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"Halo is a Huge Global Hit," Paramount Says


Paramount+'s Halo series was a long time coming, but has quickly become a "huge global hit," says CEO Bob Bakish on a Q1 earnings call Tuesday morning. According to an earnings press release, Halo has continued a run of successful content including 1883 and Star Trek: Picard.

Bakish added (via Deadline) that the last three months have "once again demonstrated the power and potential of Paramount’s unique assets and the company's continued momentum." And it's either luck or savvy strategy on Paramount+'s part that Halo has turned out to be a success--the streaming service already greenlit Halo for Season 2 before it even had its series premiere.

The Halo series is produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. It stars Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Yerin Ha, Charlie Murphy, Jen Taylor, Shabana Azmi, Bokeem Woodbine, Kate Kennedy, Natasha Culzac, and Bentley Calu. The adaptation is co-written by Kyle Killen, Steven Kane. For Season 2, David Wiener is set as showrunner and executive producer--he'll be stepping in for Killen and Kane.

Paramount+ saw major growth last quarter, gaining 6.8 million subscribers--bringing its total to 40 million. The streaming service's revenue also grew 148% to $585 million in Q1. Added Bakish, "Our strategy is working and our execution is strong, as we remain focused on delivering a great experience for consumers and a compelling financial model to our shareholders."

Master Chief Fight GIF by Paramount+


Nba Playoffs Dancing GIF by NBA
 
Between Halo and Star Trek, Paramount+ is the streaming service I'm watching the most right now.

I wasn't watching Star Trek, but I plan to start watching it beginning today. I literally have yet to even watch Moon Knight on Disney+ because I've been focused on Halo, but of course that's a must see for me also.

Episode 08 preview.

 
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Codes 208

Member
Im not all the way caught up but it just feels like it’s halo in name only, just with some decent covenant details and master cheeks. (But a lot of fluff too) I really wished this was more inline with the game lore like Foward Unto Dawn was.
 
1 part thirsty fans for a show/movie after a decade + 1 part content lacking streaming service + 1 part decent budget.

The show doesn't exceed the sum of its parts. I hope the last two episodes pack all that budget saving 6 out of 7 episodes thus far into full blown classic Halo showcasing Spartans, Covenant, Chief/Cortana/Halsey, space battles, battle strategy and we get fucking moving along finally.
 
Im not all the way caught up but it just feels like it’s halo in name only, just with some decent covenant details and master cheeks. (But a lot of fluff too) I really wished this was more inline with the game lore like Foward Unto Dawn was.

If you read the books you will quickly realize there's nothing about this show that's "Halo in name only." It's quite literally the perfect adaptation of Halo into a big budget TV series. Forward Unto Dawn was good, I enjoyed it, but it has nothing on this production. The story in Forward Unto Dawn was a story none of us knew of until they decided to tell it. Same concept for many of this series' events, just significantly ramped up.

None of it thus far has been unforgivably lore or universe breaking in any major way. They've only introduced some new elements and took some creative license that are still perfectly in keeping with Halo's identity and universe facts. Major details of the underlying Halo lore are still in tact and haven't been strayed from. This is borrowing elements from the Greg Bear Forerunner Trilogy, elements from the Karen Traviss Kilo-Five Trilogy, from the Nylund Novels, from the Troy Denning books, and of course plenty from the games.

I love they're not pussyfooting about getting into the morality of the Spartan program and what was done to the Spartan candidates. It's important context that needs to be addressed so as to ensure the series is never weighed down by the absence of that story's telling. It's important character building. Soren, Chief's friend, who is 100% canon btw, is a great character to focus on. His story was always very interesting and it's great they're exploring it. Key details of his backstory have been kept intact for this show.

They've perfectly captured the complexity of Dr. Halsey (flawless casting), they've fucking nailed Miranda Keyes to perfection (another flawless casting job), they've brough depth to the Chief's relationships with his fellow Spartans as a result of developments with a Spartan I won't mention, but who is almost certainly meant to be Linda from Blue Team. If some were as obsessed with some lore details as I am they would see just how careful and how much respect these showrunners have been in respecting the Halo extended universe and novels. Madrigal is more untapped territory that was never fully explored, and now this series is giving us that opportunity.

I personally love the series and think more people should really give it a shot because it's really good. If not, that's fine, too. I'm just glad this bad boy is here to stay.
 

Quasicat

Member
I subscribed for free through GamePass this week so I could watch the entire season, then I’m going to unsubscribe. I’m probably not the kind of audience Paramount+ wants.
 

TheShocker

Member
Maybe I’m being too harsh on it, but I absolutely hate it. It’s had some cool moments here and there and the acting and casting is actually pretty good, but the story just drives me up a wall.
 
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SegaManAU

Gold Member
Look, it's not how I would have made a Halo TV series but I'm trying to enjoy it for what it is.

It's been alright so far, although the last episode was crap.
 

MScarpa

Member
I have yet to watch it. I've never been the BIGGEST Halo fan, Yet Infinite has beem really fun so maybe I'll check this out.
 

Havoc2049

Member
If you read the books you will quickly realize there's nothing about this show that's "Halo in name only." It's quite literally the perfect adaptation of Halo into a big budget TV series. Forward Unto Dawn was good, I enjoyed it, but it has nothing on this production. The story in Forward Unto Dawn was a story none of us knew of until they decided to tell it. Same concept for many of this series' events, just significantly ramped up.

None of it thus far has been unforgivably lore or universe breaking in any major way. They've only introduced some new elements and took some creative license that are still perfectly in keeping with Halo's identity and universe facts. Major details of the underlying Halo lore are still in tact and haven't been strayed from. This is borrowing elements from the Greg Bear Forerunner Trilogy, elements from the Karen Traviss Kilo-Five Trilogy, from the Nylund Novels, from the Troy Denning books, and of course plenty from the games.

I love they're not pussyfooting about getting into the morality of the Spartan program and what was done to the Spartan candidates. It's important context that needs to be addressed so as to ensure the series is never weighed down by the absence of that story's telling. It's important character building. Soren, Chief's friend, who is 100% canon btw, is a great character to focus on. His story was always very interesting and it's great they're exploring it. Key details of his backstory have been kept intact for this show.

They've perfectly captured the complexity of Dr. Halsey (flawless casting), they've fucking nailed Miranda Keyes to perfection (another flawless casting job), they've brough depth to the Chief's relationships with his fellow Spartans as a result of developments with a Spartan I won't mention, but who is almost certainly meant to be Linda from Blue Team. If some were as obsessed with some lore details as I am they would see just how careful and how much respect these showrunners have been in respecting the Halo extended universe and novels. Madrigal is more untapped territory that was never fully explored, and now this series is giving us that opportunity.

I personally love the series and think more people should really give it a shot because it's really good. If not, that's fine, too. I'm just glad this bad boy is here to stay.
Just like almost everything in the TV series, Soren isn't even close to being 100% cannon. Soren was a washout during the Spartan II augmentation process as his arm was so disformed he couldn't fire a weapon and his leg was so badly deformed that he could barely walk. He was given desk duties, never saw combat or wore Mjolnir Armor (which they show him wearing in the show). He was indoctrinated by a female separatist who infiltrated the UNSC and he went AWOL.

The whole plot behind the creation of Cortana and the relationship between Halsey, Cortana and The Master Chief is all wrong in the TV show as well and isn't cannon. The whole Cortana backstory, which was endearing, action packed and exciting in the books and games has devolved into a lame tale of insubordination and the Chief hates both Halsey and Cortana.
 
Thats where youre wrong. I have read the books, thats what makes this show more of a farce

See I hear this kind of thing a lot, but unfortunately I just don't buy it. The Halo universe books do exactly the type of world and character building that the TV series is doing such a great job of. It isn't always a series of shootouts and massive, large scale wars with the covenant. There's a lot of introduction to characters, digging into their daily life, things important to them and how they fit into the larger universe events. How they are important isn't always immediately clear from the start. The books do this by way of giving you background into events happening in the outer colonies, behind the scenes politics or power struggles deep inside ONI and the UNSC giving you a far greater understanding of the various parts and major players. It can be secret missions that are taking place entirely separate from what's going on in the mainline games, insight into what's happening in the covenant or whoever the immediate threat happens to be. There's a lot of different scenes or story threads that the books will bounce between at different times to offer us that additional insight we don't get from the games.

What this show has been doing so far with the UNSC/ONI, Halsey, the Spartans and the spartan program, Master Chief, Miranda, Captain Keyes, Cortana, the relationship dynamic between all of them, the outer colonies and their dynamic between dealing with their internal politics, their views of the UNSC and what if anything they know about the Covenant, all of this is in perfect keeping with the very spirit embodied in the very best of Halo's extended fiction as displayed in the novels. You think the fact that there are any changes at all hurts that lore? It doesn't because those changes don't materially impact where the ultimate end game. The show has taken things that were far more briefly touched upon and have taken creative license to expand them in a more creative fashion to service character development and universe building. Obviously we will disagree, and it seems a lot of people are just committed to hating this for the sake of hating it, and don't really all seem seriously into Halo's lore enough to want to give it a fair shake.
 




I get that you're super hard for this show, but this is definitely not a masterpiece.


None of any of that desperate joyless nitpicking means a thing to me. I found all kinds of problems in Game of Thrones, Witcher and numerous other things I've enjoyed, even in MCU films and even some of my favorite films. I just ignore the nonsense and allow myself to be transported so I can enjoy myself. So yea, I won't even read much of that.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Doubt, we don't even have Paramout+ here. Which sucks, so I can imagine a lot of other countries are the same.
 

Thaedolus

Member
It’s pretty mediocre but even that’s enough to keep watching with the state of the other sci fi shows currently. It just sucks to go from one of the greatest shows ever made in Better Call Saul to mediocrity every week.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
You know it isn't when they need to SAY and convince us that it's a huge hit.

You didn't see such grovelling from the Sonic 2 movie. The results spoke for itself.
 
For P+ yeah makes sense but they rly got nothing else there. Compared to other shows? Highly unlikely. S2 will do much worse in views.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
I enjoy it for what it is but it’s definitely not the halo I know
Once you can accept that its not the Halo you know and is an adaptation of the game, it gets alot more enjoyable. People who are expecting the show to reflect the game more accurately are fooling themselves. There's no way in hell the game would translate into an accurate account for the show. That was never going to happen - not for a long running television show. Can you imagine hiding Chief's face for 3 to 4 seasons? Holy shit no!
 
Just like almost everything in the TV series, Soren isn't even close to being 100% cannon. Soren was a washout during the Spartan II augmentation process as his arm was so disformed he couldn't fire a weapon and his leg was so badly deformed that he could barely walk. He was given desk duties, never saw combat or wore Mjolnir Armor (which they show him wearing in the show). He was indoctrinated by a female separatist who infiltrated the UNSC and he went AWOL.

The whole plot behind the creation of Cortana and the relationship between Halsey, Cortana and The Master Chief is all wrong in the TV show as well and isn't cannon. The whole Cortana backstory, which was endearing, action packed and exciting in the books and games has devolved into a lame tale of insubordination and the Chief hates both Halsey and Cortana.

Soren is 100% canon. They may have made changes to his character to make him more important for the show, but he is canon, as are parts of his backstory already revealed, such as what transpired regarding his father.


The character of Soren-066 is lifted from the main Halo timeline, specifically the Halo: Evolutions short story "Pariah," which told his troubled backstory and explored the same kind of themes, with the augmentation process leaving Soren physically broken and requiring further cybernetic enhancements. Just as in the Halo TV series, he escaped and fled the UNSC; the key difference is that he escaped in a stolen Longsword, which was shot down, and his body was never recovered. In the main Halo timeline, the Master Chief has no idea where Soren is. He certainly never went to the Rubble, which was actually a major Insurrectionist base.

Though the changes are obvious, none of the changes significantly change the major world-building events as known from the games, or even the biggest ones from the books. The Halo so far will still serve the same purpose, the basic backstory for the spartans is largely still consistent and intact. The Spartans WERE indoctrinated by Halsey and the UNSC/ONI. The route the TV show ventures in was literally suggested in the very first Halo book by another AI to Halsey, but then Halsey suggested she would instead tell them the truth up front. That she didn't in the Halo series silver timeline and actually went with precisely what the AI in the Fall of Reach book suggested isn't something I'm mad about. It's actually a rather interesting take, and I'm happy to see where it goes.

The changes made to HOW Cortana came about doesn't change very important details of how her origin, she's functionally a clone of Halsey, created from Halsey's living brain. Did they not get vital material from her brain? We never saw the process for ourselves. Who can truly say it didn't go down exactly like the TV show did it? Cloning technology, after all, was a thing in Halo. I don't see one thing wrong with that change. Sure it changes that really badass first outing in his Mjolnir with Cortana, but nothing says they can't revisit and show us that one later on, minus Cortana.

And if you seriously think Master Chief isn't going to come around to both Cortana and Halsey you're setting yourself up for an easy L in that department. It's clear his trust, respect and reliance on both will end up being redeemed.
 
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