First off I hate how this is listed as a TV miniseries, as it lead me to worry I had watched some kind of insanely edited 72 minute version of what was a 6 hour thing, but apparently according to the listing on amazonprime, each episode is around 15-20 minutes, so the 72 minute film is the thing in its entirety.
This is the sort of film that, due to the choices made by the writing and the director, necessitates a very strong, likeable, charismatic lead character, because we are in this "ride" with them all throughout and they are narrating it all throughout.
Unfortunately, the lead guy is a complete a-hole. It's almost entirely due to the writing and the script, not the actual actor. His character is insufferably obnoxious, snarky, arrogant, and just a little bit dumb, and at no point does he appear to have any real redeeming characteristics.
Even his meeting of his future wife goes literally straight from "hi, i'm john" to them having sex for the first time in 10-15 seconds. Aside from coming up with his parallax theory, of which we see and hear almost nothing specific to judge it scientifically, he is just an average jerk whom we are constantly told how great and smart he is, but at no point does he ever show any hints of greatness.
Instead, he just randomly, spontaneously out of nowhere, comes up with a theory that an asteroid that passed Earth in 1979 is a binary asteroid, and the other asteroid will hit Earth in a year. No one believes him but his youtube video goes viral and an eccentric millionaire type pays him to help build a fallout shelter.
There's a slew of minor characters and events who are very poorly written and largely serve to continuously pump up the audience with just how awesome John is and what a genius he is and so many of the tense dramatic moments end up prompting laughter.
This is the sort of film that, due to the choices made by the writing and the director, necessitates a very strong, likeable, charismatic lead character, because we are in this "ride" with them all throughout and they are narrating it all throughout.
Unfortunately, the lead guy is a complete a-hole. It's almost entirely due to the writing and the script, not the actual actor. His character is insufferably obnoxious, snarky, arrogant, and just a little bit dumb, and at no point does he appear to have any real redeeming characteristics.
Even his meeting of his future wife goes literally straight from "hi, i'm john" to them having sex for the first time in 10-15 seconds. Aside from coming up with his parallax theory, of which we see and hear almost nothing specific to judge it scientifically, he is just an average jerk whom we are constantly told how great and smart he is, but at no point does he ever show any hints of greatness.
Instead, he just randomly, spontaneously out of nowhere, comes up with a theory that an asteroid that passed Earth in 1979 is a binary asteroid, and the other asteroid will hit Earth in a year. No one believes him but his youtube video goes viral and an eccentric millionaire type pays him to help build a fallout shelter.
There's a slew of minor characters and events who are very poorly written and largely serve to continuously pump up the audience with just how awesome John is and what a genius he is and so many of the tense dramatic moments end up prompting laughter.
