Schwermetall Chronicles

I would suggest that you go into this show thinking of it as more of an SF "cartoon" than a high concept SF show. There is some ok stuff going on in this show here and there, but its not Black Mirror, and unfortunately, it seems like the writers for this show are more like "professional" writers than they are genuinely imaginative. The successful pieces only happen occasionally, and even then, it's never quite as compelling, or even as weird, as it should be.

I have nothing against pop SF that is more candy than science, but with this in mind, this could have been a better show if they had perhaps found better writing. The ideas behind most of these episodes don't feel fleshed out or well constructed. In fact, many episodes feel like they are padding out the stories in order to fill the time requirements. Sometimes the show does hit a cool note, but if you compare this to other SF shows doing a similar thing (Black Mirror, Electric Dreams, or even Dimension 404) this seems the least inspired, which might seem perplexing to some, because the writers for this show are supposed to be some of "the best" comic book writers in the industry. Well, this is misleading. Most of these writers are well known comic book writers, but rarely does that equate to being the most inspired or creative, unfortunately. They are just names that everybody knows because they have been around for so long.

Metal Hurlant was originally a hugely successful adult comic book/magazine that hit its height of popularity in the late 70s and through the 80s. The magazine has managed to stay around in one form or another, and most of these episodes are taken from material that is relatively new. Originally Metal Hurlant was never really a high concept venue as much as it was an experimental venue. It thrived on trying new ideas and had a huge span of variety in style and substance. It was punk rock and edgy, entirely unconcerned with PC politics or standards of professionalism. It thrived because of it's willingness to explore. The rebel spirit that was a pervasive part of the independent comic scene in those days is really all but dead, across the industry as a whole, which is much more focused upon the abstract concepts of professionalism and sell-ability than being motivated by compelling creativity. You would think that this should essentially be the same thing, but in fact it isn't, and its a mindset that produces different results.

This show sometimes peeks through the window of the past and find some of that original glory, but it too often feels more sterile than it should. I get the sense that the producers of the show wanted to capture something of the old days for a new generation, but the material just doesn't pull out enough mystery or surprises.

My recommendation is to at least try it, and skip the weaker episodes. There is some ok stuff here and there, especially if you like SF, but don't expect the cutting edge.

My wife and I tore through these episodes pretty quickly. They were quite enjoyable and we made a game of trying to guess the "twist" endings. Most of the time, the twists had twists! In one episode, the twist was there wasn't a twist! Being a half-hour show also also eliminated the padding that you would have gotten with hour-long episodes. I also thought the series had pretty good special effects for a low budget effort. It succeeded in capturing the flavor of Heavy Metal magazine and it looked quite different than anything else on TV. I hope SyFi or some other network picks it up. It's great news that the producers are making a second season.

This French series (shot in English) adapts stories from the "Metal Hurlant" magazine, which eventually became "Heavy Metal" in the U.S. Director Guillaume Lubrano helms six 25-minute episodes with the common thread being a metal/rock meteor (the Metal Hurlant) screaming past each of these alien worlds before each story.

"King's Crown" has peasants on a floating rock of a planet engaging in a combat tournament to determine the new king. Two of the better combatants are Michael Jai White and Scott Adkins. "Shelter Me" has a girl (Michelle Ryan) waking up in a bomb shelter and being told by a man (James Marsters) that he saved her before a nuclear war. Soon she starts doubting his story. "Three on a Match" has three men (Craig Fairbrass, Dominique Pinon, and Eriq Ebouaney) battling for space on an escape pod. "Red Light / Cold Hard Facts" is an episode split in two and was apparently the pilot that Lubrano shot to get the series greenlit. "Red Light" focuses on a prisoner (David Belle of the BANLIEUE 13 series) fighting a guard (French MMA fighter Cyril Diabate) while trying to escape a high-tech prison; "Cold Hard Facts" has folks in the 24th century discovering a 20th century cryogenic patient that they resurrect. "Pledge of Anya" has a young warrior sent by his master (Rutger Hauer) to the planet Earth to destroy a "dragon." Finally, "Master of Destiny" focuses on a intergalactic hunter named Hondo (Joe Flanigan) who sets out on a quest to find a planet where the alien race can tell you when you are going to die. This one might gain the most interest from fans as it adapts a story co-written by Alejandro Jodorowsky back in the day.

Being not all that familiar with the source material, I still found this to be a fun series and got through the two and a half hours quickly. Lubrano has definitely chosen some good stories to adapt. Sure, you'll see some twists coming a mile away, but others not so much. He also has a pretty great visual style and some of the space shots are great, esp. for a low budget series. Another thing I liked was his casting as he got some good familiar faces in there (although I doubt Hauer was ever on set with anything but a green screen) and I'll never complain about seeing White and Adkins face off. A second season has been greenlit so look for that.

When you watch bad science fiction, it can be nearly as mesmerizing as watching excellent science fiction. I've probably watched 'judge dread' as many times as I have 'the man from earth', or 'chronicles of Riddick' as many times as 'the color of magic', for very different reasons obviously. The problem that I am left with in the show, is that it isn't entirely bad. The bad parts are funny, like the line "2000 light years away, that's at the end of the universe." Wait, what? It is kind of disturbing that the writers thought that was true. or did they? are they intentionally writing bad dialogue to be funny? I'm not sure. But, make no mistake, the writing is terrible, intentionally, or not, which if you are in the mood, is actually bad enough to be funny. Some people are saying the rest of it is bad, and I disagree. Makeup, graphics, staging, and cgi are all done fairly well, there are points where you can see they clearly didn't have the money to make it perfect, but this isn't the hobbit or star wars, it is a low budget TV miniseries. All of the aforementioned areas seem authentic, and well done, if not perfect. Where it gets weird is that I almost feel bad for the actors. You see moments where acting talent comes through, and no matter how talented you are, you can't make dialogue that isn't researched or thought out, which often reads like stage directions, into Shakespeare, you just can't. Normally in bad scifi you get terrible actors like vin diesel in chronicles of Riddick, or Stallone in judge dread, but some of the actors here actually have some level of talent, detracting from the humor of it. When you hear Vin Diesel respond to the line 'how do you get eyes like that?' with 'you've got to kill a lot of people' it is almost transcendently terrible. When you hear Joe Flannigan of stargate atlantis fame say that it is 2000 light years to the end of the universe, that just breaks your heart a little. If you are looking for advice on whether to watch of not, I'd say give it a go for a good laugh. I for one will probably keep watching for that reason.

The Metal Hurlant Chronicles is a good series. It is similar to The Twilight Zone telling six different stories. After seeing all six, I like the series very much. The stories have different themes and are good. Each one makes a person think. The producers hope to make more episodes telling new stories. I personally enjoyed Joe Flanigan's episode. The story was really good and Joe's acting was great. Hopefully, the series will be seen in the US. Right now, it can be seen in Europe on different networks and different channels. The series has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in France. The producers are working on releasing the series in Australia on DVD and Blu-Ray