It’s develop into more and more clear that the Halo TV show has a villain drawback. This may increasingly appear inconceivable for a collection that’s presupposed to be a couple of hostile race of aliens led by liars who exploit spiritual fanaticism, however as an alternative the show can’t cease specializing in human bickering, bizarrely relegating the galaxy-conquering aliens to an afterthought for each the characters in the show and the viewers.
I may speak about how Halo’s centering of humans as the unhealthy guys behind each plot cheapens certainly one of the few fascinating ethical complexities of the Halo video games and books — that the Spartans had been constructed for basically inhumane remedy of insurgent fighters after which by chance discovered justification in a shock alien invasion. However it’s extra honest and much more damning to speak about all of this on the Halo TV show’s personal phrases. And on these phrases, I merely don’t have any fucking thought why there are even aliens on this show to start with.
In an effort to underline the badness of humanity, Halo has completely sidelined the Covenant, throwing the whole show off beam and spinning wildly into house. Even the Covenant’s grand invasion of Attain in the show is simply one other human plot, certainly one of a thousand methods the TV show desires to show that the human bureaucrats are evil, one thing we’ve recognized since the earliest moments of the show’s first season.
However all this emphasis on humanity’s sins begs a important query: Virtually two full seasons into Halo, what point is it making an attempt to make, precisely? Season 2’s seventh episode, “Thermopylae,” appears to supply some try at answering that query, when Makee (Charlie Murphy) pleads with Chief to cease serving to humanity in order that the two of them can settle Halo on their very own and make it a paradise, fairly than letting both aspect use it as a civilization-destroying weapon. Setting apart the silliness that’s this model of Halo being so continually tempted to recast Grasp Chief (Pablo Schreiber) as the lead of a home drama, Makee’s assertion nonetheless leaves a niche in our understanding of what this show is doing. If the point is “war makes monsters of us all,” then shouldn’t we see that equally in each the human and Covenant factions? And much more pressingly, why received’t anybody acknowledge that the Covenant are the ones who threatened extinction first and primarily based their complete galactic conquest on the Prophets’ lie a couple of Nice Journey that will take them from the galaxy?
Picture: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount Plus
We’re subjected to half a dozen scenes every episode of humanity’s reckless and evil leaders making civilization-shaping selections — significantly the ongoing machinations of Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana Azmi), certainly one of the worst and least compelling characters in current TV reminiscence, due to her constantly baffling selections and seemingly lack of technique and communication. (Put merely: She’s right here to antagonize each different character, with no actual character of her personal.) In the meantime we solely get to see the Covenant’s aspect from the point of view of Makee and the criminally underdeveloped Arbiter. Certain, we hear them say that the Prophets may be filled with shit and that the Nice Journey may be a lie, but it surely stays an entire thriller why the alien’s genuinely compelling similarity to Earth’s personal corrupt and mendacity authorities is drawn with such a faint line. Maybe drawing these connections extra clearly would assist us make sense of why Grasp Chief has fought extra humans in Halo season 2 than he has Covenant.
Regardless of the moment-to-moment battle hardly ever making sense, or seeming to guide anyplace, it hasn’t stopped the show from introducing extra plot threads or drip-feeding longtime collection followers with new bits of recognizable lore. As an illustration, this newest episode gave us our most significant look but at the Forerunners, although they haven’t been named fairly but. It additionally hinted at yet one more alien faction that might quickly arrive, however we’ll have to attend and see if that thread goes anyplace.
All these new introductions do little to reduce the feeling of narrative cheapness that surrounds Halo, nonetheless. As extra concepts and plots get launched, it solely serves to underline how little sense any of this actually makes. Certain, we all know the Covenant are knocking on humanity’s entrance door, however the sudden diversion of each character in the show now converging on a have to seize “the Halo,” as they hold calling it, feels prefer it got here out of nowhere. Which is a reasonably astounding feat of messy storytelling contemplating it’s the object the whole franchise is known as after.
Halo season 2 is now streaming on Paramount Plus. The season finale will probably be launched on Thursday, March 21.
