I clicked on its synopsis and started the first episode. I told myself to prepare to bail as I was sure I'd recognize that I checked this out long ago and found it unwatchable. At first glance, it seemed much like the similar Gene Roddenberry sci-fi show from around the same time period, that is, the late 90s/early 2000s, called Earth: Final Conflict which I did recall being pretty hard to watch. It also evoked Firefly and Serenity and that IP, and, with its very dated CGI, even Babylon 5. So many sci-fi shows of that era... and not very good ones in my opinion. Yet all have a very vibrant and fierce fanbase, if not niche in some cases.
This is one I seem to recall reading had many diehard fans. The thumbnail indicated the show has five seasons worth of episodes so it lasted a while, I guess. I have no idea what network it was originally broadcast on, I'm staying away from any old forums, fansites, subreddits etc. to avoid spoilers since this is, after all, a twenty plus year old series. I can tell you from the first few episodes though, I don't think it had an amazingly high end budget. The CG is comical even for the early 2000s.
The acting is pretty mid, the number of hand-to-hand combat scenes are so campy and very teen boy focused, oh, and in that teen boy vein, the women are, of course, young and beautiful fapping fuel. I guess the gay boys get middle aged Kevin Sorbo, who's real life politics blur it for me or the super-muscular Black dude who can't act his way outta a paper bag, let alone a spaceship. Meh. I'll take the blond semi-twink engineer dude, I guess, though, in shows like this, I bet he'll end up dead by the end of the first season... I'm only on the third episode... the one that's basically a twist of the Star Trek TOS "And the Children Shall Lead" with a smidge of "Miri" in there.
But I think the writing might be what fans may well have latched on to with this. I joke about the plot of the third episode but really other than some topical resemblances, it is unique and is done pretty well. It also seems to set the stage for what Capt. Hunt needs to figure out... Does he attempt, as he says, to resurrect the Commonwealth, or does he realize it's a new era and a new form of order needs to be built from the ashes of the old? Weirdly similar, actually, to the dilemma our victorious Democrats face now after our party's history-making gains... Do we go back to the Old Party of The Ageing Dickering Dems or do we let the Fierce Young Bloods "have at 'em" and "let loose the dogs of war?" But I digress...
So far, no Shameless Syndrome. Half expecting it, you know. I mean, how is it I never watched a popular sci-fi show from two decades ago? So far, I don't recognize one scene. The plot doesn't ring a bell at all. The CG ships and space effects look so generically "early 2000s space show" that I can't tell it from Firefly, Enterprise, Voyager, etc. Still plenty of time for it to kick in though. I'll let you know.