2 out of 5

Created by: Vaun Wilmott

The decision to base a television series off of a generally poorly received film – and not a film with a strong cult following, or sprung from the mind/hands of a ‘name’ writer or director – seemed pretty odd when it was announced.  The pilot episode – which had some nifty effects and some pretty strong acting despite the oppressive gloom of the script – diluted some doubts, but didn’t completely dispel them.  And as the rest of the series stuttered on, ‘Dominion’ continued to scuffle around in that tepid middleground, never quite descending into something you could brush off, but absolutely refusing to emerge with its own identity.  Over on El Rey, another movie-turned-show, ‘Dusk Till Dawn,’ similarly struggled to define itself, but that was because of the decision to start before the film and re-summarize everything.  ‘Dominion’ seems to set itself up free of such burdens by starting 25 years after ‘Legion,’ which covered an angel versus human war that, as we pick things up, resulted in a decimated human population, isolated in walled cities.  Michael and Gabriel, our relative good and bad angels from the movie, are still hanging around, doing relative good and bad things, and a baby that was said to be the savior of mankind in ‘Legion’ is now all grown up.  And for eight episodes, we get to watch…  What?  What did I just watch?  Sometimes Alex, our savior, is training, sometimes selected leaders of Vega are scheming, sometimes Gabriel is plotting, sometimes there are fights.  I suspect the main draw for SyFy with this series is that it allowed for a built-in history and approachable effects, two traits that could be well leveraged for testing what audience their newly revised thrust into television originals will bring in.  And, whether bravely or foolishly, the writers go full-in with the former, not really explaining what came before.  Unfortunately, this also makes it difficult to become invested in what’s happening.  The script and acting are actually pretty strong, it’s just that this is all feels very driven by labored over ideas that are never really apparent to the viewer.  I can reread the summary of each episode and still be at a loss to tell you exactly what’s going down.  …The season ends sorta back with what the pilot promised us a bit of (and that popped up in bits and pieces along the way): Alex moving forward with purpose.  Perhaps these 8 episodes will give the creative team enough feedback to figure out what worked for their audience and what didn’t, and narrow things down to something that feels more like a show.