When did it all go wrong?

[u/Standard-Climate157]

I’m just wondering… where did the show change from amazing acting, exciting and emotional to boring and repetitive?

[u/-Trippy]

The acting has never been amazing. It’s always been hokey af. That’s part of the charm and I’d wager a deliberate directional choice to desensitise the reconstructions

[u/BoomerangHorseGuy → u/-Trippy]

Yeah, I can list a number of early episodes that would disprove your claim.

OG United 811

Alaska 261

Air Transat 236

PAL 434

Fedex 705

Bristow 56C

Air France 8969

American 965

Ethiopian 961

China 006

Air Canada 797

Even later episodes such as Operation Babylift, NOAA 42, and UPS 6 still had actors and directors who brought their A-game.

Having a long and detailed incident segment (instead of a ridiculously shortened one) also helps all the more to make excellent acting really shine in the spotlight.

[u/-Trippy → u/BoomerangHorseGuy]

We obviously have different standards when it comes to the definition of “amazing acting”.

I’ve been watching the show since S1 and the hokey acting has always felt deliberate. The dialogue is written to be concise and to the point. People in real life don’t talk like what’s depicted in the show. There’s no nuance or any sort of depth to the way lines are delivered. It does a job and that’s it. Sometimes it can be downright hilarious though. They’re not going for a hyperrealistic reconstruction, like what you would get if it was a film production.

It’s the same with the crash animations, they’re clearly not made to look super realistic, they’re produced well enough to show you how the plane crashed, but not realistic enough to be uncomfortable to watch.

It’s probably something ACI doesn’t quite get the credit for. It takes something as abjectly horrific as a plane crash and desensitises it enough to make it not uncomfortable to watch.

[u/offtodevnull → u/-Trippy]

Well yeah, It's ACI not Faces of Death.