Not Even Halle Could Save It | Extant: Season 1 Review

<p><strong>&lpar;Spoilers Below&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When <em>Extant<&sol;em> first started airing on CBS over the summer&comma; there was a lot of potential and weight behind its premise&period; With popular actress Halle Berry as the lead character&comma; and a plot that promised to address heavy issues like life&comma; creation&comma; and family&comma; it seemed to be gearing up for a fascinating character study that could&&num;8217&semi;ve been a new kind of hit for CBS&period; However&comma; as the season unfolded&comma; it proved incapable of carrying its own weight&comma; and began to buckle under all the interconnected stories it was trying to tell&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s not to say the story wasn&&num;8217&semi;t good&comma; because at times&comma; it truly was&comma; but <em>Extant<&sol;em> failed at finding a balance in its plot progression and character development&comma; ultimately leading to a first season that was more frustrating than anything else&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first few episodes showed potential though&comma; and I definitely enjoyed the dynamics between Molly&comma; her husband John&comma; and their android son Ethan&period; While I never really bought into Molly and John&&num;8217&semi;s romantic relationship&comma; Halle Berry still worked well with actor Goran Visnijc&comma; and once they began to work together to protect both their son and their future&comma; the show seemed to be picking up steam&period; However&comma; once again&comma; <em>Extant<&sol;em> just never seemed to understand how to manage itself&comma; and whenever the characters would begin to develop and become more interesting&comma; the show would spiral off into a couple episodes of senseless conspiracy theories that seemed to drag on forever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This&comma; above all else&comma; is the greatest mistake the show made in its thirteen-episode first season&period; The story here was populated with characters who were unique and complicated&comma; and had they been given the proper amount of attention&comma; could&&num;8217&semi;ve given the show the heart it so desperately needed&period; But alas&comma; that just wasn&&num;8217&semi;t the case&comma; as the plot continually overruled the characters&comma; ultimately creating an experience that&comma; put simply&comma; fell undeniably flat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05064608&sol;resizer&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-68147 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05064608&sol;resizer&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Extant-Season 1 interrogation" width&equals;"755" height&equals;"422" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There were moments where the show succeeded&comma; however&comma; especially in regards to the character arc revolving around Ethan&period; Seeing this young boy&comma; who was only programmed to be human&comma; slowly learn and adapt to the world around him was by far the best part of the show&comma; and it only got better as it went on&period; Young actor Pierce Gagnon was absolutely excellent&comma; and he perfectly balanced both the human&comma; relatable side of Ethan with the slightly unsettling robotic side in a way that enlivened every scene he was in&period; If <em>Extant<&sol;em> had focused on Ethan and his relationships with both Molly&comma; John&comma; and the lab techs who helped create him&comma; Julie and Charlie&comma; I can guarantee you that the show would&&num;8217&semi;ve been much better off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the conspiracy elements of the show weren&&num;8217&semi;t always bad&comma; and the original mystery regarding how Molly became pregnant while on her solo mission in space was literally bursting with potential&comma; they just never evolved into anything all that interesting&period; With conspiracy stacked on top of more conspiracies&comma; <em>Extant<&sol;em> eventually turned into a muddled mess of half-ideas that seemingly ran in circles with no sense of direction or purpose&comma; and it just about sucked my enjoyment right out of the show&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Which really is a shame&comma; because like I said&comma; <em>Extant<&sol;em> could&&num;8217&semi;ve been something real special&period; Halle Berry&&num;8217&semi;s performance was consistently good&comma; and while her character wasn&&num;8217&semi;t afforded the luxury of developing all that much&comma; Berry never let the plot get the best of her and continued to impress in the role of Molly Woods&period; The same can&&num;8217&semi;t be said for the rest of the cast&comma; however&comma; as they fell victim to the failings of the plot even more than Berry did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05064613&sol;extant-s1ep3-wish-you-were-here-review-kryger-weird-drawing&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-68145 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05064613&sol;extant-s1ep3-wish-you-were-here-review-kryger-weird-drawing&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Extant-Season 1" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"347" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is especially evident in the show&&num;8217&semi;s villains&comma; who were always well-acted&comma; but far from consistent in their motivations&period; The highlight would be Michael O&&num;8217&semi;Neil as Alan Sparks&comma; who&comma; while still being the victim of a muddled backstory&comma; carried a lot of emotional weight with him and gave the show a much appreciated layer of moral complexity&period; His dynamic with Molly was a stand out as well&comma; and O&&num;8217&semi;Neill and Berry played off of each other really well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>By the time the season was wrapping up&comma; however&comma; the plot had regressed to such a confusing state that there was little to no emotional connection intact at all&period; I found myself caring very little about the outcome of anyone or anything&comma; and with the single exception of the way Ethan&&num;8217&semi;s story wrapped up&comma; which did manage to pull at the heartstrings a bit&comma; the story ended on an abrupt and unfulfilling note that clumsily tried to set up for a future season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the show performed well enough to earn itself a second season&comma; I have little interest in seeing how it plays out&period; I might check up on it&comma; just to see if it has made any drastic improvements&comma; but at this point I don&&num;8217&semi;t expect to see that happen&period; All things considered&comma; <em>Extant<&sol;em> was a bold risk for CBS to take&comma; and I admire them for doing it&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s unfortunate that the results failed to live up to the show&&num;8217&semi;s original potential&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;