YMMV / War of the Worlds (1988)

• Awesome Music: The first season opening theme by Billy Thorpe is the epitome of awesome.
• Broken Base: The Frank Mancuso Jr.-produced second season split the fanbase into pieces as soon as the season premiere aired, via killing off Norton and Ironhorse, decimating the house where the Blackwood Project was stationed, moving the action 20 Minutes into the Future and forcing the main characters to go into hiding while an offshoot of the Mor-Tax aliens kill off the first season's antagonists and begin running the show. That said, there are people who like the cyberpunk atmosphere and darker stories versus the first season.
• Creator's Pet: Debbie, who goes on to dominate many of the second season episodes, and is eventually the one who kills the lead Morthren in the season finale.
• Heartwarming Moments: in the final episode rather than an outright victory the few remaining aliens and the human resistance cell actually broker a peace between the 2 sides, one of the most violent and sadistic TV shows in history ends with the human heroes looking at one another and wondering what to do next? "Let's go for a walk" suggests Harrison "I think it's going to be a beautiful day". And they do. And it is.
• Narm: The final episode of the series has a romantic scene — with two of the Mor-Tax (that is, the one-eyed "ugly" aliens from the first season) gently stroking each other's faces while cheesy synth music plays, in bright lighting, no less. It's much more likely to inspire derision than sympathy at Malzor's tragic backstory.
• Second Season Downfall: Most diehard fans tend to hold the opinion that the changes from the first to second season (which included the deaths of several major and supporting characters - including the villains of the first season, the world flipping over 20 Minutes into the Future and most of the first-season plot threads dropped in favor of standalone episodes) caused the show's death.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The series was guilty of this by its very nature, as the main conceit of the plot was that the world at large couldn't know that the aliens from 1953 had come out of suspended animation and were once again trying to take over the planet. As a result, the heroes usually achieved a Pyrrhic Victory, at the cost of innocent lives. The second season took this to extremes, as half of the supporting characters from the first season (including Colonel Ironhorse, Norton Drake, and the general who was overseeing the Blackwood Project) were killed off in brutal ways, the Blackwood Estate was destroyed and the main group was driven into hiding. This, coupled with the 20 Minutes into the Future/Always Night aesthetic and downright oppressive atmosphere, led to many episodes where most or all of the supporting characters were killed in gruesome ways while the main group suffered from emotional or mental trauma. This continued all the way to the finale, where it somehow tried to be upbeat just minutes after a teenage boy was shot to death by the leader of the Morthrai (who in turn was shot by the boy's friend), and the remaining aliens were left to figure out what to do with their lives.
• The Woobie: Debbie, who hardly has anything resembling a normal childhood, is slowly turned into a Child Soldier as a result of her experiences, sees two of her friends die grisly deaths, barely gets any interaction with kids her own age and watches the one alien friend she has get murdered in front of her before wielding a gun for the first time and killing the lead villain.

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