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New Syfy show called Dark Matter (http://www.syfy.com/darkmatter)

I tend to be very skeptical of new Syfy shows (I still hate fucking typing that name) but this one looked interesting. After having watched the first two episodes, I'm really digging it. Basic premise is 6 people wake up on a failing starship with no memory of who they are or how they got there, but all of them have skills they don't remember getting. The archtypes are all there: hot female ship captain, earnest doofus, green-haired teenager, badass bad-attitude soldier type, quiet Asian/Polynesian sword master and the black guy pilot. The premise could have really been stretched but thankfully within the first hour you get an idea of WHO/WHAT they are, though not why they got there or how. I think this show has legs. Think it's written/produced by some of the people responsible for some of the Stargate shows.

The first two episodes reminded me of Firefly/Farscape which means I'll keep watching it unless it takes a total nosedive later on. The other new show Killjoys (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3952222/) on the other hand had a bit weaker start but due to the premise I'll keep watching it and hoping for it to get better.
Hopefully atleast one of these will make it to a second season.   :oh_i_see:

Isn't this show just Stargate Universe again?  Same premise right?  Have to admit, I did enjoy Killjoys.  Some good quips, some good action, some good world-building.  I rate it slightly above Defiance's premiere.

Not even slightly. They have full control over the ship and are in the same universe/galaxy basically they were what appears to have been a pirate crew that had their memories wiped by something/somebody and they woke up on their ship is how it starts off.

Our DVR cut off the last minute or so of episode 2 but

I liked Killjoys as well. It's worth watching both of them, at least so far.

I did get a very Firefly feel to the show, which is a good thing.

I like both this show and Killjoys. The wife remains unconvinced.

That said, hot ship captain is a Canadian Idol winner that looks completely different from her idol/musical theater days. 

There are some Firefly notes in Dark Matter, but linking the two is giving it undeserved praise.  They're trying to evoke the feel of the Firefly verse, but they do not have the 'lived in' feel of Firefly - not even close.  It feels more like Stargate trying to be Firefly - and not getting there. 

It isn't bad, but it isn't that good, either.

Well, no, it doesn't have the style of Firefly, or the character dialogue. Still though, it's a decent sci-fi action series so far.

I thought Killjoys was terrible, just to get that out of the way.

Dark Matter has an interesting premise, but I'm not sold on the show yet.  Production values were low (compared to say Battlestar Galactica).  It immediately started with people doing stupid shit and the second episode was pretty much written completely out of tired old cliches.  Still, it's summer and there's not a lot to watch and the premise is interesting so we'll see if it gets any better.

I enjoyed both shows, Dark Matter was better but that girl on Killjoys is hypnotically hot.

This sounds exactly like an introductory Eclipse Phase adventure.  Hmmm.

The raspy-voiced English accent puts her over the top.

Have to say I was nodding off during the 2nd Killjoys episode.

I'm liking Dark Matter more than Kill Joys (low bar, though). I'll probably stick with both for now, but I'm pretty close to just dropping Killjoys. I just wish either of these was actually good sci-fi.

I wish the android could act on Dark Matter.

She was better on that show with the hot chick that was a fairy or something.

She was better on Lost Girl, but she's always been a so-so actress.  This role actually plays more to her acting style.   :awesome_for_real:

Season 1 done.  Season 2 on the way.

I see Dark Matter as a low budget mix of TNG, Firefly (there are a lot of design parallels between the crews), Stargate Universe and Farscape.  This is another show where I hope they make significant corrections between seasons 1 and 2 because there is enough there to say it has potential, but there are so many problems that getting to that potential may not be worthwhile.  My fixes for it: 1.) Replace the ship - the current one feels too big and random (like the Enterprise) rather than homey (like Serenity).  2.) Give us better characters off the ship - everyone they encounter seems to be one note and boring.  3.) Never again show us Wil Wheaton.  4.) Wrap up the Tin Man storyline that has been done to death - "I'm an android with feelings, let me explore" is old news.  5.) Kill the Love Triangle storyline.  The actors are not pulling it off.  6.) Give them something to do other than survive.  They need a motivation to do something other than wander around and deal with their own issues.

I thought the show really grew as the season went. The creator has made it pretty clear he has a story arc mapped out - which should lead to more cohesive goals for them. Don't agree with all of your comments, I thought the "other evil mercenary crew" was actually well developed for example. Wheaton was amusing, he works as a sporadic B level villain.

I thought Wheaton hamming it up was actually really fun. I mean, he might as well have been twirling his mustache. In fact, the only thing jgsugden said that I agree with was the android storyline. I'm not too keen on the whole "Data learns how to be human/sentient" story again. Otherwise, I loved the show.

Wheaton was HORRIBLE.  I am shocked that anyone would say otherwise.  He looked lost.  I actually like some of the stuff I've seen him do elsewhere, but this was the weakest performance on the series so far.

Are you being serious?

100% yes I'm serious.  It was shocking how bad he was in that episode. 

Like I said, I thought he was intentionally playing it up as the kind of scene-chewer bad guy villain such a stunt casting required. It felt a bit out of place, but I thought he pulled it off just fine.

As shocking as it might be, we disagree on this one. 

I liked Wheaton and agree the cheese was probably intentional. The story arc for season two sounds like a lot of "holy shits" abound. To quote the show runner, "These are very bad people and now they know who and what they were, expect bad shit to happen."

There's a possibility that Dark Matter and Killjoys take place in the same universe. The show runners are friends and haven't ruled the possibility out.

I saw WW on an episode of Big Bang Theory recently and I didn't really care for it. (Season 7?)  But this sounds interesting enough, it'll go along well with my sci-fi reading kick.

That was Wheaton?  No wonder he looked sort of familiar.  Mostly though he was a creepy fuck.  The scientist moralizing while acting like the psycho didn't help.  Everything there was all just over-the-top.

I kind of hope next season is them working for the Galactic Authority to get their past transgressions cleared.  That'd be a new take on the outlaws becoming a team, and with the singularity, there's a reason for the government to need a team out to knock the corporations down a few.

Wheaton IS a creepy fuck!  I liked his character in this show, too.  It was fun.  I also did think his character (which was just him) was funny and well done on Big Bang Theory.  It seemed appropriate that he would be Sheldon's nemesis. 

Yeah, they've used him sparingly and to good effect on BBT.

Wheaton was terrible. His acting comes off as really amateurish, like a person trying to play an actor.

Overall I like the show. My main complaint is how it started off as "we are all terrible people" but then each person got an excuse as to why they aren't actually terrible - one is an impostor, two were framed, one had a change of heart recently, etc.

I get the idea to humanize the characters but they already are starting over - to me it's much more interesting that they be genuinely awful people who maybe get a chance to start over vs oh it turns out they actually were never bad. That also raises interesting questions like is your personality really something you can change just by forgetting stuff or will you inevitably revert to type? They played with that a little (most notably Two killing those casino people) but not nearly as much as I would have thought.

I ended up liking both this and Killjoys a decent amount though. Scifi stuff that isn't based on an existing thing (or at least a well-known one) is rare and I appreciate it.

I also think it would be much more interesting if they did exactly what Margalis said.  Of course, it looks like the cute guys might be villains after all.  I have a feeling the writers are going to dream up an excuse for them doing the dirty deed because they're not villains but good guys after all.  :/

This is on Netflix as well as a few other recent scifi shows.

Dark Matter cancelled. (https://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/september-1-2017-dark-matter-cancelled/)  :oh_i_see:

Too bad since I kind of liked this (wasn't great but it scratched that Firefly/Farscape itch at times).

edit: Killjoys renewed for final 2 seasons (https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/killjoys-renewed-final-two-seasons-syfy-1202544960/) (so maybe they'll actually have a good story that gets wrapped up unlike Dark Matter which ended on a cliffhanger)

Seems weird to cancel Dark Matter and let Killjoys get an ending, there can't be that much difference in cost and I believe Dark Matter had the better ratings.

Kill joys ended the season with marginally better ratings. I am guessing it is a matter of we can afford one or the other and one is working towards an obvious ending and the other was kinda stumbling around and is no real position to finish up in a season.

That's funny because the first two seasons of Dark Matter are on Netflix and Killjoys isn't at all.  Streaming on SyFy's website is terrible, so guess which one of the two shows I've watched at all.

Kind of a crappy move to make a cliffhanger ending when you know your show is in risk of being canceled. 

Dark Matter had a planned five season arc from the start.  Apparently Killjoys is a syfy original and Dark Matter and acquisition and that was one of the main reasons one gets and ending and the other doesn't. Also people think the Killjoys girl is about to go hollywood.

Kamen already had a bit role in Force Awakens. She's unspeakably hot and not a totally horrible actor she could probably make it in hollywood, so safe bet.