Originally Posted by
TooFlyToFail
It being decompressed is a good thing, because the comic was too fast paced and shallow to establish any deep or complex family dynamics. When the inciting incident happens, you don't give a damn about anyone involved.
That being said....the problem is that the back and forth between the origin and the present, there's little connective tissue and the way they tell the origin is way too dragged out. If this show was going to delve this dep into Sheldon as a character....this first season should've been an expanded adaptation of Jupiter's Circle, but with focus on the origin and why the Code matters so much. Sheldon talking about the Code is great, because of the acting, but it lacks weight because we don't get to see how he did things back in his day. We should've seen The Union dealing these "golden age" villains, dealing with WW2 and Vietnam, how superpowers became rampant around the globe and Sheldon coming to the conclusion that the Code was absolute. Also, let's see more of them just living life. Sheldon, despite being a god amongst men, and meeting aliens, is still religious...yet we don't see how that fits into his character, because he wasn't shown to be religious in the flashbacks?
That should've been season 1. Then season 2 shows the falling apart of the Union, Skyfox's time as a villain and Sheldon's failings as a father not being around for his kids. Then season 3 focuses on Brandon, Chloe, Petra and Hutch from from high school age to college, developing the relationships with their parents and the other superpowered kids, having them dealing with their celebrity, Hutch's life of crime and then ending with Chloe's falling out. Season 4 is then this season, but with Brandon and Petra being juxtaposed to Chloe and Hutch, and the social and ethical politics of the Union, and builds up to the inciting incident from the comics.
I'd have changed the title of the show to "Jupiter's Kingdom" or "Children of Jupiter", to establish that this is a show of ages. Jupiter's Legacy doesn't work for this show, because the word "legacy" implies a focus on the children, but Sheldon gets most of the screen time. Instead, either give a title that implies it's about his "reign", and those that inherit his "throne" or one that implies that Union were the "first generation of 'God's' children".
The other biggest failing was the action and effects. Like damn....that Blackstar fight was just not good. Due to the lack of context, we'd don't know that they were all holding back so much. Paragon, at that point, is far weaker then his father...yet he ends the fight, while Utopian is getting clapped lol. The storytelling was just not there, not when the first scene shows Paragon getting bodied the way he did and Utopian casually shrugging off that villain.
Lastly, Chloe is supposed to be unlikable. Cool. The comic didn't really cement how low she was, before the inciting incident. However, this show gives her no redeeming qualities and is too redundant. Episode 4 was tough. How many scenes do we need of her snorting drugs? Seriously. She's a horrible person, that belittles the friends she grew up with and who are risking there lives....for what? I thought her problem was with her father? It's not like they don't deal with the same issues, even more pressure, as they actually contribute to society, and even then...they fail to meet the Utopian's impossible ideal as well. We didn't see any context that would allow even an ounce of sympathy towards her. Yes, Sheldon/Utopian, is overbearing and can't be pleased, but Brandon isn't abusing drugs, and he's had to deal with their father much longer and has much higher expectations.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, as they had their showrunner leave during production, and had to do rewrites and reshoots. Hopefully next season tells whatever story it wants to tell better.