Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! 97% of copy edit complete.

Two things this week.

One, as of today both my books are on sale in the UK and USA, in the ebook edition anyway. Continue your recovery from St. Patrick’s day overindulgence by sitting down with a good book. That’s an order, soldier!

Two, I binged Halo from episode three to current this week. No spoilers folks, I’m sticking to generalities here. I never played the game, know none of the lore. (I just bought the Master Chief Collection on Steam – it was on sale for $10, so why not?) I do recall when season one came out that folk moaned about Master Chief taking off his helmet (as a Judge Dredd fan, I know the feeling) , and there were a LOT of complaints about the final episode. That made me not bother, but then I saw trailers for season two and as one of the spoilery things I’d heard about the end of season one seemed not to be true, I thought I’d give it a try.

I had been wanting to watch something that involved space and guns and thought Halo should fit the bill. I watched a few episodes, left it alone for a few months – partly because of what I thought I knew about the end of season one. This is why spoilers can be bad. Came back and watched it all in the last week. Not knowing the lore, I did not hate it. I enjoyed the space and guns stuff I wanted to see, and was somewhat intrigued by the storylines, some of them anyway. A couple I could easily do without. There are up to five going at any one time, and that is ambitious. I applaud ambition in writers, and want their plans to succeed. But I’ve seen TV show plans fall apart/ be non-existent (looking at you, Battlestar). If it all comes together it is an amazing triumph, if it doesn’t, it’s an annoying dud.

However. The main issue I have is not the multiple storylines being crammed into each episode, or worse having a boring B plot take up far too much of one episode. No, the main issue is that this TV show suffers from gigantic mystery boxitis. EVERYTHING is a forking mystery, a secret to be revealed, is mcguffin related or destiny that will be later explained related. Irma gerd. Now, I never got sucked into Lost like many others, but I did watch Alias, and know excessive mystery boxing when I see it, and it sucks. Why? Because if all that ever gets set up are hooks with no resolution then eventually your viewer (or reader) get frustrated and walks away. Don’t over promise and under deliver. 

But guns and space. And some characters and interactions I really liked. And a couple who were forking insufferable. The mystery box thing lets me know I’m being manipulated into watching to find out the resolution of the mysteries. And there are many, and the hope is they will cat’s cradle together into a very satisfying whole. But will they? I gave the writers in season one some credit that maybe they had learned from TV history and would not leave multiple threads hanging unresolved. By the penultimate episode of season two I am rather pessimistic. I really want to be wrong, but I’m getting the Alias sense of “here’s a new mystery even bigger than the old one! Forget that we never solved the old mystery and just swallow this bigger hook, and stick with us!”

What I want is for the initial mysteries to resolve, and perhaps even feed into the newer bigger mysteries in a satisfying way, almost as if planned for by good writers who understand the concept of payoff. I’m fearful that won’t happen. From the credits it looks like the writing team has some cohesion, so I’m praying there is a well-planned structure they are sticking to, and that payoffs will start to hit. They need to, because that will reward faithful viewers and encourage them to keep watching if the early hooks are paid off in a satisfying way, and then the viewer (or reader) will safely invest more in the story, with faith that the later mysteries will also be stylishly satisfied. (See The Expanse for how this can be done well in space, with some guns.)

Still, I worry this is more Alias than Expanse. (More BSG than B5.) I hope not. The lore has apparently been trampled on, and that isn’t a good sign, but for me the first egregious “forget about that old mystery, it doesn’t matter anymore” hasn’t hit me in the face yet, so I will persist. (Since first writing this, I have remembered a big one, involving the planet Madrigal. Foreshadowed story line has been dropped. Bummer. Unless somehow it does get picked up, but that seems very unlikely, given recent events.) But as soon as it does, I’ll probably be out, (I’ll give it the next episode), unless the space and guns quotient is high and very well choreographed! I can only wait so long for the insufferable characters to get shot out of an available airlock, (or just shot) but sadly I think they have better plot armor than Master Chief’s.

Maybe, just maybe, the insufferable will grow as people and become better. There are tiny signs, but I think I’m hallucinating them. If by season five they are supposed to be incredible rounded characters with whom we have gone on a wild journey is a fine plan, but this is streaming and the axe can fall at any time, which is why some mysteries need to be resolved this week, and not pushed off into another mega-cliffhanger that asks more questions and answers none. If that happens I would also suspect my interest will be snuffed out, along with my subscription.

Pause while Paramount quakes in fear at my pronouncement.

Until next week, my friends. What do you watch to get your space and guns fix? (Or a smart sci fi drama worth watching, if you must be all grown up about it.) Writers: remember that if you set up mysteries, don’t drop them without a resolution. Promise, and deliver, and your readers will be happy.