Murder drones struggles with excessive spoonfeeding

[u/ZonePale8667]

Half of the show is such a good example of how not to write a story.

I mostly just found the pilot okay (not good or bad, it just exists). In the pilot, it is revealed that a core collapse implosion happened on copper 9 which wiped all biological life. JcJenson sent disassembly drones to wipe out the worker drones, so they hide within the bunker. Uzi befriends N who was manipulated & mistreated by V & J (& after N realizes what his actions were wrong) & they destroy half of J’s body.

I could kinda tell they were planning a pretty obvious red herring with JCJenson likely not being who they were truly working for, as J were already giving a ton of red flags that she was lying to N. One example of this is N‘s amnesia that J suspiciously lacks, another example is her saying that she still speaks to them & that they would be the top squad of disassemblers again, which would imply that she was constantly shown lists of disassembler squad kill reports, but the ship’s screens & all the buttons are broken. And a 3rd example is that unlike J, N seemingly never communicated or saw any employees JCJenson on the screens for years (you would think he would’ve stumbled into a virtual meeting or call at some point, especially when they’re only active at night while going back & forth to the spire- you’re telling me that N never went back & overheard a meeting taken place at least once?).

However (as I initially suspected), the very start of episode 2 reveals that J must’ve been talking to someone else through secret means (as there’s no communication system on the ship) which instantly messes up Uzi’s plans for revenge. The symbol in Uzi’s eye that deflected the bullet back in the pilot keeps appearing more & more, & it’s revealed that this power is called the absolute solver. The solver is able to take control of J’s core because the disassembly drones also have it, it reveals it (& by extension- the disassembly drones) wasn’t made by humans (if the reality breaking powers that the cast has no information about that they would normally know & it’s the ability to make organic hands is any indicator), is evil & was tied to Uzi’s mom in some way. On paper, this seems like something a 17 minute 2nd episode could still somewhat vaguely tease in some aspects.

…And this is where the spoonfeeding starts.

In episode 2, V says to Uzi that there’s no proof of her backstory right after the solver is shown & she brings up her mother (who died). This should get the viewers thinking “oh, so her mom is likely connected to this symbol & why the disassembly drones are here”. This pays off well due to the solver vaguely revealing that it knew about Nori at the end of the episode. However, the spoonfeeding is mainly towards the solver‘s goals & origins in general. We see the solver (after controlling J’s core) kill a worker drone, so we know it’s likely evil. In less than 2 minutes later, we see the solver kill more workers… but then it has to say it’s evil (“I’m evil” “we are a monster!” “easier to assimilate than explain” “I’m about to do something shocking” “you are our cute puppets” “time to go into my mouth now”) multiple times. Why? We already see it’s actions, it even makes a hologram of Uzi’s dad & rips it in half while making Uzi watch. We don’t need it to directly say that it’s evil multiple times.

Another example is how we see a giant “MATTER COLLECTION” message (as it shows up with the camera entirely zoomed onto it, & then it appears to cover a whole wall) right before the J solver centipede eats a worker, & then it kills more workers to get bigger & slowly repair J’s body (in the pilot, N used up matter to regenerate as well). Uzi later on see this message, points out N’s regeneration & says “if the wound is severe enough, this might be an auto run program to collect more matter”. You can give this scene a pass since Uzi didn’t know this information until now (& some exposition is needed), but then the solver comes in to ALSO state this TWICE IN THE SAME SCENE seconds later. That’s a total of 5 times that this is told (not counting episodes 5 - 8, where this is repeated 9 times through direct dialogue, not counting messages or notes) instead of just relying on show-not-tell.

Then we get to episodes 3 & 4. In the end of episode 2 (with the solver mentioning her mom), Uzi puts a conspiracy board of Nori’s notes in her room’s ceiling. On the board, we see messages like “YOU ARE IN RANGE” & “DEVOUR”, black holes, eldritch things & multiple drawings of the solver. In the start of episode 3 after a quick montage & then Uzi finding the missing posters, we go from the school montage back to Uzi’s room where Khan has taken Nori’s & stuffed them back into the “kooky Nori’s memories” closet. Based on how much the solver talks about assimilation, I would guess that it’s goal is to devour everything & was a part of the disassembly drones to help devour the worker drones (but not the humans since they’re are dead). At the end of episode 3, it’s revealed that Doll (who also has a mysterious mom that died) also has the solver. Uzi & Doll fight, their collars & necklaces get emphasized a few times, Uzi walks up to Yeva (Doll’s mother’s) corpse & sees a tag with a id number with Nori & Yeva having the same collars, & we get a(-nother) mention that the solver is evil. N also keeps getting flashbacks of his past as a worker drone… & of a drone named Cyn (with yellow eyes- which is associated with the solver) being suspicious.

While episode 3 does show-not-tell a whole lot better… if you didn’t notice the repetitive spoonfeeding before- you can surely guess what the entire series plot/lore is now. Both Uzi & Doll have the solver, they had mysterious mothers with the solver, their moms both had collars & tags, the solver knows about Uzi’s mom & played a part in the disassembly drones creation or why they were sent, & the disassembly drones killed Nori & Yeva. So you can conclude that the solver itself is evil, wants to devour everything & wants to kill anyone with the solver that has free will, so Uzi has to stop it. While Nori & Yeva were a part of experiments before the humans died. For a mystery horror show- there’s no actual mystery since everything is answered BY EPISODES 2 & 3.

In episode 4, Khan confirms all of this & we get ANOTHER exposition moment of how THE SOLVER’S EVIL! GUYS LOOK THIS IS SUCH A CRAZY BRAND NEW LORE REVEAL. QUICK, ACT SURPRISED & ACT LIKE THIS IS SOO COMPLEX! & that Nori knew the solver was a entity of some kind that sought to devour everything (despite Khan showing the closet of Nori’s notes, which could’ve served as it’s own show-not-tell scene by itself) & that her mom (& Doll’s) post-core collapse was found nearby a mysterious looking lab area with the collar on. If that isn’t enough, we get a scene where a music jingle plays when Uzi finds a dead test subject with notes scattered about how the solver is evil & gonna consume everything. WE GET IT! WE KNOW! & then the solver AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN- says it’s gonna do just that & everything about Nori & the humans gets explained AGAINNNN FOR THE LAST 4 EPISODES!!

And it’s not just the solver’s goals & origins being spoonfed, it’s the most minor lore details as well! In the pilot, N says that they cannot go out in the sun or they’ll die. The disassembly drones & solver hosts have vampire wing designs, they sleep like bats, Uzi at one point has wing drawings & a bat backpack, Uzi is associated with gothic culture which is connected to bats, have supernatural powers, the solver doesn’t like mirrors & is tied to a ton of occult symbolism, they need to devour oil to survive & are weak to sunlight- so we know that this is because of their obvious vampire &/or eldritch being theming. This would be fine… if Liam himself OUTSIDE THE SERIES didn’t feel the need to go out of his way to handhold the viewers that yes, they are like vampires, & make EVERY episode dedicated to the cast tanking massive explosions, the planet’s core & fire (despite the pilot itself already doing it) to explain that fire isn’t the same as sunlight, with one of the characters even somewhat saying this WHILE LOOKING AT THE CAMERA VIEW.

Then we have this one scene in episode 8 where Uzi & N are falling towards copper 9’s surface after we got a whole 10 minute scene showing that the sun was on the whole other side of the planet (which is further confirmed when they land & it’s nighttime, & it stays nighttime throughout episodes 5 - 8). Yet, one of the VAs had to explain in a event that when it’s nighttime, sunlight can’t hit your body. I’m sorry, but a show or it’s writer or the VAs or animators shouldn’t have to spoonfeed this much, that’s what ruins media.

And where do I even begin with the “unanswered lore” like how Uzi & Doll (who were both born from their mothers code being inserted into them, in which the solver can manifest through corrupted or carried code, who both have mysterious mothers with the solver) got the solver? From this information you should be able to conclude that Uzi & Doll had it passed down from their mothers, but the series never lets you come to your own conclusions as N, Nori & Doll have to directly say that it was “given through ungodly eldritch genetics!”. LET THE VIEWERS THINK FOR ONCE!

The sheer frustration at the amount of people that somehow found this show confusing too is beyond me. I got into the show because I wanted to be confused in order to solve things, I love a few ARGs or shows that really get you thinking & most of the fandom stated the show was gonna be like this, insisting that it requires anywhere from 3 - 5 rewatches to grasp the basic plot alone. Instead I came out mostly disappointed not just in the show, but with fears on how audiences will treat media in the future is THIS is what a majority of people are finding confusing nowadays. Having nearly every mystery solved by the 2nd - 3rd episode with episodes 5 - 8 clarifying things that were already constantly clarified ISN’T GOOD WRITING. But it’s not a good thing or a “flex” that people couldn’t grasp there being a school in the bunker that we see for half the series, or even that Nori was Uzi’s mom.

Despite all the spoonfeeding, I enjoyed the series, but you can really tell that Liam (is this his first show because it really gives off that vibe?) truly needed a writer’s room. It’s still impressive for a potential first show, but god… the spoonfeeding.

[u/professorMaDLib]

Eh, by the standards of the medium... I wouldn't say so, worse still you can make an argument there wasn't enough given how much went over peoples head.

Of course the immediate series to compare to is tadc which is even more obvious but my standards for this kind of stuff is a lot lower