I'd seen the re-make recently and enjoyed it, but was frustrated by the abrupt ending midway through season 2. I figured, I know the original is going to be a cheesy 70's production, but I like the basic storyline and I'll at least get 3 full seasons out of it. What a mistake. Aside from the horrid filming (unavoidable for 70's era TV) the acting is atrocious. And both of these pale in comparison to the worst writing I think I've ever seen. I don't just mean the script but the entire storyline. The characters make mistakes no sensible person in that situation would make and never learn from them. Nevertheless, I was determined to stick with it until episode 9, "Law & Order", which is inexplicably the favorite of other reviewers I've seen. First, the idea that any group of people would allow an obvious degenerate like Tom Price to join them after he's held 2 of the women hostage at gunpoint and tried to force them to trade sex for food is laughable. They know he's a drunk and a lecher, yet he's welcomed into their society without as much as a discussion. Then, after he's raped and killed one of their members, no one even thinks to mention his name as a suspect, even though he'd been visibly drunk, obnoxious and bothering one of the other women at the "party" the night of the murder. No, instead they "convict" a mildly retarded and good-hearted man, then decide execution is the only way to settle the issue. When the tragic error is discovered (too late), the idiot leader who railroaded the whole scenario along decides they can't tell the truth about the matter or they'll undo all the "good" they've accomplished so far. Got news for you, Greg, if you've just wrongly executed an innocent retarded man based on nothing but your flimsy, meandering logic, while the real and obvious killer is sitting right there, you haven't "built" anything worthwhile and you shouldn't be in charge of anything other than tinkering with fuel pumps and such. And then, they allow the murderer to stay with the group! No worries about the children now, no talk of banishment, why? Because they need him to help them farm! This is absurd on so many levels, my head hurts. Needless to say, out came the disc, and into the mail with it before any more damage could be done. I don't usually take the time to shred bad movies, but in this case I've made an exception to, hopefully, save other viewers of the new series the pain of what I just went through with the original.
