Late to the Party TV Review: Dark Matter

I had this idea the other day, since I'm always watching TV series and movies after they have had their initial run, that I should do a "Late to the Party" review of the things I catch after the fact. I'm not sure how useful it will be, unless you're like me and wind up with a huge "I'll get to it eventually" list, but here it goes!

So, play the trumpets and sound the drums! Here's the first Late to the Party Review:

Dark Matter (TV Series, 2015, SyFy Channel):

Below is the intro/overview video (not a trailer, more of a detailed description).

So, how was it as a show?

Pretty damn good.

Dark Matter had a little bit of an awkward start for the first to second episode, as most shows do, but the mystery of who this crew was and what they were supposed to be doing was enough to pull me through to the good stuff. Fortunately, the show didn't take that long to get rolling. By episode three I was hooked, and by the last I wanted more.

The thing that kept me coming back to watch—let's face it, I wound up mainlining most of it with my wife on Amazon Prime Video—was the connection I felt with the characters. The more they find out about themselves, the more you find out about them, and the more you care about who they are. The show did a fantastic job of making the story emotional and easy to connect with. I listened to a podcast (Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Episode 167) about both this show and SyFy's other new space adventure/drama, Killjoys, before I watched it. In that podcast they said that the android is probably the best character on the show, and I'm inclined to agree, but the other characters all shine with their own qualities that had me on the edge of me seat.

On a final note, it was said (in that same podcast) that Dark Matter and Killjoys were supposed to be a sort of lead-up to SyFy's upcoming space drama, the Expanse. That might be so, but from what I've seen of the Expanse trailer, and what I've watched of Killjoys, I'd have to say Dark Matter is probably going to wind up the real gem of the three. It's a must see.