It’s always a mixed bag when a video game is adapted into a TV or film format. While something like a book adaptation has the benefit of showing all the elements a reader imagined in their head (visuals, sounds, etc.) along with an actor’s interpretation of a character, most video games already have this going for them. We have had some well-received adaptations such as the original Mortal Kombat and the recent Sonic the Hedgehog films. However, the majority haven’t been great or were so mediocre you have likely forgotten about them.

I could go on about the difficulties of being able to please an existing audience who’s already conflicted about whether they want a 1:1 adaptation or something new. There’s also the factor of bringing in a new audience and simplifying or changing aspects for mass appeal. For the sake of time, however, I think it’s easy to say the most significant advantage of an adaptation is respecting the property. Halo on Paramount+ seems to respect its namesake maybe 10% of the time and fumbles the rest as it tries to introduce badly executed ideas.

The show primarily focuses on two characters across their own simultaneous stories. First is the story centered around John-117 a.k.a. Master Chief. Having been trained into the ultimate supersoldier in the SPARTAN program, he represents the best that the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) offers in humanity’s fight against the alien alliance known as the Covenant. He also interacts with a lot of characters that fans will be happy to see such as Dr. Catherine Halsey, Miranda Keyes, and Cortana, who is portrayed by Jen Taylor as she is in the games.

Accompanying his story is a separate one that follows Kwan Ha, an original character for the series who hails from the planet Madrigal. She and her family are members of the insurrectionists who rebel against the UNSC for control over their own planet. Events that take place on Madrigal and a chance meeting with Master Chief kick everything into motion for both of them.

Unfortunately, both characters have problems. The show’s version of Master Chief is nothing like the games. It was to be expected as the showrunners were upfront about this being its own universe, but with how much they changed the character it is impossible to ignore.

This is a Master Chief that is extremely emotional and isn’t wearing a helmet or his Mjolnir armor for the majority of his screentime. His story is also closely linked with Makee, another original character that just seems to foster those elements that make this Master Chief so incredibly different. There are plenty of other ways that deviate further from his video game counterpart that you may have heard fans complaining about, but for the sake of spoilers, I’ll leave it be.

At the very least, his story and character treatment aren’t as bad as Kwan Ha’s. Looking at it from a general sense, there is a lot of potential with her. The Halo series has a huge focus on the military side of things, especially in the games. Focusing on the insurrectionists and places that aren’t under UNSC control (or are fighting against it) is pretty interesting. It’s a great opportunity for the television series to stand apart from everything else while still highlighting a lesser-mentioned part of the lore. Sadly, this opportunity is squandered at every turn.

Her story is nearly entirely separate and could have been cut out with minimal impact. It mostly takes place on her sand planet home, which reminds me why I hated Tatooine in The Book of Boba Fett. Even as a character, she isn’t written well. She’s a short-sighted teenager that’s filled with rage that comes off more like temper tantrums. Even other characters treat her like a dumb kid. It’s obvious the idea was for her to grow into a mature character, but too much time is spent on her unlikeable traits.

For what it’s worth, I do think a lot of the show’s problems would have been solved if there were some “minor” changes. For Kwan Ha, I think the key would be to give her an internal conflict about what she has been taught and the outer world. The show seems to set this up multiple times, but it’s never used. It really would have made a lot of sense as a great parallel to what Master Chief goes through.

Speaking of, the best way to fix this Master Chief’s story would have been to make him anyone but Master Chief. I imagine that would have been next to impossible because the character is an integral part of the series to casual audiences. However, the worst part of the character is how different he is from the game counterpart. All of his actions and everywhere the plot took him, even when it made me scratch my head, wouldn’t have been as big of an issue with an original spartan.

As much as I couldn’t help but think of how different Master Chief was, I also couldn’t help but repeatedly ask myself “Is this really Halo?” as I watched. It’s not as if I was expecting every episode to be super action-heavy because that would be insanely expensive and there needs to be some sort of downtime for a show. The problem was everything that felt like it belonged in some other generic sci-fi show.

The drama is melodramatic. Characters do stupid things that you can’t help but question. Scenes with nudity or sex feel completely unnecessary as if they just wanted to take advantage of being on the Paramount+ (initially Showtime) streaming platform. Even scenes that focus on elements fans would be not nearly as familiar with such as civilians/insurrectionists seem to take some wild and somewhat conflicting inspirations. All of this is compounded further by a lot of awful writing when it comes to dialogue or simply where the plot goes.

I won’t put any blame on the actors because I think they all did their best with what they were given. Pablo Schreiber’s take on the famous spartan is nothing like the protagonist we know, but I think he delivered on portraying a character exploring new emotions and ideas. Natascha McElhone brings Dr. Catherine Halsey to life in an enjoyably devious light. Jen Taylor proves that her 20+ years of playing Cortana makes her a perfect reprisal for the series and she is undeniably one of the best parts of it.

Still, none of that fixes all of the many questionable choices. Why does Kwan Ha’s adventure look so much like a low-budget Mad Max? How can you have a line mentioning how hard it is to break years of indoctrination when that is done repeatedly by multiple characters? Why do people, including Master Chief, take off their helmets in dangerous situations? Who approved that the name of the city on the planet Reach isn’t New Alexandria as it is in the games but is instead “Reach City”?

As incredibly frustrating as watching it could be at some points, the show isn’t all bad. Even with some questionable CGI now and then, the action is plenty enjoyable and surprisingly violent at times. The super-soldier spartans manage to show off how quick and how strong you’d expect them to be and have always wanted to see in a big-budget series. I found myself really enjoying the show during most action scenes.

It’s in these scenes that the show respects and properly references the source material. Every covenant alien you know from the games looks and sounds exactly as you would expect them to. Every weapon looks the part, sounds the part, and is used correctly. Even when spartans are shot/hurt you can hear the sound of their shields being drained and then recharged. It’s these little details that feel so satisfying to watch.

That doesn’t change the fact that the action scenes themselves are noticeably few and far in-between, as are scenes with the Covenant. The bulk of the show is badly-written drama and what feels like unnecessary story arcs. Interesting scenes and those with acting that elevates the writing are contained to specific episodes or spread out like shining moments in a sea of mediocrity.

Having less action would be fine if everything else was decent. Instead, a good majority of the show feels generic at best and arguably disrespectfully different at worst. Even for a nine-episode season, I do believe that it would have been more effective if it focused on the main plot and shortened the overall episode count.

The season ends on a high note in terms of action, possibly setting up the opportunity to trim the narrative fat for the next season, but I’m not even sure if I’d call myself hesitant to hope. This doesn’t feel like a Halo show so much as a show that took a dubious amount of influence from it. With Halo Infinite recently releasing its second multiplayer season and still receiving the same level of complaints about different issues, this is looking to be a monetarily successful, but heavily criticized time for the franchise.

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Halo

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Great Action Scenes
• Jen Taylor Is Perfect as Cortana...As Expected
• Covenant and Weapons are Wonderfully Recreated

Cons

• Can Feel Generic
• Terribly Written
• Original Characters Don't Make a Great Impression
• CGI Is A Little Iffy At Times
• Not Nearly Enough Time Focusing on The Covenant