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My problem with SGU was how dark it was, to the point of monotony. Every episode was either someone being murdered or someone being betrayed or someone being marooned (and inexplicably showing up later) or the ship being in mortal danger. And basically no one on the ship was likeable but the main kid whose whole character was designed to be likeable.
It was basically like The Walking Dead, but in space. It just didn't feel like a Stargate show.
They were clearly trying to piggyback on the success Battlestar Galactica, but I think they massively missed the mark by being boring.
BSG was dark, gritty and at times ruthless but it never really felt slow, there was always plot development or character arcs worth following.
Universe was just boring half the time, it felt like you had to persevere through 40mins of filler each episode before getting to the next part of the story.
Basically my same issue with Battlestar Galactica. Hot take: I actually preferred Caprica.
I liked Caprica but it had the horrible flaw of stretching the miscommunication trope into an entire season.
A miscommunication trope is where the conflict comes from two characters not communicating or miscommunicating. This is the basis of most 20 minute sitcoms like Friends. In Caprica the miscommunication trope was that the Cyclon daughter wouldn't talk to her father.
Stretching miscommunication conflict for 20 minutes can be cringy. Stretching the trope into an entire series was ridiculous.
It was basically like The Walking Dead, but in space.
This right here. I loved the idea of a gritty survival arc in a mysterious sci-fi setting. In practice: one season was all it took for me to hate every last character in the show.
Just like The Walking Dead, if the story relies on characters doing out-of-character-stupid-things to manufacture drama, it's not entertaining anymore. Alternately, if everyone is constantly undermining everyone else, there's literally nobody to root for. It's like watching surveillance footage of a prison.
It was amazing while it lasted
If Universe combined the tropes of those other scifi's it would have been great.
Instead it was its own brand of awful by combining the worst of SG1 and Atlantis with Dawson's Creek.
It took the NID stories from SG1 which were low budget filler for SG1, ramped up the quirky scientist trope until Rush was evil, and threw in teen drama with music montages from Dawson's Creek.
The Universe writers made the show that SG1 parodied in their 100th episode special.
The only thing I can't fault it for was how good the scene with destiny falling towards the Sun out of power was. That whole sequence is ace.