Incorporated - set in a dystopian future, where corporations are all-powerful institutions and loyalty to the company is the new faith in god. Humanity is divided into modern green-zone areas controlled by corporations and the rest of the population living in poverty outside of it. Ben Larson, our protagonist, lives a good life and is a rising star within the mega-corp Spiga, but he's not the man he seems to be - a dark past and the motivation to free his old love drive him.
This sounds familiar and isn't the most original story but it does have its lure. The whole series has a high-quality look that is coherent and they managed to field a halfway decent cast, in particular actors like Dennis Haysberg or Daymon Herrimon helped it a lot. The entire underlying theme of humanity, greed and lack of morality is interesting and not to hard to tie to current developments in the world.
For me the intriguing plot and the dystopian future are always the interesting part but what turned me off is the sheer stupidity of the characters. Ben Larson is depicted as a genius, maybe on a tech-level, but his plans are usually pretty simple and easy to look through, without luck he barely manages to achieve anything. It's also hard to believe in a society where everything is monitored and the corporation has to abide no law besides its own regulations, that it wouldn't be hard to track movements or conversations.
Besides that what bugs me most was the lack of relatable characters and their inconsistent decisions, especially in the second half of the season. Ben is reckless without the need for it and inconsistent, Theo's development is simply beyond me because it simply doesn't make any sense, nor does it help the story except for setting up Ben with more strings attached. The entire main plot revolving around Ben's motivation - Elena and her rescue - gets hyped up but then disappoints in every possible way. I didn't expect a happy end but this dialogue was just uninspired and the new direction it took seems too artificial. Although I like Laura's general progression, the entire clinic plot is meh and completely reverses the previously established "evil, ghetto-like, malevolent" red-zone narrative. On the plus side, Julian and Laura's mom are a very pleasant surprise and would've been a good driver for the second season.
So what do you get? A high quality dystopian corp-focused TV-series, that takes itself a little bit too serious and can't uphold its own expectations of being clever. Besides that, if you're willing to overlook the contradicting narrative and loopholes within, you'll have some enjoyable hours of SciFi.
For me it's a 6/10 - enjoy!
This sounds familiar and isn't the most original story but it does have its lure. The whole series has a high-quality look that is coherent and they managed to field a halfway decent cast, in particular actors like Dennis Haysberg or Daymon Herrimon helped it a lot. The entire underlying theme of humanity, greed and lack of morality is interesting and not to hard to tie to current developments in the world.
For me the intriguing plot and the dystopian future are always the interesting part but what turned me off is the sheer stupidity of the characters. Ben Larson is depicted as a genius, maybe on a tech-level, but his plans are usually pretty simple and easy to look through, without luck he barely manages to achieve anything. It's also hard to believe in a society where everything is monitored and the corporation has to abide no law besides its own regulations, that it wouldn't be hard to track movements or conversations.
Besides that what bugs me most was the lack of relatable characters and their inconsistent decisions, especially in the second half of the season. Ben is reckless without the need for it and inconsistent, Theo's development is simply beyond me because it simply doesn't make any sense, nor does it help the story except for setting up Ben with more strings attached. The entire main plot revolving around Ben's motivation - Elena and her rescue - gets hyped up but then disappoints in every possible way. I didn't expect a happy end but this dialogue was just uninspired and the new direction it took seems too artificial. Although I like Laura's general progression, the entire clinic plot is meh and completely reverses the previously established "evil, ghetto-like, malevolent" red-zone narrative. On the plus side, Julian and Laura's mom are a very pleasant surprise and would've been a good driver for the second season.
So what do you get? A high quality dystopian corp-focused TV-series, that takes itself a little bit too serious and can't uphold its own expectations of being clever. Besides that, if you're willing to overlook the contradicting narrative and loopholes within, you'll have some enjoyable hours of SciFi.
For me it's a 6/10 - enjoy!