Gods Below, Ascension Was Hella Stupid

An Orion-class generation ship built with 1950s aerospace and nuclear technology and launched in secret by the United States in 1963 is a fairly bonkers idea.  Putting that ship in your show, chock full of magical artificial gravity, a ginormous glass window on the front (top) end to maximize the entry of deadly radiation, huge open spaces, mood lighting, high heels, apparent lack of awareness of things like time dilation and elementary physics, and comically clumsy class distinctions is more than dumb.  A ship that big, the size of the Empire State building, would not be able to carry supplies for 600 people--and food animals!--for a century, BEFORE you considered fuel, spare parts that Orion nuclear propulsion system, and all the other random shit.  A ship that size might have a dozen people, maybe--with those people working constantly keeping the ship going, with no time for class struggles, assorted sport and hate fucking, drinking, intrigue--and that ship would be hidden behind a big honking shield to keep out the radiation on the front and a big honking shield in the middle to keep the people away from the Orion drive's radioactivity.  So, it's all pretty dumb.

Ascension manged to out stupid that premise by making it all a lie.  No ship.  On Earth.  A vicious psychological experiment.  Torture that would give Dick Cheney the biggest hardon in human history.  A ship that's not a ship filled with a couple of generations of purportedly intelligent people, not one of whom ever questioned the most obvious, fundamental functions of their "ship".  Did they ever wonder where the gravity came from?  Did they never use those telescopes?  Anyone ask why they weren't traveling a hell of a lot faster?  Why the trip was taking so fucking long?  Was there never an earthquake, hurricane, something to alert them to the fact they were still on Earth?

And all of it was some bugfuck crazy experiment to create superhuman teleporting psychics?  Really?  Jesus.  What a fucking mess.  So much of Ascension was an awkward ripoff of a sack full of SciFi tropes, notably from some Ben Bova and James P. Hogan books.  Add to that the atrocious dialog and laughable acting and you get a giant steaming turd only SyFy could love.  Brilliant.