Having seen Part One, I gotta say I approve so far. Based on Arthur C. Clarke novel, the miniseries changes a lot of the details, but has retained the general plotline and message. Sadly, the bullfighting scene seems to have been deleted, but, importantly, they didn’t cheap out on the reveal of Karellan. He looks as described in the novel. Surprisingly, Karellan *wasn’t* a big mass of CGI, but, instead, Charles Dance under a whole lot of practical effects and makeup. Mostly it works. And if you need a Supervisor Of Earth voice… you couldn’t do a whole lot better than Charles Dance.
The miniseries doesn’t waste a whole lot of time getting to the appearance of the spacecraft over the cities. This is a scene that, while Clarke was perhaps the first to describe in literature 60 years ago, has appeared several times on screen… the Visitors ships in V, the city destroyers in Independence Day. Still, I thought it was impressively done. It was aided by music that reminded me a *lot* of the music that played during the visit to the Tet in the under rated Oblivion. The aircraft helped to show just how futile human opposition would be.
Looking forward to part two.