Posted by Smalls at adsl-67-125-36-83.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net on May 04, 2004 at 23:19:06:
In Reply to: how many of you watched SLIDERS posted by shitty speller...DEAL WITH IT! on May 04, 2004 at 23:04:21:
On the simplest of levels, the "team" was too big... and so instead of really being able to get into the concept of this universe or that universe, you had to toy with all the different characters reactions to the ramifications of it all plus have growing friendships between them and the accompanying dynamics.
And... probably most importantly... there was no... anchor to it, to keep it on the edge between being about what's happening in this episode or that episode and it being about the larger idea of "getting home".
Their Doc/Al/Rufus character was pretty much just another dude on the ride, you know? They just jumped again and again and again without any real sense of... there being someone or someTHING out there trying to keep them away or get them back.
The characters, too, were... almost TOO developed for the concept. Again... Marty was a nice kid who had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, Sam was a smart fella with a deep moral core... that's all you needed to know about them to get the ball rolling. You almost knew too much about too many damn characters than to allow the breathing room of being blank-slate every-men in the face of these strange new worlds.
Now, some individual episodes early on were great... great concepts for a world and their ethical dilemmas about being there... but you never got a sense of series momentum because there was too much going on and not enough weighing it down to some sort of baseline "home".
And then... oh boy... when we got his baby brother and their parents were actually timetravellers and they were fighting cavemen for the fate of the multiverse... uh... yeah.
Mike