1x08 Allegiance

This series turns into a hate watch, after I did give it the benefit of the doubt at the beginning, especially after Masterchief taking his helmet off. It started very strongly on the wrong foot to set itself apart from the games. Pushing away probably a big part of the fans of the games, on purpose. It setup its own story in an attempt to stand on its own, if that's even possible.
Cool, fine by me, although I'd preferred otherwise.

Now far into the season we got some good ideas, Kai is a cool character, more Masterchief than Masterchief himself in many but not all parts, imo, who I'd like to see more of (without fancying John all the time). Soren being a morally ambigous character with an interesting backstory that's worth exploring in the greater scheme of things as it tells us more about John as well. More human tragedy involvement by showing more cruelty by the hands of the Covenant, still, nothing seems as dire as they always say it is, it just seems shallow overall. Cortana and Miranda are fine, yet underdeveloped, but I enjoy them appearing, even if Miranda is behaving too much of a stubborn child at times.

But then there's so much annoying BS in this, like Kwan Ha and her boring substory. At first she seemed nothing more like a trigger for John to see how weirdly easy the USNC is regarding killing off children just because and that the UNSC isn't that good of a guy like he is supposed to be. But then she weaseled her way into this more...why? Will she appear some time later to help Masterchief, or to be an opponent, protecting what she's supposed to? Probably one of these, in some lame way she is more important than Vinsher for example. But I don't care about her as a character, she's just boring and overly dramatic. And, btw, did Masterchief willingly kill children before? Conveniently, they didn't follow up on that protocol, huh? Because it burns any character from the start.

We get a manipulative, power hungry psychopath version of Halsey who is unbelievable at whatever she does, very clumsy when it counts and very uncomfortable whenever she gets the spotlight. Her eyes creep me out, urg, but more importantly when she says "It's been wonderful to watch [short pause]", wtf, I feel the cringe in my bones. Who writes this shit? We get it, she has no empathy and is socially awkward af, but come on. How did Keyes ever had sex with this crazy person?

She gets ousted as the leading scientist, yet somehow is still able to give the Spartans orders who follow without question (except good gal Kai)? How is that possible? Shouldn't they know, she got removed from her position for reasons? They are supposed to have/feel no emotions and with that no empathy, but that doesn't include rationality or intelligence. Yet, they willingly beat the shit out of their superior officer, no questions asked. They behave like braindead drones, tools for plots, nothing else.
They have no depth, no personality at all, and not just because of their chip suppressing their "emotions". They add nothing at all, they simply exist in this to...exist. To show there are more of them, that's it. Kai was way more interesting even before she removed her chip.

Yet, why wasn't she forced to put one back in? Why do they have this chip if no one monitors it? These are expensive soldiers, "saving humanity". Having a protocol for killing children, abducting children to make them super soldiers and emotionally and physically abusing them is fine, but forcing their best soldiers to use that chip is where they draw the line? As if nobody notices Kai's change in behaviour, even without any diagnostics. It's only brought up, when convenient like the "hormonal fluctuation" thing when Halsey gave orders to abduct/"kill" John. Of all the times it's only brought up when it can be used to create stupid, nonsense conflict in the plot. This isn't believable, reasonable or anywhere near good writing.

Commander Keyes, one of the "most brilliant" tacticians is a joke. He is a whiny, emotionally unstable and nepotism loving character, who should be stripped of any authority. But no one with authority makes any kind of reasonable or informed decisions in this to begin with. Not a single person. Everyone is playing to their own endgame here. Humanity is doomed in this universe.

Every little substory or B-plot is way too isolated from each other to give any kind of credibility when these stories cross. As if all these people combinations live in their own little bubbles and nothing happens outside that bubble. We have this (for now?) McGuffin story about the artifact, holding things together, barely, as an overarching arc, that's it.

There's barely any (badass) fighting in this against Aliens, which seems like one of the most weird decisions (along Masterchief taking his helmet off, and showing him butt naked). But in the rare occasions there is, the CGI is ridicolously cheap. It's like there's a blur filter over the elites as well. Only the Grunts looked actually decent. Spaceships ignore physics entirely, just like when Masterchief jumps around. The only thing they got down is static buildings (unless it's tents and stuff in the background).

Last but not least Makee. The one character able to ruin this entire series on her own. Way worse than Kwan, and she is already terrible. Why are there no safety protocols in order? Why is no one with authority other than John watching over this hugely suspicious person? Why, why on everything that is holy in this franchise, do they, John and Makee, have sex? Yeah, Makee pretends to have a connection with John to manipulate him, to get what she wants, or simply to be a wildcard character changing her mind when the plot needs it later on. I understand that for story reasons. But the way and context of it all is one of the most absurd things I've ever seen in a series.
Giving her the "villain falls for hero, villain gets triggered to fall back into viallain territory" was way too quick, still, yet again convenient because she was right next to the artifact, wasn't it? Besides it being so freakishly clichéd and uninspired.

McElhone is clearly miscast, she's playing a very (chaotically) flawed character with no charisma or credibility. Schreiber is doing fine with what he's given, but I do not find him particularly believable as Masterchief. Gorman was wasted in this. Kennedy, Woodbine and Gray should play the lead characters in this, since they are carrying a looot of this show. I have no issues with Taylor either, but she's "just" bringing her voice.

Some of the things they do is actually canon but the writing bringing this to life in a series format is abysmal and I don't use that description often or lightly.