Halo TV series reactions are in: Why fans love and hate the show

Now that fans can finally watch the Halo TV series, we're finally getting the raw emotional reactions to a long-awaited show that was already proving controversial with fans before it even aired. And, slightly surprisingly, it appears the series is proving divisive already.

That's not entirely surprising because critics have already been mixed on the show, which currently has a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes. But since fan opinions have been such a big topic of concern after we learned that Master Chief would unmask (a decision that vocal fans spoke up against), this is definitely the moment we've been waiting for.

• Check out Halo for yourself with a 7-day free trial of Paramount Plus

Interestingly enough, fans both hate and love the show, though the former are having a very fun time expressing their distaste. Some are upset about the changes from the series, while some are giving star Pablo Schreiber his flowers for his performance as The Master Chief. 

So, let's jump in our social media Warthogs and survey the opinions:

The positive Halo TV series reactions:

The good news for the folks behind the Halo series is that some fans really love the show so far. And I primarily found those opinions on Twitter (which is rarely a destination for positivity).

This Halo enthusiast known as Wernissage praised (almost) the entirety of the premiere, citing everything from the action (which they had to get right) and also the characters (which wasn't always going to be a given). Of course, even that fan isn't all positive, citing one character that they don't like.

An even more-positive reaction came from John Quinn, who found the series to meet all of his expectations. This is surely the kind of review that we bet Paramount execs are happy to see, considering they green-lit the series for two seasons. 

While all of the buzz about Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief centered around the decision to show his face, Twitter user Jorje Revolorio is all positive about the series lead. We're curious if we'll share his reaction once we've seen it, but it would be hard to imagine that the Halo series would be watchable if Schreiber didn't turn in a performance that kept audiences engaged.

More Schreiber love came from user @supermangeek101, who continues the trend of praising the premiere's action and its lead's performance. He also compliments supporting cast members Natascha McElhone and Yerin Ha.

While Redditors seem to dislike the Halo series, user u/hostage_85 notes that it's good as a show, grading it with an 8/10. And arguably that's the best barometer for the series for most people. But that user's Halo fandom shined through when they wrote about how the lack of game series lore was a fail.

What people don't like about the Halo series

It wasn't surprising to see that the bulk of the Redditor reactions to the Halo show are on the other side of the coin. Hilariously, user u/KhevaKins goes straight for the same issue many others took: stilted and robotic dialogue. This line about how a cave is not a "natural formation" was echoed throughout other reactions I saw, and seems to be a front runner for an early meme.

User u/DisturbedShifty is primarily frustrated with how most of the characters — Halsey in particular seems to not be as smart as she was — seem wrong, though Master Chief is apparently the least-wrong version of a character. 

This user brings up an interesting point, though, when explaining how the scale of the series — in particular the weaponry — looks plain wrong. All of the discrepancies in the series have led this redditor to note they're not even sure if they'll watch episode 2, noting they "might watch."

Lastly, let's end on an example of the kind of reaction that some of us expected. u/cthalo wrote that it was only a 5/10 and deems the series a "cheap imitation," and noting that it would be better if this was canonical — and not on the Silver timeline.