First airing in May with a half-hour premiere episode titled Beck's Beginning, we were introduced to a vastly expanded version of The Grid, which is more or less the world of Tron. While in the original film, everything seemed to come across as people simply doing the functions of computer software/hardware, in Tron: Legacy this approach was largely abandoned in favor of simply making a world based inside a computer, with people doing people things and just being people, except they're in a digital world. This was much more believable and makes it a lot easier to give the inhabitants of the world room to grow and have character. Tron: Uprising continues this approach and gives us the impression that there actually many cities on The Grid and it that it is a vast world filled with millions and millions of people.
Specifically though, the series focuses on Beck, a mechanic at Able's Garage who fixes light-cycles and apparently all manner of machines (we see him messing with a 4-wheeler of sorts and helicopter, as well as some other stuff throughout the world), and enjoys some Disc fighting in his spare time with his buddies at the garage. Well, Clu and his crusade come to Beck's home town of Argon City and decide to annex the place. When one of Beck's friends gets himself killed harassing one of Clu's soldiers, Beck decides to fight back, has a close run in with a top agent named Paige, and ultimately runs into Tron, a super-soldier thought to be dead (turns out, he survived his little scuffle with Clu, but just barely). Tron tries to convince Beck to fight back, but with little success until once again, things get personal for Beck. Risking life and limb to save his friends, he is finally convinced to fight back.
It was a good episode. The artistic style they took with the series is kind of weird, reminiscent of late 90's/early 2000's video games with rather blocky features, but it looks good and despite appearances the characters actually move quite well. Good thing, too, considering there's a fair bit of action in the series thus far. Tron's face is definitely the weirdest; having seen Bruce Boxleitner in many shows over the years, it's just a little strange seeing his face stretched out like this. But the art and animation are of good quality, and that some people look kind of goofy in this show is part of its charm.
The voice acting is very good too, and no one thus far disappoints (though after two runs as EDI in the Mass Effect series, i'm sure Tricia Helfer would love the opportunity to stretch her voice a little). Lance Henriksen sounds quite sinister as usual, especially when he puts power into his voice and really projects into the microphone; he sounds downright scary at points. Bruce Boxleitner brings his usual vocal qualities, commanding and firm, and Elijah Wood is able to put some good emotion into Beck. Tricia Helfer is the voice of The Grid itself, essentially serving the same role as Majel Barret in all the Star Trek series as the computer. Not that she's bad at it, but after hearing her as EDI through two Mass Effect games i'm sure she'd like to branch out a bit. I wouldn't mind hearing her flex her vocal muscles either. So far we haven't heard much from the other characters, but I really have no complaints about them at this point.
The series second episode is the first half of a two-parter, The Renegade, Part I (love the Roman Numerals, you never see enough of those). Opening with an interesting sequence of Tron showing Beck a few light-cycle tricks, we then listen to Beck's little self-doubt rant. For a guy who successfully fought off numerous soldiers, a high-ranking officer, and one of Clu's top generals (the latter of which is no mean feat), he really doesn't believe he can do much more than be a mechanic. After making a quick escape attempt from a Recognizer (are they still calling them that?), he ends up getting stuck in the games. He has a big downer moment before a big epiphany moment that leads him to another escape attempt, recapture, and more games. A small subplot is going on with some of Beck's mechanic friends too, which really isn't much right now but should hopefully be expanded on in the second half of the episode.
While the main storyline in this episode is plenty good, the subplot almost seems like it's just filler, there's not much to it in the first half of the episode. I understand that these other characters need development as well and they can't always share screentime with Beck, this could have benefited greatly from other some better dialogue or a little more time on the air getting developed better. It was nice seeing a bunch of throwbacks from the original Tron though, having Bit make an appearance was a nice touch. The music is also consistently good, very close to Legacy but with its own flair. The effects are good too, certain voices feature some very slight distortion to them for a subtle effect, while others are more severe, but even the worst aren't illegible and everything/everyone can be understood clearly.
For only being two episodes in, i'm fairly optimistic about the series as a whole. There are supposed to be eighteen episodes according to Wikipedia, and episode three airs tonight, June 14th. Hopefully my fears about the subplot will be laid to rest. The main plotline is quite attention grabbing, and with luck it will continue to be as the series progresses. Should it be successful enough, we may even see a sequel to Tron: Legacy. And frankly, I don't see why we shouldn't. It had a notably smaller budget than John Carter of Mars and made notably more money, and seeing what they were able to do in Legacy, I don't see its budget skyrocketing either like The Lone Ranger's has.
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