Last weekend, the brand new HALO series produced by Paramount ended its very first season after 9 episodes. So, was the adaptation of the famoux XBOX video-game a good one ? Surprisingly, yes !
I’m not going to lie, when I heard that Halo was getting its TV show adaptation, I was kinda scared. Why ? Because so far, a majority of video games adaptations as movies or series were terrible. They were either bad productions or too mainstream and so they were not respecting the original games. Fortunately, it was not case for Halo ! Actually, the show is more on the same category as Netflix’s The Witcher. It works for anyone, you don’t need to know about the universe in order to understand and enjoy the show and yet, it’s also full of details and references to the original product that only fans will get. I’ve played Halo games but not all of them so my knowledge of the universe is existent however I knew that they took some shortcuts in order to make it understandable and clean for a TV show adaptation but overall the show is respectful towards the original universe. All the main elements from the games are here, the Spartans suits are incredibly accurate (I’ve rarely seen so well adapated suits in video games adaptations), the first episode perfectly explain what is going on and who are the main actors of the universe and it’s easily understandable even for people who never had a Halo game in their hands.
Throughout the 9 episodes we’re following three main stories and yet, the rythm is good and there’s no apparent imbalance between the differents stories inside the show. Talking about rythm, it’s always rising and you can clearly feel that each episode is taking us closer of the climax. There’s not one moment where you can feel that the rythm is slowing down. On the same topic, each episode is revealing a part of the story which means that all episodes are equal and none of them are filler episodes which means that you never get bored while watching the show, and everytime an episode ends, you can’t wait to go on the next one. I can also talk about the characters who are well written, well played by their actors and this means that you get quickly attached to them. Overall we have a combination of good characters, a well explained and understandable universe and a real work on all the visual aspects (for example regarding the suits and costumes) that really takes you into this universe, that makes dive into it, straight from the first episode and makes you like it, especially if you’re discovering it for the first time. For those who played the games, it’s even better !
Overall this first season of Halo was a great surprise and I really enjoyed it. As I said I was kinda scared of how this show would look like be since we rarely had good video games adapations but turns out it was really good and I highly recommend it, both for those who payed and liked the game and those who never heard about it. Personally I can’t wait for the second season !
