Shows based on video games have gotten better in recent years, and Halo seems to fit this trend.
I never got into the games, so my knowledge of the premise only comes from the show. Humanity is at war with an alien civilization known as the “Covenant”. The Covenant seems determined to eradicate humanity for some religious reason. There are ancient alien artifacts involved, which some of the characters can interact with, and which point to the location of the “Halo”, what appears to be a sort of ringworld or orbital, one that reputedly has enormous power. So both humanity and the Covenant are in a race to reach it.
But the show has as much conflict between the human factions as it does with the big scary aliens. The government seems dystopian to a degree, although some of it comes from the grim necessities involved in fighting a species level war. There are human rebels, as well as whole societies living on the fringe or outside of the law. And there is a human allied with the aliens, but one whose backstory makes her allegiance somewhat understandable.
The show centers on the “Spartans”, the elite armor-exoskeleton clad warriors who fight the alien warriors. But it also includes a helpful AI, monomaniacal scientists, admirals, and refugees from the outer colonies. I’m not sure how many of these are original versus adapted from the games or earlier books.
I watched the first season a couple of years ago. The biggest criticism back then was that it was very derivative. And it is, pulling a lot from the works Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Iain Banks, and many others. But I’ve never really understood this criticism, since the overwhelming majority of fiction is derivative. (Technically all of it is. The sources of that derivation just aren’t always obvious for much of the audience.) But it has compelling characters in agonizing situations, so I found it entertaining enough at the time.
The second season seems to be doing better with the critics. Although I actually enjoyed this season a little less than the first, mostly because the show just throws us into the action with no recap of the first season. If a show is going to take two years for a new season, it really owes us a brief reminder of the major characters and events. And we spend most of this season with the characters scattered and finding their way back to each other.
That and the battle sequences at times just felt a little long and tedious. Some of these might have felt different if I’d ever played the games. I got the feeling that there were sequences the show felt obligated to reproduce and give adequate time to.
Overall though, despite the flaws, I found it entertaining. Nothing groundbreaking here, at least unless you’re unfamiliar with the earlier sci-fi it’s based on, but worth checking out if epic space opera is your cup of tea.
SelfAwarePatterns 
There’s a movie too, no? Maybe more than one?
Played the game with my son years ago, I mainly enjoyed just driving around.
Ringworld was a favorite, and Integral Trees, too.
Let’s see if we can come up with a totally unique and novel SF idea…
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I know there’s been other stuff on Halo, including TV shows and straight to video releases. I don’t remember the ones I watched being any good, or at least they didn’t draw me in. They seemed like typical video game adaptations back in the day, cheap productions relying on name recognition. The production values in this version are pretty high.
Coming up with novel SF ideas is hard. There’s almost always some story from the pulp era that covered a version of it. Even when it seems totally original, it can usually be seen as a techno version of an old concept, like virtual reality and idealism, or Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream.
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Years ago I started a story called The Good Aliens. Two Earth “monitors”, of two different alien races, (of many deciding that Humans were too raw, as of yet), decided to go rogue and assist humanity. They selected a few scientists and gifted them tech that would equalize energy, water, and wealth access across the globe. Heard of a story like that?
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Not exactly, although I think of the Perry Rhodan series, where Earth was able to get jump started as an interstellar power with the help of some stranded aliens. 
Even if it has been done before, I’d still consider writing the story. It seems like success is more in the execution than the idea. Ty Franck noted in one of the James S. A. Corey Patreon writing episodes that he spends time watching old terrible movies and TV shows, just to think how he could have handled their idea better, some of which I’m sure he eventually ends up using.
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Thanks for the reply. Ever read John Varley’s Red Thunder? (Or other Varley novels?)
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I’ve heard of Varley but haven’t read any of his stuff. Red Thunder sounds similar to Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo, although updated for Mars, which I imagine is why you’re mentioning it? I saw a self published series the other day with a similar premise. I think it’s called “Backyard Spaceship” or something along those lines.
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The concept of NFE, nearly free energy, is one that I find intriguing. If its generation came in a personal size it would change everything. Exploring that has been one of the tropes I’ve leaned into, storytelling-wise.
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I can see that. It’s been explored before, but usually not its full implications (everyone essentially has apocalyptic power). And it’s often implied, such as most space opera never mentioning fuel logistics, recharging of robots, or other energy issues.
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@selfawarepatterns.com As a fan of the games and books, I disliked the show immensely. The Halo books outshine nearly every element of the show.
If the Halo show wasn't based on Halo, and it was a standalone franchise, it would be pretty good. It's hard to not be frustrated when the writers choose to ignore the best elements of the source material.
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@Pat_Dupakoski @selfawarepatterns.com I can see that. It reminds me of my own struggles to accept new versions of shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation or Battlestar Galactica, because of how different they were from the originals.
Eventually I was able to accept those shows as something independent from the originals, but it took time. In this case, I'm not very familiar with the original material.
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I disagree that all fiction is derivative. There is much originality out there; even the new spins one puts on old material contains more than a hint of originality.
Come visit my blog and leave some comments, why’nt’cha?
http://www.dark.sport.blog
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I used to think the same thing, until I started becoming aware of the influences for many things taken as original, often in foreign or older fiction. I’ll admit that some fiction is inspired by true stories, but for it to be a satisfactory tale, it’s typically adapted into standard plot structures, which are as old as ancient Greece, at least.
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