Is Halo the TV Series Even Worth Watching?

[OpticChief]

Hey everyone,


I’ve been debating whether or not to watch the Halo TV series. Part of me is really curious. The armor looks incredible, the CGI seems top-notch, and from a production standpoint, it looks like a visually impressive show.


…BUT here’s the thing that almost killed my interest completely: I heard that Master Chief actually takes his helmet off. Honestly, that feels like a dealbreaker for me. One of the things that made John-117 so iconic in the games was the mystery. He didn’t have a visible face, and that anonymity added to his badass aura. Giving him a face just feels…wrong. It undermines the mystique that defines his character, and I can’t imagine it improving the experience for longtime fans.


The other concern I have is about the story itself. From what I’ve read, the show doesn’t focus much on the classic elements that made Halo so compelling: the conflict between humanity and the Covenant, the existential threat of the Flood, or the mystery of the Forerunners and their advanced technology. Instead, it seems like the narrative centers on helping a human rebel, which feels like a much smaller, personal story and not really the “Halo” I know and love.


It honestly comes across as if the creators weren’t true fans of the source material or didn’t fully grasp what made it special. And from the looks of it, the studios and developers in charge of the franchise didn’t screen the project carefully—they just wanted a big-budget series to capitalize on the name. That’s a shame because Halo deserves a story that reflects its epic scale and lore.


I do have Netflix, so I could technically check it out—but every time I think about Master Chief’s face being shown, it makes my gut wrench. I want to hear from the community here: is the show worth watching at all, even just for the visuals and production quality?


Please, no major spoilers! If I do end up giving it a shot, I don’t want any plot points ruined.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

 

[WOJG]

I thought the very same thing, but I still gave it an honest shot and watched both seasons. I would say it’s worth watching on production value alone, but other than that everything else is pretty garbage and your assessment is spot on. Story sucked and had major inconsistencies with long established lore and Master Chief had his helmet off more than on. That being said there are some good things. Surprisingly they did a great job with portraying the Covenant and I really enjoyed how they finished season 2, but I won’t be spoiling any of that.

TLDR: If you can get past seeing John’s face and the lackluster storytelling, it’s a pretty cool show. Also there are a couple of scenes that John made me straight up drool lol

 

[SgtSaint]

The gamers are going to continue to hate it on because its not just watching a live action game-play recording.
Personally - I liked it. But I came into Halo *from* the show, which gave me interest in the franchise, then went to the game from there. Think of it like watching a movie then you think "hey, I should go read the book" and you realize there's a bunch more detail: But that doesn't mean the movie was bad. Same here.

But... That's not to say it couldn't have been better just judging it on it's own merits. Then again, we could say the same for 90% of TV out there, right?

I think Halo: The TV Series could be resurrected and succeed if the production team were honest about why it wasn't accepted by the larger gaming community. If they aren't willing to take their lumps then a season 3, or a reboot, wouldn't get any traction.

https://screenrant.com/thread/was-paramounts-halo-tv-show-really-that-bad/

Well pointed out that helmet and armor removal was used throughout the books - and that the games are only the "on mission" times. Well… soldiers don't take off helmets and armor in the middle of a mission but they sure do when they are back home-and the games take place on mission so are only a small subset of Spartan life where the show had a broader, more complete view.

I keep and kept saying much like Steve Downs did, that there had to be *some* level of conversion when going from media formats. IE: Game to TV. You get the same thing from books to TV or movie. Heck even The Expanse for the brilliant piece it is, underwent changes from books to TV.

Personally - I think the problems with the TV series came from:
A - Overly ambitious story. When you have only 10 eps a season you can't run 5 story lines. This was not a 22 eps broadcast season
B - That gave rise to too many characters diluting focus. We did not need Kwan Ha... at all. We did not need Soren-066 's family to become an entire subplot. We did not need this deep mystical connection between Makee and John.
C - Better spending on budget. I love the armor. Even people that dis the show love the armor. Heck I *built* my cosplay armor (027) modeled on the show.
But there was no need to spend on new armor for RIZ-028 and VANEK-134 if they were only going to be in them for a total of 10 mins of screen time. I think that was to keep the upgrades to JOHN-117 and KAI-125 from looking different and nothing else. If they had only upgraded John and Kai it would have telegraphed the other two leaving. Then there is the entire underground Reach city sequence. The crew rebuilt an abandoned power station for that. And again, it was like 8 minutes of screen time. If you don't blow budget on things like that you don't have to wedge in "budget saving" episodes which should never exist in a 10 eps season.
D - They course-corrected well from seasons 1 to 2. Most people say the same thing. And it set them up pretty well to be closer to 'in canon' themes with John being alone and on the ring. Not the exact timeline, but enough in spirit without losing the fans they'd accumulated thus far. If they had the chance to do that again from seasons 2 to 3... They set up for The Flood. And just stick with those two plots... I think it could have course-corrected even more than they did from 1 to 2.
Just one man's opinion. We need and want that season 3!

That said… Track down the two "fan edits" from Halo The Series, turning each long season into a movie. Stripped of all the fat and fluff. I find these to be a great example of what the series could have been if the production heads had stayed focused and limited the scope to what properly fit a short streamer season.