they were trying to convey a wide open modern look for the company, but the 10 or so tables they set up with computers on them made it feel very empty. Also, all of the establishing shots felt like an afterthought. More often than not, it starts with a wide-open city, and then just cut to inside a home or warehouse. The inside of the time travel room looked really cool, though, and I dare say it was physical set piece too.
By the end, I felt like it tied up a lot of loose ends, but I was still wondering why Conner didn't go back in time further to be with his wife again. And what did Norah learn? To leave Lifeline alone and settle for some guy that lives for getting drunk and high?
One side note, as a Christian I was frustrated about the portrayal of Norah's Christian foster parents. The father was extremely overbearing and the mother's excuse was they were a traditional family; the father is the (strict) leader of the household. Sure I'm not saying that all Christian's are above that, but the writers certainly could've come up with a more general excuse rather than throwing Christian families under the bus. It took me a bit to come to terms with that for the sake of the story, but once I finally did that I was able to continue watching.
So I don't recommend this if you don't already have YouTube Red. If you do, sure, go for it when you board one night. It at least had enough action to keep me interested.