# Snowpiercer - The Series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, apple\ **Created:** [February 24, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416 "2020-02-24T01:15:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/1 "2020-02-24T01:15:59Z")
I’ve been putting off starting a thread for nominations for the worst movie premise within the constraints of that movie’s world. My addition would have been Snowpiercer. The world has become a frozen wasteland and you have invented a perpetual machine/energy source and your great idea is to use it to power a train driving forever through the frozen world rather than do something sensible like digging into the side of a mountain and setting up the survivors there. Imagine my surprise to find out it is being turned into a TV series. [Official Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lFMpmwn_hQ) Some people though it was a great movie so good for them. Personally I thought the plot holes were big enough to drive trains through. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/2 "2020-02-24T01:43:24Z")
I liked the movie, but I can not picture it as a show. All on the train or do they get off? I heard about this forever ago. When does it actually air? ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/3 "2020-02-24T02:15:29Z")
Not certain of the setting, but I think it’s going to air on May 31. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/4 "2020-02-24T03:04:15Z")
Hey, [a train which never really arrived anywhere worked before](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050073/reference). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/5 "2020-02-24T03:40:25Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Hey, [a train which never really arrived anywhere worked before](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050073/reference). 😉 [The Inverted World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_World) > [@](#): > > Inverted World (The Inverted World in some editions) is a 1974 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest, expanded from a short story by the same name included in New Writings in SF 22 (1973). In 2010, it was included in the SF Masterworks collection. > > In the novel, an entire city and its residents travel slowly across an alien planet on railway tracks. The city’s engineers must work to lay fresh track for the city, and pick up the old track as it moves. Many people are unaware that the city is even moving. A crisis ensues as its population decreases, the people grow unruly, and an obstacle looms ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/6 "2020-02-24T04:37:40Z")
I’ll just view it (and the movie) as taking place on a spaceship on a generational voyage through a cold and unforgiving void that has developed a highly-stratified class structure and try to forget the basic silliness of it being on a train. In that light, it might make for more interesting viewing, certainly a lot sexier and better-acted, than a somewhat similar short-lived 1973 series called _The Starlost_. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/7 "2020-02-24T04:44:36Z")
I found “Snowpiercer” so bad, I shut it off within 15 minutes. I also thought of this when I saw what this thread was about. > **[The Starland Vocal Band Show (TV Series 1977– ) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075586/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > The Starland Vocal Band Show: With Margot Chapman, Jon Carroll, Peter Bergman, Taffy Nivert. Summer replacement comedy/variety show, hosted by the eponymous Washington D.C.-based folk-rock group (Bill and Taffy Danoff, Jon Carroll, and Margot... ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/8 "2020-02-24T04:51:25Z")
The movie was…alright I guess. I’ve certainly sat through way worse. But having said that, I don’t see any reason to see it again. And a series seems completely unnecessary. . . . Yet, for some reason (self loathing, perhaps?) I think I might watch it… ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/9 "2020-02-24T05:45:41Z")
Yeah. I’ll at least have to watch the pilot. Or at least as much as I can tolerate. ---
**Author:** ![Didactylos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Didactylos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didactylos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/10 "2020-02-24T06:04:30Z")
What really bugs me is the train track. Apparently in the future there is some miraculous technology that makes train maintenance and refuelling superfluous. Okaaay. And the track is made of adamantium or mithril or something, I guess. But midway through the movie we learn that not only does the track span the globe, it has so many twists and turns that it takes a year to do a complete round! Conservative guesstimate of speed: 120 km/h. That means the track is at least a million km! ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/11 "2020-02-24T08:34:05Z")
> [@Didactylos](#): > > What really bugs me is the train track. > > Apparently in the future there is some miraculous technology that makes train maintenance and refuelling superfluous. Okaaay. And the track is made of adamantium or mithril or something, I guess. > > But midway through the movie we learn that not only does the track span the globe, it has so many twists and turns that it takes a year to do a complete round! Conservative guesstimate of speed: 120 km/h. That means the track is at least a million km! You obviously were not drunk enough when you watched it. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/12 "2020-02-24T08:51:05Z")
I loved the film - it had the same feeling as other French scifi dystopian cinema, and it struck the right balance for me - it ignored realism enough to make it clear that the story was an allegorical conceit, but it grounded the fun stuff - beautiful renditions of the set design for each car. I’m not sure how that would work for a series, especially a more open ended one. The network seems fairly confident, I think it already got a renewal. It’s an interesting enough premise to see if they’re clever enough to tweak it for ongoing, and even if not, there’s also potential if it’s terrible and absurd enough to be entertaining in the bad way. And there’s even some possibility in it from the “fictional tiny house of the week” angle. I’m going to check it out at least. Just the fact that this idea was greenlit is encouraging. Could be a disaster, maybe even a beautiful disaster, could be great, whatever, it’s not likely to be quickly boring. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/13 "2020-02-24T09:33:55Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > You obviously were not drunk enough when you watched it. If you need to do some rail-based futuristic sci-fi, and can’t drink enough to make Snowpiercer work for you, then you can always try the China Mieville novel _RailSea_. Its not bad. Nowhere near his best work, and silly enough, but about half a bottle of vodka more plausible than Snowpiercer. ---
**Author:** ![DerNils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerNils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerNils)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/14 "2020-02-24T09:58:33Z")
The movie was ok if you just saw it as an allegory, like JackDaVinci proposed. But it never made any sense, and trying to get deeper into it will make even less sense. Then again there are three more volumes in the Comic Series, so maybe there is more to tell? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/15 "2020-02-24T10:29:23Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > If you need to do some rail-based futuristic sci-fi, and can’t drink enough to make Snowpiercer work for you, then you can always try the China Mieville novel _RailSea_. Its not bad. Nowhere near his best work, and silly enough, but about half a bottle of vodka more plausible than Snowpiercer. You have to work up to a level where you can handle _Snowpiercer_. You have to practice, build your tolerance, develop certain conditioned responses, increase your knowledge of the genre, improve your understanding, study the topic, cultivate your comprehension and generally whip yourself into mental shape. There’s gotta be a single word to describe all this, I’ll try to think of it. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/16 "2020-02-24T10:30:55Z")
Well, I loved the movie, which is why I’m aghast to see a series coming. It’ll probably ruin it for me. A weird comic-book like movie like that needs to stand alone. ---
**Author:** ![Didactylos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Didactylos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didactylos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/17 "2020-02-24T12:52:09Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > If you need to do some rail-based futuristic sci-fi, and can’t drink enough to make Snowpiercer work for you, then you can always try the China Mieville novel _RailSea_. Its not bad. Nowhere near his best work, and silly enough, but about half a bottle of vodka more plausible than Snowpiercer. China Mieville must’ve been really fond of his trainset when he was a kid, since he also wrote the train-centered “Iron council”. I read it sober and enjoyed it, but if i have to I would rate it two glasses of gin. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/18 "2020-02-24T13:21:47Z")
The movie only works as a comedy like Plan 9. Hopefully the series isn’t better so I can get a good laugh. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/19 "2020-02-24T14:35:32Z")
As someone said in the original Snowpiercer thread, it was as close as we’re ever going to get to a Bioshock movie. And it had Captain America lamenting that he knows what babies taste like. So it was a thumbs up for those aspects alone. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416/20 "2020-02-24T16:45:59Z")
I found it hard to suspend my disbelief for Snowpiercer. It might have worked better if it was openly an absurdist fantasy instead of wearing a thin scifi coat. I liked one theory that Snowpiercer is secretly a sequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. [Why SNOWPIERCER is a sequel to WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEX52h1TvuA) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-the-series/848416.md?page=2)