Halo is an out of this world alien small screen sci-fi experience
If you are familiar with the video game Halo then this televisual adaptation of the gaming franchise featuring real life characters may not be on your deep space radar.
However, if you enjoy science fiction – Star Trek, The 100, Stargate etc – then Halo season two may be just the kind of interstellar nonsense you will enjoy. Better still, if like me, you were not even aware of the game’s existence.
Season one established characters such as the main star Master Chief played by Pablo Schreiber and Soren-066 (Bokeem Woodbine). In fact, many of the season one characters return for Halo Season 2, along with some new faces which helps to re-energise and shake up the series and fulfill the new season’s promise of being more faithful to the source material.
In season one the Paramount+ series follows a 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant, a theocratic-military alliance of several alien races determined to eradicate humanity.
And so to season two Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, along with his artificial intelligence sidekick Cortana (who was initially integrated into his conciousness in season one, only to be surgically separated at the end of that season to save his life) is played this time by Christina Bennigton.
The blue-tinted AI being was originally played by Jen Taylor (who also provided the voice in the video game series). Taylor provides the voice once again but with Bennigton lip-syncing her words – you figure it out.
The new season of Halo seems to chug along in a slicker way than the original series with better special effects that hide the joins better.
In the opening episode Silver Team, led by Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber), is attempting to evacuate a planet that they know will soon be overrun by the alien Covenant.
As ground troops try to convince the reluctant locals to give up their homes and board the evacuation ships, Master Chief goes out to recover a group of lost Marines on top of a nearby mountain, only to be set upon by a squad of hulking Elites (bad alien military beings) in thick mountainous fog.
The ensuing melee is actionpacked as the Elites attack at random from the fog. Halo has figured out its special effects a bit better this season with the CG characters appearing more life-like.
Ensuing episodes are full of these kinds of high-concept dust ups that are way more accomplished than in the previous season.
Unlike the video game, which concentrates on how many aliens you can take down, the Halo series expands the life stories of its main characters and fleshes them out.
There are, for example, stories of those on “The Rubble,” a kind of collective of asteroids that houses fugitives and the dregs of humanity, left to get on with their miserable lives.
In season one many of the shows characters were being established, but in season two there is more of an emphasis on the dynamic between the Silver Team spartans, who are at the centre of the video game and now provide the focus for the TV series.
Master Chief ’s Silver Team has a lot more personality and far more to do in this season of the show, especially as more of them begin to remove their emotion-blocking implants which are meant to drive them as a team rather than a bunch of disparate individuals.
Even without his iconic armour Chief remains the strong silent type keeping his emotions in check despite a heavy dose of inner turmoil.
Many episodes in season two take place on the planet Reach, targeted by The Covenant as ripe for the picking, with only the likes of Silver Team standing in their way.
Despite season two being a welcome upgrade on the first season in terms of storyline and character development, don’t expect to become too emotionally involved in the overall offering. There is always the feeling that it isn’t quite three dimensional enough to merit the viewers’ emotional input.
Every character in the series – apart from the central star of Master Chief – feels as though they are expendable.
So fans of the show who
Season 2 of Halo chugs along in a slicker way than the original series with better special effects
become fed up with the usual back-and-forth sometimes predictable dialogue between Chief and, just about everyone else, may have that predictability blown away in the ensuing high action rounds of Dead Spartan Bingo.
Catch this and season one on Paramount+.