"Well, how did you guys get here?"
"My sister's teleporting dog."
So this is the episode where Medusa “heroically” manages to rescue Black Bolt and his mate from the new scientific prison in which he finds himself and we are, I think, supposed to see her as a hero. But she isn’t, is she? She speeds up and jumps a red light, thereby attracting totally unnecessary attention from the police, and she needlessly alienates Louise, whom she needs. Her people skills are crap and she’s completely charmless and unlikeable.
I wouldn’t go so far as to describe this episode as that, but there’s a sense that, plot-wise, characters are just being moved around the board for no good purpose and simply killing time until the inevitable showdown in Attilan. Yes, Gorgon gets close to his human friend’s and considers them “brothers”. Yes, the overly logical Karnak gets to learn about romance and have sex, but there’s no real depth to any of this, no wit or heart, and there’s no suggestion the Inhumans are learning anything here. The subplot with Crystal, the vet and her ex-lover, and the injured Lockjaw feels particularly like treading water.
Meanwhile, on Attilan, Maximus twiddles his moustache and disbands the Generics Council. This, at least, is interesting; his motives may be selfish, but undermining a genetics-based caste system has to be a progressive move. Thing is, if Black Bolt and co support this system, are they the good guys? Medusa especially cones across as a total bitch for rubbishing her parents’ idealism.
Four episodes in, and I’m worried that we may already have witnessed a leap over a fish of the genus carcharias.
Showing posts with label Ellen Woglon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ellen Woglon. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Monday, 15 April 2019
Inhumans: Divide and Conquer
“Giant cow dogs do not exist.”
A better episode this week as the need for exposition diminishes, we know the characters and the story can feather. It still feels a bit like that final season of Torchwood, though.
There’s a series of flashbacks here with Black Bolt and Maximus as children where a pre-mists Black Bolt expresses reluctance to be king as Maximus glowers, and we see both his parents’ trust in him to control his power and Avon gently telling Maximus that he’s a simple, vanilla human. Nice to have all these, I suppose, but the flashbacks don’t tell us anything we can’t infer, which makes their inclusion questionable. I suppose at least we have Agon explicitly telling Maximus he can never be king.
We also see Black Bolt threatened with violence in prison but making a friend with (Inhuman?) powers and connections with whom he manages to escape. I’m not sure how his friend manages to interpret his apparent muteness as a superpower though. He’s followed throughout by the tenacious Louise, who manages to witness their helicopter escape- which just misses Medusa, whose own subplot has been treading water up until now.
Crystal manages to defy Maximus, find Lockjaw and escape to Hawaii, while Gorgon and his Hawaiian nationalist mates fight away an attack by Auran and her gang, including the mysteriously powerful Mordis. And Karnak, powers still damaged, is suffering a crisis of confidence and throws his lot in with some weed farmers.
We have a cliffhanger ending in which Lockjaw is, er, hit by a quad bike. All this is watchable and just about ok, but it’s awfully slow with a lot of treading water. Can we have a bit less of this boring old Earth stuff please?
There’s a series of flashbacks here with Black Bolt and Maximus as children where a pre-mists Black Bolt expresses reluctance to be king as Maximus glowers, and we see both his parents’ trust in him to control his power and Avon gently telling Maximus that he’s a simple, vanilla human. Nice to have all these, I suppose, but the flashbacks don’t tell us anything we can’t infer, which makes their inclusion questionable. I suppose at least we have Agon explicitly telling Maximus he can never be king.
We also see Black Bolt threatened with violence in prison but making a friend with (Inhuman?) powers and connections with whom he manages to escape. I’m not sure how his friend manages to interpret his apparent muteness as a superpower though. He’s followed throughout by the tenacious Louise, who manages to witness their helicopter escape- which just misses Medusa, whose own subplot has been treading water up until now.
Crystal manages to defy Maximus, find Lockjaw and escape to Hawaii, while Gorgon and his Hawaiian nationalist mates fight away an attack by Auran and her gang, including the mysteriously powerful Mordis. And Karnak, powers still damaged, is suffering a crisis of confidence and throws his lot in with some weed farmers.
We have a cliffhanger ending in which Lockjaw is, er, hit by a quad bike. All this is watchable and just about ok, but it’s awfully slow with a lot of treading water. Can we have a bit less of this boring old Earth stuff please?
Monday, 8 April 2019
Inhumans: Those Who Would Destroy Us
”I have to wait here until they send someone to bring me back.”
“Back where?”
“The Moon.”
“Cool!”
Episode 2 and, while the Hawaiian locations are visually sumptuous, I can’t help noticing that, after front loading the visual excitement of Attilan and all the awesome-looking Inhumans, we now have a shorn Medusa, less screen time for Lockjaw and most screen time either on Earth or in grey Attilan corridors.
We have four Inhumans on Earth: Karnak appears to have damaged himself; Gorgon has found some friends who accept what he is; Medusa is on a tourist bus; and Black Bolt is in central Honolulu being a damn fool. I can forgive the traffic incident which was beyond his control, but really- stealing clothes and assaulting a security guard? No wonder he gets himself arrrated on what threatens to be a tedious sub-plot.
Things are more interesting on Attilan, as ever, as Iwan Rheon shows himself to be superb as ever, with Maximus playing his little power games with that classic mixture of charm and threats to try and get Crystal and the Genetics Council onside. His flirting with political radicalism, with there being an existing underclass, is interesting. He’s playing with fire here but the grievances appear genuine. It’s interesting, too, that Crystal’s own parents were political radicals who opposed the royals.
Also interesting is Auran, agent and assassin working for Macimus who appears to be able to come back to life after being killed. So far there’s a lot of potential promise here in the ply lines, but it’s becoming clear that, Maximus and Black Bolt aside, few of the characters exactly ooze charisma and there looks to be a worrying amount of Earthbound treading of water.
“Back where?”
“The Moon.”
“Cool!”
Episode 2 and, while the Hawaiian locations are visually sumptuous, I can’t help noticing that, after front loading the visual excitement of Attilan and all the awesome-looking Inhumans, we now have a shorn Medusa, less screen time for Lockjaw and most screen time either on Earth or in grey Attilan corridors.
We have four Inhumans on Earth: Karnak appears to have damaged himself; Gorgon has found some friends who accept what he is; Medusa is on a tourist bus; and Black Bolt is in central Honolulu being a damn fool. I can forgive the traffic incident which was beyond his control, but really- stealing clothes and assaulting a security guard? No wonder he gets himself arrrated on what threatens to be a tedious sub-plot.
Things are more interesting on Attilan, as ever, as Iwan Rheon shows himself to be superb as ever, with Maximus playing his little power games with that classic mixture of charm and threats to try and get Crystal and the Genetics Council onside. His flirting with political radicalism, with there being an existing underclass, is interesting. He’s playing with fire here but the grievances appear genuine. It’s interesting, too, that Crystal’s own parents were political radicals who opposed the royals.
Also interesting is Auran, agent and assassin working for Macimus who appears to be able to come back to life after being killed. So far there’s a lot of potential promise here in the ply lines, but it’s becoming clear that, Maximus and Black Bolt aside, few of the characters exactly ooze charisma and there looks to be a worrying amount of Earthbound treading of water.
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