DOMINION

** (out of ****)

For all intents and purposes, the pilot for Dominion seemingly hits all of its goals, assuming that its goals are to feel like one of those cheesedick sci-fi shows that would run in syndication on Saturdays when we were kids. At least, it feels like it hits its goals until you realize two things.

1) By definition, when we were kids, we were young, and when we were younger, we liked anything put in front of us.

2) From what I’ve heard, a lot of those shows coasted on a healthy amount of charm and a knowing sense of humor, making up for what they lacked in budget. Dominion did not catch that part.

When it came time to come up with a new original show, SyFy put the title of every movie released in the last decade into a hat and randomly drew Legion. For the 100 percent of you that don’t remember, Legion was a movie starring Paul Bettany as the angel Michael, who defends the Earth from God and his angels. Dominion takes place 25 years after the events of Legion. Humans have walled themselves in on the Vegas strip. Outside of the walls, angels AKA vampire/zombies/AllTVShowsAreTheSame roam wildly, ready to mindlessly kill whatever humans wander outside of the gate. On the good side, this show has a firmer grasp on  what the premise of The Walking Dead should have been: when monsters attack, humans will prove themselves to be the real monsters. Knowing that that should be their premise isn’t enough, however, when the show that’s built around premise is among the dumbest things ever made.
It’s probably not a matter of the Dominion showrunners wanting to produce a show about the politics of a post-apocalyptic city. In actuality, it’s cheap to film two people quietly talking about how their policies are the best, whereas filming humans and angels warring can be expensive. And, like I alluded to before, it’s not like they aren’t trying to write compelling drama. They just don’t seem very capable. This is where we run into a problem that we see all of the time on television. People who want to write a cheesy action show about the battle between angels and humans don’t want to spend time developing characters. People who can write eloquent, character driven, politically motivated teleplays don’t give a shit about angels. Dragons, maybe, but certainly not angels. And all of this perpetually mires SyFy on this third tier of basic cable, watching channels like Sundance and FX shoot past them. (After Fargo, FX might have just passed AMC as the premiere basic cable destination). But this is also the channel that gave us Sharknado, so maybe this was their plan all along. I know this seems like it shouldn’t matter. I know Dominion has a target audience that doesn’t enjoy people who need quality from this show. But these glaring holes never needed to be there, and filling them doesn’t just mean providing quality to an audience that doesn’t give a shit. It also means attempting to find that crossover audience that shows like Game of Thrones earned, and shows like The Walking Dead inexplicably get anyway.

– Ryan Haley