The long-awaited Halo television series has finally arrived, with the first episode streaming on Paramount Plus. There appear to be certain twists and turns in the brand-new Halo series, which has already been renewed for Season 2, that differ significantly from the game on which the series is based. It’s still unclear whether this will succeed in the long run. Given that most of the departures from the video game franchise occurred near the end of the premiere, it will require at least another episode.
The first episode accomplishes what any first episode of a series should: it establishes the world and the plot. The first episode does a terrific job of laying everything out in this aspect. The United Nations Space Command, or UNSC, is a significant earthly military force engaged in a conflict with revolutionaries in colonies fighting for independence. An alien army known as The Covenant is thrown into the fray. It’s unclear what the Covenant troops desire at this point in Halo, but it’s evident that they don’t care about human lives. Despite the fact that at least one of the upper-level officials appears to be partially human.
Halo Season 1 Episode 1 Review And Recap
To Halo’s credit, the show didn’t waste any time in introducing The Covenant, as well as the Spartans’ Silver Team and their Master Chief. The UNSC’s unbeatable super-human assault unit, the Silver Team, is the tip of the spear in the war against the colonies, consisting of four Spartans. They’re also the only ones who seem to be able to cause any kind of damage to the extraterrestrial troops wreaking havoc on Madrigal’s station. Things start to go awry at this point.
It’s evident that Paramount Plus wants to ensure that both the Halo TV series and the Halo video games can exist alone. Those who are familiar with the video games will know that the Spartans have unique weaponry designed to combat The Covenant. That is, however, neither commonly known nor even hinted at in the television series. So it’s a little surprising when a complete outpost of people fires heavy weaponry against the alien assault and does no damage because of some sort of personal force field. When four Spartans arrive, they appear to be able to kill the same impervious aliens with only one or two rounds.
It’s evident that the show has to demonstrate how formidable a fighting force Team Silver is in comparison to the other characters. They do demonstrate how easily they can kill the unkillable, but it’s not like they’re doing it with their bare hands. This particular plot detail in Halo appears to be one of those things that the audience is expected to accept at face value.
At the very least, the show shows how Master Chief and the rest of the Silver Team can sustain more damage than the people that were wiped out swiftly. It’s also a nice homage to the video game, especially when the POV switches to first-person mid-fight. For those who have played the game for a long time, there are some familiar sounds during the fighting.
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False Deeds
Another crucial aspect of Halo’s narrative is an explanation for why the USNC leadership is so ruthless and seemingly malevolent. Admiral Parangosky is willing to assassinate Master Chief in one scene because he did not kill an unarmed woman when he was commanded to. Despite pleas from others for the admiral to take a step back and investigate why the Spartan who was exposed to an extraterrestrial artifact developed the ability to think for himself, she simply wants him dead.
Ignoring the fact that it’s exceedingly stupid for an admiral to decide it’s better to kill her strongest weapon while fighting a two-front war, the entire thing looked to be set up to demonstrate how horrible USNC is. Given that Halo is set to last for at least two seasons, it didn’t seem necessary to convey that point in the first episode.
There will be plenty of opportunities to explain why the UNSC isn’t the good guys. The authors felt it was important to completely set that timeline so early in this episode of Halo, and that’s not a good omen for either this episode or the ones to come after it. It appears that allowing for some sort of farce of virtue for at least an episode or two would have been a better approach. It’s possible that future episodes will clarify why the show chose that path from the start, but it’s not clear just yet.
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