weskerian
I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this series, and most people seem to make up their minds before even seeing half of this show. I think this is, quite frankly, undeserved. This series is not like the 1980's movie, which was poorly written and painfully ridiculous at best (and audiences at the time realised that), but rather uses a more modern idiom, treating the idea of Mongo and its state of turmoil with a sense of genuine care rather than slapping an "alien world - evil ruler" label on it and saying "we can't be bothered". Albeit, this does mean that it strays from the original comics, but this is hardly a bad thing. I'm only too happy to accept an updated, intelligent and considerate approach to something that was originally just a bunch of fanciful nonsense from the days when we thought all spacecraft looked like they had just jumped out of a Warner Bros. cartoon, and when we didn't think anything of calling Africans, "howling blacks". Tell me, is that the kind of "legacy" we want to perpetuate?The only realcomplaint that I can bring against this show is the occasional lack of polish in certain areas. It is clearly a low budget show, however, the production team really do an excellent job of covering this up. They use different camera lenses to give Mongo that otherworldly feel it needs as an alien planet (which they actually go to the trouble of explaining), and dress up the sets to make them seem more strange (Ming's palace, especially, doesn't look like anywhere on Earth). On top of that, the locations are always perfectly chosen and expertly filmed. The special effects, though minor, are well-utilised and don't look like they'll date easily. The rifts, in particular, are excellent.Rather than CG monsters, this series uses prosthetics and costumes, which are always preferable in low budget, and sometimes even high budget, films/series. All told, I could liken this to the BBC's Doctor Who, albeit without their stunning variety of alien creatures.Though departing from the original formula of the 'Flash Gordon' comics, this series sculpts its own superb history and characterisations from the original material; as I have said before, this isn't a bad thing. If anything, these changes are a vast improvement. The original alien races remain, each of them with more plausible histories and appearances, with an undercurrent of simmering political tension that makes the whole situation feel like a powder keg getting ready to erupt. They even kept elements such as the Verdan's "lottery", but gave them more serious, emotional consequences.The characterisations are all superb and a real pleasure to watch. Not only that, but the interactions are really quite endearing and I feel a genuine sense of empathy for them all, whomever they might happen to be. Ming, especially, has been greatly improved upon from the original concepts, played to perfection by John Ralston. He now plays a Hitler-esquire tyrant struggling for the dominance of his dying planet, all the while searching for some way to spread his power to places other than Mongo. This adds a flavour of realism to the whole affair that goes beyond his "bwahaha, moustache-twirling evil villain" persona from the movie. The fact that he appears here to be an ordinary human being, albeit from Mongo, adds to his evil, due to the fact that he has deliberately forsaken his morality and conscience for the power he now covets.Also, this series manages to avoid the often treacherous waters surrounding "tough girl" characters by not playing Dale out of character. Though not weak, she remains as strong as you would expect a Yale graduate and reporter to be, i.e. not very, more emotionally robust than physically powerful. They remedy this by giving us Baylin, the Mongo-born bounty huntress. She not only serves to provide some excellent comic relief at times, and act as the muscle and tracking skills for their group, but also gives the Mongo perspective on everything. Ignoring her often inappropriate comments, and how funny these can be, we can see through her eyes that the world can be a dangerous, lethal place, and that where she comes from, its better to strike first than try to talk things out. This only makes Mongo seem more dangerous.It should be noted, also, that Flash is excellent as well. Rather than just some meathead football player, he is instead a conscientious young man motivated by his own sense of justice and fair play. Though he is driven by his desire to find his father, he quickly takes Ming's tyranny on as his own problem, and strives to save Mongo. This is commendable, and more protagonists should spend less time whining about their fate, and more time doing something about it, like Flash does.The political aspects of this show are all of an excellent calibre, with tensions ranging from tolerable animosity to outright hostility among the people of Mongo. I really cannot say how impressed I am with John Ralston's Ming and his political head-games. Also, his relationship with his daughter seems to swing between genuine affection and a desire to use her as a pawn in his political manoeuvrings. These themes are much better in the latter half of the series, when things really start to hot up.All told, if you want a modernised, intelligently-written, mature, and oft-times well-acted piece of science fiction, this is the show for you. If you were expecting stupid hair, ridiculous costumes, laughable dialogue, half-baked plot devices and dumb music, go back to the 80's where you belong. Oh, and this isn't for you, sorry.P.S. It's not a Sliders rip-off; there are no alternate universes, making the comparison defunct.
johnnycage10
Very surprised to the negative reviews this show is receiving. It's not like the original FG? Of course not, because the original FG sucked. Good dialogue and surprise twists are aplenty on this show. Special mention to Karen Cliché's Baylin and John Ralson's Ming for giving us an ultracool heroin and a villain who is evil and very realistic, respectively. If you want lines like "It's a political think-tank. Now THERE'S an oxymon", then watch FG. If you want garbage, then there's much more of it on the idiot-tube. See it and enjoy the quirky characters, good dialogue, plot twists you didn't see coming, and how dangerous and self-deluded Ming is. Forget the morons who were in the stupid 1981 movie, since this is good television. You won't regret it.
Kelex_the_robot
I love comic-books and fantasy since I had age to love something. And Flash Gordon is one of my favorite characters. I loved all incarnations of the character, from Alex Raymond's first take, with it's futurist medieval spirit, to Dan Barry's iconic futuristic sci-fi (and McRaboy, Dan Jurgens, Al Williamson...)I understand some modernizing stuff for this new version, Flash is not a 1934 hero anymore, but I have to admit that when I saw that Ming...(He looks like Flash!), I didn't feel I was ready for that.Next thing I saw was that this is indeed a "small" series, it looks like television, not like other series like Lost, Galactica, which are really like big budget movies. We are not used to this kind of TV series today, we need to see small blockbuster movies, and Flash Gordon is not that kind of product. This budget issues determine the story/plot possibilities, so plots and stories will be really affected by budget limitations.It has happened before, Stargate SG. 1 had a very small firsts seasons with small budgets, and look at the Stargate franchise now. Remember Star Trek Next Generation's pilot "Encounter at Far Point"? I think it's still the worst TV pilot (in all sense) I have seen in my life, and now look at "All The Good Things..." (series finale), different isn't it? Sometimes TV improves year after year. We should give Flash Gordon a chance, there are good things in it, the lead cast is OK, the effort in modernizing the myth...I think it's getting better as season goes on. With a bit of patience, we could be watching an awesome science fiction series sooner than we think.
