Halo TV series' debut gets mixed reviews but retains ‘fresh’ status
Early reviews for the Halo TV series aren’t overwhelmingly positive but aren’t terrible either.
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What you need to know
The first episode of the Halo TV series aired this week. Early reviews for the show aren’t great, though people will need to see more episodes before they can judge the show in its entirety. The Halo TV series currently has a 61% critic score and a 66% audience score onRotten Tomatoes. The Tomatometer isn’t a perfect scoring system, but it takes feedback from a wide range of sources to create an aggregate score, which provides a general idea of how people feel about a show or movie.
“The video game Halo excelled at letting players become the hero — with the new Halo TV series, audiences are instead saddled with a series devoid of a soul,” said Max Covill ofRogerEbert.com.
“The goal shouldn’t be about being everything to everyone, and while ‘Halo’ treats the source material with respect, it does so with a tentativeness, as if it is afraid to miss a key element,” said theLA Times.
Reviews from standard audience members on Rotten Tomatoes don’t appear to be drastically different than those of critics, at least generally speaking. “One and done for me. Master Chief looks bad ass the rest of the show looks like it some bad 90’s B movie. Starship Troopers might have better effects,” said Chad R (it appears he did not proofread his review).
Another audience member, Ty H, had similar thoughts, saying “the visuals are okay, but the acting is horrendous. The cast is very poor. Putting together the cutscenes from various Halo games would create a more moving story.” Incidentally, this is an option for fans of the franchise.GameCin has a supercut of all Halo cutscenesthat can be viewed like a movie (alternatively, you can just play the games firsthand on yourXbox Series X).
There were, however, fans of the first episode of the series. “I was ready to be disappointed based on all the reviews I’ve heard. But, I was surprised and wanted to watch more, after episode one was finished,” said Johnathan C. Plenty of others commented on how they enjoyed the show carving its own narrative path so as to not be overly reliant on the games, and Pablo Schreiber (who plays Master Chief) got lots of love.
The show’s first episode has a 7.7-star ranking onIMDb.
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If you haven’t watched the first episode yet, our guide onhow to watch the Halo TV Seriescan help you out. The Halo TV series is on Paramount+, and you canget a free month of the streaming serviceif you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber.
Paramount+
Paramount+ offers its subscribers access to countless TV shows and movies, including exclusive shows like the Halo TV series and Star Trek: Picard. It’s available via the Paramount website, with apps also offered on iOS, Android, and popular TV app stores.
Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He’s covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean’s journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_.
