I thought the pilot episode of this show was quite promising, and I there were some interesting ideas in the first episodes. But after that pilot, the show didn't spend much time on the story arc, going instead for self-contained stories with maybe a brief hint here and there that the story arc was happening.The problem was I wasn't really that interested in those individual stories, and I found some of the characters annoying, especially the reporter who was pretty much of an idiot. I realized that while the main story arc was being ignored, I was instead being served a whole bunch of rather soap-operish character arcs, and I felt restless to get to the whole saving the earth thing.Around episode 8 I was feeling very bored with the whole thing and decided to give up on the show, but when I looked at the episode guide on TV.com it appeared that the story arc came into play with episode 9. So I thought I'd go a little furtherSo I watched the next couple of episodes, and even kind of liked episode 9, but after feeling bored again with episode 10, I realized that it just wasn't going to happen. I wasn't connecting with the characters, the stories were middling, and there was too much bland soap opera.I never hated Odyssey 5, or even disliked it, but ultimately it just didn't feel like it was worth my time.

This show had it all, a good cast connecting from the very first minute, a good unique storyline and good ratings. And it was cancelled. Just as Space above & beyond and Earth 2 to mention just 2. Shows that have been cancelled for the most weird reasons.Odyssey 5 is simply the best mix of scifi you can get. It's funny as stargate but more serious. The actors do stuff you would expect you would do as well.It's just a shame that it won't comeback and a pity that no other network had picked it up when it was cancelled. Now we will never know how the story will unfold.

I'm astounded at the number of people who describe this as the best scifi they've ever seen - if that's the case, then god help the whole genre.I just finished watching the "complete" series on DVD. First the good points: the characters are well written, the dialogue is thankfully excellent (because it's a real let down in many shows), the cast are great, and a special mention to the incidental music. It's one of the best scores I've heard and I think Laura Karpman is a genius.The bad points: it is not, as others might have you believe, highly original. In very general terms, the "aliens among us" type of story is one of the oldest of scifi themes, and has been around since the early 20th century. More specifically, the show takes a great deal from "The X Files": they've just changed the shadowy secret organisation within the Government to the shadowy secret organisation within NASA, changed "aliens" to "sentients" and Mulder and Scully to the Odyssey 5 crew. But to describe it as a "complete" series is unfortunate. The DVD release may comprise all the episodes that were filmed, but it is far from the whole story. I watched it with an increasing sense of foreboding as it seemed there was an unhealthy emphasis on character development and "set piece" events that comprised entire episodes, at the expense of the main plot. Of course character development is a vital part, but it should never take first place ahead of the plot. Watching it, I felt as if the plot was moving at a snail's pace.Had I known that it is basically not finished, I would not have bothered investing 15 hours of my life into watching it. There's no such thing as a "great story" that's only half written, and the really frustrating thing is that they could have wrapped it up in 18 episodes with sharper writing and editing. If you like stories to have an actual ending, don't bother with this. It will only make you angry and disappointed.

This is absolutely one of the best series I have ever seen in my 40+ years of watching television! It's obvious why the executives at Showtime panicked: The series was way too subversive for a politically conservative medium like cable t.v.! The political and philosophical statements Odyssey 5 were literally making in each episode were just too much for the spineless creatures that rule the cable airwaves!My favorite genre is science fiction & fantasy. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly over the years. Nothing, except for Star Trek, Farscape and Babylon 5 comes close to the genius and passion of Odyssey 5! I can think of few television series where I cared so much for each main character, or the extensive range of emotions felt. The series was like theater! There's no other way to describe it! Had those responsible at Showtime kept Corporate at bay, instead of canceling the series literally in mid-sentence, the eventual controversy Odyssey 5 might have generated would've been good for business!The only drawback the series had was the importance of watching each episode in sequence. But with all the recording technology now available, this minor obstacle would not have been very difficult to overcome! The loss to science fiction was incalculable by the obnoxious cancellation of this unique series. Perhaps, someone soon will have the courage to pick up the pieces and write a book, or make a movie, and finish the series with the same amount of passion and subversiveness as the creators of Odyssey 5 did! One can only hope!