The Halo TV show making the humans the villains completely misses the point
It’s become increasingly clear that the Halo TV show has a villain problem. This may seem impossible for a series that’s supposed to be about a hostile race of aliens led by liars who exploit religious fanaticism, but instead the show can’t stop focusing on human bickering, bizarrely relegating the galaxy-conquering aliens to an afterthought for both the characters in the show and the audience.
The enshittification of one of my favorite stories continues. I tried to watch a recent episode with my 14 year old and when she saw the chief without armor and without Cortana she yelled “this is bullshit!” and left. It took her all of 15 seconds just watching the recap of the previous episode to realize it wasn’t worth her time. She is wiser than I. I held out hope, but no more.
The show completely misses the heart and soul of the stories and its characters. There is no wonder, no exploration, no grandeur, no humility or fear in the face of human extinction. They aren’t even on a halo. The chief isn’t in armor. Cortana and the chief are separated. They didn’t just miss the deeper lore and themes, they can’t even get the fundamentals right.
It is a damn shame because the cast is great and the FX are good enough to sometimes great. In an alternate universe Ronald D. Moore is the showrunner. Halo is closer in spirit to his re-imagined Battlestar Galactica and For All Mankind.