Flash Gordon
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
When this series started I had such high hopes for it. I am a big fan of the 1980’s Movie staring Staring Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless! Yes, it was a little campy, but what wasn’t back in the 80’s. The film captivated audiences then, and to this day the die hard fan boys like myself are still enthralled by its glitzy costumes and it obvious over acting! I myself went on the first day of the DVD release to buy a copy, and then forced my wife to watch it. I personally have watched the DVD 3 more times since (I’ve been busy or it would have been more). The series started on the Sci-fi channel in August of 2007 with hopes of competing with the likes of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica all Sci-fi series and all doing successful. The series premier was less than desirable and left viewers wondering what the writers were thinking. I told myself that I would give it the same chance that I gave Painkiller Jane (another flop that could have been better). I would watch the first season and then make a choice to continue on, sometimes the seasons are off to a slow start, take SG-1 for instance. They really didn’t start to fly till the middle of the first season. However, the more I watched the more painful it got. With cheap looking costumes and and a complete rewrite of the story line itself it didn’t resemble the Flash Gordon movie or the 1930’s TV show (or the less popular 1950’s TV series). 
The Ming played by Max Von Sydow was ruthless in a very classy, imperialistic almost elegant way. The Ming in the TV series played by John Ralston is almost Nazi like. He dictates over the planet with an unrelenting Iron fist, taking neither man, woman or child into consideration and claiming his actions as “For the good of the people!”. This last episode was a perfect example of the Nazi like stylization of the character. Forcing genetic purification and purging (killing) anyone with even a 1% abnormality in there blood. I think the Sci-fi channel went way off base with this series. It could have been so much better with the proper writing and the proper budgeting. I would have liked to seen something that would rival that of the Stargate Franchise in story and effects. I am going to give it a little more time to see if Sci-fi can pull this series out of the pit that it currently resides in. I will give you more of my views on this show as the series progresses.
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