Developed by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane
1.08 “Allegiance”
Written by Justine Juel Gillmer and Steven Kane
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman
Starring Pablo Schreiber, Yerin Ha, Danny Spani, Natascha McElhone, and Jen Taylor
New episodes airing Thursdays on Paramount+

by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

So, that was ass. I am probably the nicest person to say that - all things considered. Halo game fans are… well, “not happy” is kind of an understatement. For everything the series has done to ride the line of generic alien science-fiction and “look ma, it’s Halo!” this episode really took a Spartan Laser right to the face of the latter.

But maybe that’s the issue with a major studio adapting this kind of video game. Especially in live-action. Nothing can ever be quite as weird as the game fans would like, because of the business of television. Like, I’m hopeful for HBO’s The Last of Us, not just because of the creative team behind it, but also because it’s a video game story that’s deeply character based. It’s not actually all that weird, not when you consider The Walking Dead of it all. But every version of Resident Evil, a much weirder zombie game, has been either horribly bad or just kinda fine. I’m doubtful the new live-action Netflix series will actually feel like Resident Evil, unfortunately. But maybe it’ll be fun?

And that’s kind of the problem with the Halo TV series, ultimately. No matter how you feel about it, compared to the video games, it’s so fucking boring. Like, realistically, how was a major studio going to adapt something as supremely weird as Halo ends up actually being? But, in all honesty, I think the show could have been good if all the parties involved didn’t feel the need to make the audience for the show as large as possible. At some point, with all the influx of television, we’ll have to accept that it’s okay for a show to have a very niche audience. TV is too fractured for every show to get numbers like The Big Bang Theory, or even Game of Thrones. (The former, by the way, almost always outpaced the latter in viewership.)

Anyway, after being away from John, Makee, Dr. Halsey, and Cortana for an episode to focus (quite messily) on Kwan and Madrigal, we’re back on Reach. I’d love to say that time away made my heart grow fonder, but not when this is what we’re coming back to. John and Makee have sex, their connection growing stronger, Halsey goes into full villain mode and activates the Spartans to take John down and bring him, Makee, and the artifact to her, and the UNCS (at Chief’s insistence) are planning to use his and Makee’s connection to find the Halo Array.

And, like, I actually think there are two major sins in this episode, and neither of them are that Chief fucks. One is kind of related, I guess, but I’m (at least conceptually) fine with the idea that John has sex. I will say that I absolutely hate the show for making me think about, and then have to write about, Master Chief having sex and if that’s good or not. But I don’t think it would be an issue - if the show was trying to do something specific and not generic. (Also, I simply cannot deal with Cortana just watching him have sex, but from a different room. Either you don’t need it, or there’s gotta be a better way to show that!)

No, my actual issues are with Dr. Halsey and Makee. In the games, and even up to the last episode she was in, Halsey was antagonistic but not an outright villain. However, without the Covenant actually front and center in the show, she’s the closest thing they’ve got to one. But I think it’s the wrong move entirely to have her just go into full supervillain mode the way she does in this episode. No doubt the only interesting part of the episode is when the Spartans are fighting each other - but literally what the fuck is that?

And then there’s Makee. I like the idea of her. I think she has so much potential to be interesting and deeply complex. Instead, she flip flops on her entire philosophy toward humanity (one that she’d been indoctrinated into) multiple times over the course of a single episode. Like Kwan, she’s messy in a way that isn’t actually all that interesting. But, because of the degradation of Dr. Halsey’s character, it’s not like it’s an issue with new characters only.

I don’t know what the finale is going to bring - but my guess is we’ll see the Halo Array from a ship, and maybe we’ll get some more Covenant. I’ll be happy if there’s a cool fight, but I’m not even betting on that at this point. At least Cortana and Chief are finally working together.