SyFy's "Childhood's End" 3-part miniseries

[Lincoln6Echo]

SyFy is airing a 3-part miniseries based off of a classic 1954 Arthur C Clarke novel called "Childhood's End." It's about the coming of age of Earth as an Interstellar traveling culture but is interrupted by the visitation of 'V' or 'ID4' style ships that hover over most major cities on Earth. The alien(s) supposedly come in peace with an offer to fix all of Earth problems like
Disease, War, Political Strife, Handicapped people, etc. Except there's one catch...they won't reveal their true identity to the people of Earth...at first. Only a voice is heard, because the people of Earth aren't ready for the Truth. But after 15 years on Earth, the alien reveals himself to the People in an special arena type event.

[Show spoiler]The alien is a stereo-typical Devil-type figure...a red 7-8 foot tall, muscular goat humanoid with curved horns, huge dragon-like wings, and hoofed feet. Think Tim Curry's Devil figure in Legend, but a bit scarier.

A part of the miniseries airs each night starting Monday 12-14-16, but the whole 3-part series airs Wednesday starting at 4pm ET.

[Bodyslide]

I'm pretty sure this is out this week and not a year from now...

[Mobe1969]

I think so too. Ign posted a review the other day.

I hope I can get to see this some time. And The Expanse. I never got to see Ascension here in Australia (no blu ray release anywhere in the worlkd, no digital HD release here)

[ChiefSequatchie]

My DVR ran out of space recording the first episode so I'm going to wait until they air all 3-episodes back to back!

[kemcha]

I've watched the first two episodes and I'm not that impressed with this. The second episode was disappointing and drastically departs from the novel. It's supposed to occur fifty years after the events in the first episode and yet all of the characters haven't aged at all. SyFy really dropped the ball on this adaption. I'm not expecting too much from the third episode. I think it's time for SyFy to stay away from producing any new sci-fi movies or television shows.

[hagios]

Originally Posted by ChiefSequatchie

My DVR ran out of space recording the first episode so I'm going to wait until they air all 3-episodes back to back!

I have these on DVR for Sunday 12/20 @ 9am, 11am & 1pm respectfully on syfy channel!

[jokerzwild]

Originally Posted by kemcha

I've watched the first two episodes and I'm not that impressed with this. The second episode was disappointing and drastically departs from the novel. It's supposed to occur fifty years after the events in the first episode and yet all of the characters haven't aged at all. SyFy really dropped the ball on this adaption. I'm not expecting too much from the third episode. I think it's time for SyFy to stay away from producing any new sci-fi movies or television shows.

I think it was around 30 years in the show (I think) not a huge change. I haven't read the books so can't comment on that but not sure how the age thing is a problem though. With all the health and environment changes it isn't hard to imagine they had double lifespans. So maintaining a look of 30's- 40's into your 60's-70s wouldn't be absurd. Look at people now and compare to photos of the same age people 50-100 years ago the difference is pretty apparent.

I liked it, it was choppy and obviously trying to condense alot of book material into limited space but other then that a solid enough mini.

[Darev]

I never read, or even heard of, the book. I watched the first episode of this online and when it got to the end with the big reveal I laughed like a little kid.

I looked up the plot for the rest of the story from wikipedia and I'm not sure I want to even bother finishing the show any time soon.

The spoiler section is just my thought process of the story given how episode 1 ended and what I read about the rest of the story from wikipedia.

Read at your own risk.

[Show spoiler]The whole concept of an alien race coming to Earth and transforming it into a true 'Garden of Eden' has so many religious overtones it isn't even funny. Then come to find out that the race of aliens just happens to look like a 'classic' depiction of Satan just makes the leap all the greater. THEN....since alien Satan actually wipes out humanity (from what I gathered from wikipedia) ANYWAY....

So the Devil kills all the humans in the end, just using different means than predicted.

[Jett Rink]

Originally Posted by Darev

I never read, or even heard of, the book. I watched the first episode of this online and when it got to the end with the big reveal I laughed like a little kid.

I looked up the plot for the rest of the story from wikipedia and I'm not sure I want to even bother finishing the show any time soon.

The spoiler section is just my thought process of the story given how episode 1 ended and what I read about the rest of the story from wikipedia.

Read at your own risk.

[Show spoiler]The whole concept of an alien race coming to Earth and transforming it into a true 'Garden of Eden' has so many religious overtones it isn't even funny. Then come to find out that the race of aliens just happens to look like a 'classic' depiction of Satan just makes the leap all the greater. THEN....since alien Satan actually wipes out humanity (from what I gathered from wikipedia) ANYWAY....

So the Devil kills all the humans in the end, just using different means than predicted.

The book is a classic, you should read it. I am sure it is better than the TV show by a long shot. I am still going to watch it because I want to see how

[Show spoiler]Charles Dance portrays Karellen

.

[jokerzwild]

Originally Posted by Jett Rink

The book is a classic, you should read it. I am sure it is better than the TV show by a long shot. I am still going to watch it because I want to see how

[Show spoiler]Charles Dance portrays Karellen

.

in regard to your spoiler: wonderfully.

[Samus Aran]

I didn't know they were airing all the episodes in a row (like they did with Ascension), so when I sat down to watch the first part last night I saw the DVR was recording the final part, so I binged the whole thing and I have to say I was underwhelmed. I didn't know the book, but I knew a certain Nicolas Cage movie so I knew where this miniseries was going.

I have to say I didn't really care for Jennifer's parents. They just sort of appear out of nowhere and become the lead characters with no development. They also had no idea what to do with Stormgren after the first part.

The ideas were there, they just didn't really take it to the next level or they decided to focus on the wrong things.

[atlantajoseph]

Well, that was kind of a mess.

This was at least entertaining and it seemed to have a kernel of amazing potential... but the acting was hokey (Jennifer's mom didn't really seem that phased that

[Show spoiler]her daughter was basically an antichrist or that both her kids floated away

.

However,

[Show spoiler]Charles Dance did a good job

and also there was some

[Show spoiler]nice eye candy

.

Too bad there seemed to be all kinds of philosophical greatness that was left under-developed. Maybe I should check out the book??

[Samus Aran]

Some people have said the book is more about ideas and the characters are pretty flat. But like I said, I never read it.

[sandman slim]

Binge watching right now. Really disjointed mess of a movie. The opening scene was a disatrous mistake, and the whole first night felt like large chunks had been lopped out to fit a two hour timeslot. Second part was a bit better. Still watching largely out of respect for Arthur C. Clarke. Hoping for some Mike Vogel eye candy. And Charles Dance deserves some kind of special Emmy for enduring that makeup/prosthetic; seriously, how long did that take each day?