Syfy’s six-hour miniseries “Ascension” tells the tale of hundreds of Americans who in 1963 were secretly cut off from humanity for a 100-year space-ark journey to a new planet their descendants would inhabit.
So the United States had the wherewithal to create and launch a giant interstellar spacecraft at the same time it was struggling with putting Gemini capsules into Earth orbit? And 1960s scientists found a habitable planet that a ship with 1960s propulsion technology could reach in 100 years? And a way to provide this ship with 100 years worth of fuel?
Leaving aside these improbables, the idea of a “generation ship” whose journey would last multiple lifetimes is an interesting one, but the soapy onboard characters and tired plotlines engineered by writer-producer Philip Levens (“Smallville,” “Knight Rider”) may leave viewers feeling like they’ve been watching this miniseries for 100 years.
If viewers can tough out the first two hours of nonsense, clichés and bad dialogue, they will be rewarded with quite an interesting twist tonight. But I doubt many will find it worth their time and trouble.
... The main problem with “Ascension” is that its best feature — the promise of a succinct three-part story that ends — is something of a myth. There is already talk of making it a series. The opening installment is sharp over all but has squishy spots; that makes you wonder if the premise and the execution are up to the challenge of a series run. …
... I’d be happy to watch a thoughtful, Ridley Scott-style drama about all this, but “Ascension” is unfortunately hidebound to its network’s soap-opera instincts. … The poor citizens of Ascension flew all this way and yet cannot escape the gravitational pull of Syfy’s tractor beam of the banal. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... There are several intriguing concepts built into Syfy’s “Ascension”, but the execution is not quite up to snuff in the first episode and infuriating by the conclusion. …
... The direction, at times, has a jerky feel. The dialogue is riddled with cliches. The metaphor to society at large is heavy handed. The have-nots are, for example, “lower deck trash.”…
... for all the drama surrounding the characters, relatively few resonate. …
9 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. Syfy.
