A Man. And His Blog.

Well, that was a surely interesting season finale. Secrets exposed, Red Flag leader exposed, potential girlfriend dead, a pissed-off Sullivan (probably, we’re gonna have to see it in S2), and an upcoming war? LOST promised the same once, but there never was a war. So, I don’t expect ALPHAS to become an X-MEN related war scenario between enhanced humans and those, who don’t understand evolution.

Somehow, the first two acts were completely lame. I understand that Danielle (Kathleen Munroe, she looks like Sara Roemer, which confused me during the complete episode) and Rosen’s (David Strathairn) back story were needed to prepare the ending, and to have one cliffhanger more the series doesn’t need, but too much time was wasted for that. Too much time went by to figure out that Red Flag has an upcoming meeting, and too much time went by to figure out that Stanton is an actual name and still alive AND the leader of Red Flag. Too much time went by in preparing all the shit-stuff for the cliffhangers, and at the end, there weren’t even major cliffhangers. But at the end I liked it anyway, because it could change the status quo of the show a bit. And I really hope the writers have some balls and change it, because ALPHAS has to change in its second season to stay … well, interesting. It was barely interesting in its first season, but now with the Alphas secret exposed to the world, and making this show even more a successor to X-MEN (something MUTANT X never managed to do in its first and only season I saw).

Danielle was an interesting character though. Her daughter status was a bit lame, yeah, but her connection to Stanton (John Pyper-Ferguson, didn’t I see that guy just in FRINGE?) promises that we will keep on seeing her in the second season. Unfortunately, the writers have a couple of inconsistencies again. Before the raid they find out that Rosen and his team are the trap for the Red Flag, and that they were orchestrated to this point, but they never ask themselves, if Danielle was part of the trap as well, since she delivered the necklace. If you find out you’re being orchestrated, go to the beginning to find out who started it. It would have been possible to find out that Danielle had something to do with all of this, and that she was not being chased by Red Flag, when she so obviously delivered a piece of information, which led Rosen to Red Flag, and which also led him to think that one Red Flag party wants to kill the other one. By the way: nice move to bring a couple of Red Flag parties against each other. That tells me that even within Red Flag, there are good people.

But the most unfortunate thing is: Those bastards killed Anna (Liane Balaban). What a shame. I liked the Anna/Gary scene in the beginning, and I totally loved Gary’s (Ryan Cartwright) outburst to one of the tactical members, when he saw Anna with a bullet in her head. I was really believing that Gary is going nuts right here, maybe even getting some of the action by injuring/severely wounding/killing somebody during the raid. I wonder what would happen, when Gary kills somebody. Anyway, now that she’s dead, I’m expecting some character development in the second season. But I was expecting that from Rosen after he killed somebody and nothing happened. I expected that from Bill, after he lost his abilities, and nothing happened. Nothing will happen in the second season premiere, I’m almost sure.

All in all, the first half of the season was incredibly boring at most points, because it never went into the story and wasted my time. The second half of the season was better: it developed, it moved forward, it was more suspenseful and stuff. I wish that TV writers would keep it up from the beginning of a show, and don’t shit out one boring episode after another, just to stall the storyline and wait for the cliffhangers until the season finale. 7.5/10

Sadly, this relationship is going to end very soon

The supervillain is hereby introduced

Well, who would have thought that? Another good episode. Then it turned out to be shitty. Because who would have expected such a lame and ridiculous twist? Yeah, the twist looked fine, but it doesn’t look more like an easy way out of an interesting story, which could have messed up the show’s premise in an interesting way.

First I thought this episode would be another contained one. Binghamton was a nice setting for an episode like this, and I loved the interrogation sequences. But as soon as Eric (Tom Barnett) was introduced, I was sure to have the traitor found with him. Because it was pretty awkward for a guest character to have such an amount of screentime, when he’s not being introduced as a recurring character. And who would have thought, the writers were introducing him as a recurring character in the penultimate episode…

Unfortunately, the situation in Binghamton was over so soon. It could have been set there for the whole episode. In addition, I don’t even understand why Eric wasn’t noticing anything about the Rosen-imposter (David Strathairn) during the interrogation, or why the villains of this episode needed such a complicated plan to get to the files on the server. After all, it obviously seemed to be so easy to get into the files, when you’re in the office (Nina and Rachel were reading them), so why wasn’t it possible to hack into the cloud drive from the outside? Or did they just use their shapeshifting Alpha, because they had one and saw the perfect crime? Anyway, I’m seeing inconsistencies here, and I don’t like inconsistencies. That no one from the group was not able to realize that there’s something about Rosen was just another eyesrolling thing. But I blame it on the agony of the situation.

The fight Hicks (Warren Christie) versus Bill (Malik Yoba) was nice though. Nice to see that the two can’t stand each other every now and then, and that the two have to be the alpha males among the Alphas. Very nice action scenes, and when the producers learn to not use the POV cam in those sequences, and let them play out in third-person instead, I will be happy to enjoy them in the future. It’s always annoying to have that change in fast cuts, because it brings nothing to the story, and in terms of style, it looks crappy. But that’s a problem BEING HUMAN also had, meaning that is becoming a problem all shows on Syfy have.

Gary (Ryan Cartwright) was nice again: “The real Dr. Rosen is here, and he has bad hair” – hilarious. And points for bringing the accent in the imposter scene, which was a nice surprise. We have a great actor here, who could be a star, when Syfy cancels the show after six seasons and a movie.

Great episode. Stupid, terrible imposter twist. That sums up to a 7/10

Welcome to Binghampton, Hicks

WTF - why the face, Dr. Rosen?

Best episode so far. Contained, suspenseful, it did something with its storyline, and with an open ending I like: more mysteries, more questions, and another party in the fight of pro/contra Alphas. That’s how you write ALPHA episodes!

It seemed like a bottle show, if you will. The whole episode playing in the offices, which makes it a steady contained thriller, building on its suspense and delivering a good finale. And while doing it, the script was never clear about what actually happens. Is the invisible person working for Kern (Brent Spiner) or against him, or is there a completely new villain in the office? I just don’t like how the Alpha abilities of Griffin (Rebecca Mader) were handled. Yeah, it’s to be seen positive when the blind spot explanation is brought, instead of the usual “invisible girl” stuff, but I don’t understand how the enhancement of the blind spot is working. After all, the enhanced the blind spot is, the less you are noticing things around you, and since Griffin was a moving person, the blind spot (the big one) had to be in movement every time – someone should have noticed it. In addition, I don’t understand why the offices were messed up to trick Griffin. When you want to see the object in your blind spot, you better reposition yourself and not paint the office walls new or extinguish O2. That was illogical. You do that, when you have an actual invisible girl on your hands, not when you’re fighting against your blind spot.

Anyway, the story with Kern was kinda interesting. He reminded me of Batman, Daredevil and Magneto, which makes one good superhero, one bad supervillain, and Batman as vigilante in between. What a shame he was killed off at the end, since the question of his activities with Red Flag (yes or no) were intriguing, and he developed an interesting “companionship” with Rosen (David Strathairn). I would have imagined that Kern somewhat becomes a recurring antagonistic person for either the group or Rosen only, to make ALPHAS look more like a serial. But now that he’s dead, hopes are lost again.

Rebecca Mader should not have been given starring credit by the way. She turned up in the penultimate act, and Brent Spiner stole the whole episode anyway. In addition, all the promos with Mader as a guest star were completely killing the episode – when you know from the beginning that she is guest starring, and you have an unidentified ghost walking around the offices, it’s clear that it’s Mader’s character, about to be introduced in flesh and body.

All in all: Please give me another contained episode. They always seem to work best. And this episode showed that ALPHAS can be thrilling too. I hope that’s gonna keep up for the next two episodes. Or at least the Red Flag story arc. 8.5/10

Hicks is bleeding red color

It's too dark to enjoy Rebecca's beauty

An average episode. I don’t know shit about Jim Jones (well, I’ve read some stories after I’ve finished the episode), but at least I know similar stories of religious cults in fictional television, so I don’t even have to compare it to real life. Unfortunately, all the other fictional religious cults were as clichéd as this one, and nothing could surprise me. Except a little bit the characterizations of Jonas, who actually wanted to do god and never saw the evil of his deeds.

That was the only good thing about the episode though, and I wanted to see more of the conflict between Jonas (Garret Dillahunt), his gift, and how Rosen (David Strathairn) saw it. There were quite a few nice talks between the two, but in my opinion, Rosen never really tried to do anything else than trying to convince Jonas that his gift brings death as well, and Jonas was a bit of an autistic himself, considering he never understood anything. But the part where Jonas mentioned he lived in darkness, while everyone he gifted lives in happiness was interesting. But why did the writers give no answers? I mean, Jonas’ gifts great and excellent, but how did the sickness came to the people? No answers there? How come that Gil (Dmitry Chepovetsky) couldn’t remember what happened after the light stuff, but Hicks (Warren Christie) and Nina (Laura Mennell) could remember they were having sex and they were busted by Rosen? Another thing called inconsistency in this series. It’s really annoying when writers don’t think their stories through. Looks like I won’t continue ALPHAS after the season finale, because this show isn’t giving me much to work with…

Another unfortunate thing was the limitless of the Hicks/Nina relationship. They were “turned”, they were happy, they’ve had sex, Rosen saw them naked, and it looks like it won’t have any consequences for anybody. There was the small talk between Rosen and Nina in the last episode, but I wonder if that is being picked up in the next episode. I hope so – otherwise it’s another inconsistency here. Rosen cared back then about the Hicks/Nina relationship, but he doesn’t care now?

That Rosen would shoot a gun was so predictable. It’s the typical information dump in the exposition of the script, which you are going to need in the climax. So, when Rosen mentioned he never shot a gun and wanted to keep it that way, I was counting the seconds until he shot a gun. At least it brought some drama at the end, and maybe it continues to deliver at least a bit of Rosen’s character, since he killed a man. After all, he fucking killed somebody! That should be a lot to work at. For both Rosen as a character, and the writers to do some character work, which is clearly missing.

Rachel’s (Azita Ghanizada) side plot was completely forgettable though. I know I was saying it needs more family moments, but pressed in the background behind everything else happening in the episode it felt lame. Looks like the writers won’t make me happy, even though they don what I expect them to do. An endless circle. So, let’s see what the last three episodes are gonna show. 5.5/10

Rosen is shocked

Rosen is about to be shocked again

Hey, the episode was pretty good. Considering Summer Glau and her cancellation curse, and the fact that I liked the story for once. But here I can only repeat my earlier words again: Are the writers creating all those guest Alphas for the bigger picture, or are they just written in to fill the season? Skylar was another one of those characters with a great, but wasted potential, if she should only appear in this episode.

Well, the story was fine this time. It’s good to just have an Alpha-on-the-run aka Alpha-fugitive story, which isn’t complicated too much, and which doesn’t look like the writers tried to tell more than the viewers can understand in the hour. Instead Skylar was just on the run from the NSA and tried to destroy her best invention. Quite a nice story for just one hour, even for a show like this. So, this time it kinda worked.

Only the twist didn’t. Somehow it was too easy to introduce Zoe (Skyler Wexler) as Skylar’s daughter, and let all the threat coming from Skylar hang in the air with that daughter-twist. I know that the innocent-girl-works-for-Red-Flag twist was already brought with Anna, but it kinda looks ridiculous that the writers won’t bring an interesting twist twice in four episodes, while they literally don’t even develop the story. The whole Red Flag thing could have been developed further with Skylar, but instead she and her daughter were just on the run from the Intelligence. Yeah, what an ending. Not.

Anyway, I liked that Nina (Laura Mennell) was given some moments. Unfortunately, the writers did not much with the friendship between Nina and Skylar. Instead, it was difficult to believe that Nina and Skylar were once friends and talked to each other. First off: Why would Nina believe that Skylar is still one of the “good” Alphas after they haven’t talked for five years? And then, why should Skylar accept Nina’s help, when she is working for Rosen, who has lied to her before… Some inconsistencies I didn’t like here, but at least the writers focus on all the characters every now and then. Which can be considered acceptable.

Gary’s (Ryan Cartwright) story was alright. I’d wish to see more from his mother Sandra (Jane Moffat). I didn’t buy she was scared to shit that Gary does this dangerous stuff, and didn’t even understand or see that Gary really was in his element, working with Rosen. So, the crying thing, when Gary came back home: too much drama. But it was fun to see how Gary could take care of himself. His little dialog with the cab driver was hilarious: “Follow the bug”. Gary is always good for a nice joke, and I have the feeling ALPHAS wouldn’t be a good series without him. 7/10

When Summer Glau wanted to portray a tattoed punk...

Follow the bug!

Six episodes into the show, and the writers deliver the first story, where no Alpha is involved. Either the team behind the cameras didn’t really have much ideas to fill the season with, or it is the typical way of stalling all the “incredible” storylines, which is why the first season is filled with all the boredom the writers can think of. Damn, why isn’t is possible anymore to be awesome from the beginning?

The episode was okay. It survived through the partnership between Gary (Ryan Cartwright) and Bill (Malik Yoba), and it survived because the writers kinda wanted more with the episode than just telling a criminal-of-the-week episode, which could also be part of CSI, THE MENTALIST, PRIME SUSPECT, or any other crime procedural show. Meaning: The story was so generic, I couldn’t give a shit about it. How predictable was the twist of Sara (Alaina Huffman) being the inside guy, before Bill even knew that there was an inside guy within the FBI? What about the stupidity of one of the kidnappers, which brings me to ask if the kidnappers were actually so stupid how they looked? The only interesting thing about the whole kidnapping was the probable state of mind from the baldhead (Conrad Pla), when he was talking to Lisa (Melissa Hood) about the afterlife. Here you could have seen some Alpha action: Either the baldhead was an Alpha, who could connect to dead people or something, or Lisa would have been the Alpha, who could still be alive after she died. Basically. As a ghost or something. Whatever. But not including an Alpha in the kidnapping? How lame is that…

Gary came with his “respect the badge” again. I wonder if it is his new motto, which he will tell anyone he encounters. Great also was his “partners are equal” – which Bill and Gary were definitely not. So, there was some comedy in the partnership between the two, and sometimes it was fun to look at it. But somehow I don’t like Bill anymore. He’s way too sterile as a former FBI agent, who fears of being kicked out from the agency. The whole back story of the incident in Bill’s past seemed alright, but it didn’t pay off in this episode. And even though I liked that he talked about it with Gary, the whole thing didn’t have the pay-off. Yeah, great that Bill finally realized that working for Rosen is the best thing, which could have happened to him, but when the writers shit out such a back story for him, they should do something with it and not run into Nirvana.

And finally, Hicks (Warren Christie) and Nina (Laura Mennell) are hooking up. Predictable as well. But at least cute. And I liked the moment, when Rachel (Azita Ghanizada) bumped in and interrupted them. Though I was awaiting a little more awkwardness right there, I was happy that some hooking up actually happened. No waiting for it until the season finale or so. By the way: I don’t like Nina’s back story very much. Not interested in how she killed her ex with mind control… 6/10

Thinking and doing for Bill and Gary

Are you always that confused, when you're about to get shot?

This episode was nothing special. While the last one was still working because of Gary’s status as an autistic, this episode with Rachel in the spotlight didn’t work as well, since Rachel (Azita Ghanizada) hasn’t been properly developed as a character yet. I basically don’t care about her private situation, and her fear of not being able to end up with a husband, because she’s not able to love like normal people, when she hasn’t gotten those moments before in the show.

Meaning: For this episode to work as a little character study for Rachel, she should have had more family scenes after the one she had in the pilot. When I am supposed to care about a character’s life, I need to know more about then than just their abilities, and I need more than the scene with Rachel’s date during the beginning, whom she had to throw out of the apartment. Sorry, but that is not enough. So, basically I didn’t care about her emotional feelings for Chris’ death, and how she connected with Jessica (Isabella Hofmann) during the episode. Though there was some good acting here, it didn’t help me.

Other than that, the story wasn’t much of a burner, Again, I don’t understand why Jessica would tell Rosen (David Strathairn) and Rachel so much about her son’s death, when it would eventually lead to her being the killer of the smalltown. Maybe Jessica didn’t expect she had to deal with people like her, but when I’m guilty of killing the people, whose deaths are being investigated by a mysterious government agency no one has heard of before, I’d better shut my mouth about the death, which started this all. There really is no thought-through story here, and again the writers disappoint me. In addition, the whole second half wasn’t as interesting as the first one. It was quite interesting at first to only have Rachel and Rosen in the town, and stumble upon some creepiness (which brings me to my question, why the Sheriff’s office was so damn empty that night), but when the whole group came in, the episode wasn’t nearly as interesting. The only good part was Gary (Ryan Cartwright) (again), which his “respect the badge”, and his urge to carry David’s jacket, because it looks cooler on him than on David (Steve Lund).

And the conclusion? Well, Jessica being the killer… not really exciting. Her being brought to Binghampton… could be interesting. Now the place was mentioned a couple of times already, and there still is not a story in sight. But since all kinds of Alphas are being brought in there, I’m expecting a prison break in the season finale. Or later. All the captured Alphas free? Well, that would be a story similar to the third SUPERNATURAL season, when Sam and Dean had to deal with all the escaped hell monsters. Or REAPER, which was basically the same, only in the form of a comedy. Or PRISON BREAK, just with paranormal stuff. But is that story really coming, when the writers always tease something like this? I don’t expect it. 6/10

It's cry-time

Nobody can drive a damn car anymore

What a surprisingly good episode. Back story, ongoing storyline, character story – all good. Except the way how the Alpha-of-the-week was handled. I believe that the writers focused too much on Anna (Liane Balaban), because she was the actual enemy for Rosen (David Strathairn), even though there should have been scenes where Milos’ (Dean Armstrong) way of life as an Alpha should have been shown.

Anyway, the episode was good. I loved the relationship between Anna and Gary (Ryan Cartwright), and how it could be brought into future storylines in the show. Anna was too much in the focus of the episode to just forget her now, and she was too much brought into the whole Red Flag plot to just neglect her, when it comes to the plot. And how cool would it be, when an autistic woman is going to be the frontrunner for the top-villain spot in this show? Especially a woman, who has established a connection with the heroes already, which makes it even more difficult for one of them to fight Red Flag. As simple as ALPHAS might show itself during the first four hours, I really hope the writers didn’t just write Anna in to give Gary a girlfriend for one episode. I really hope Anna is going to be part of the back story now. There is a lot of story opportunity here, and it would hurt my soul, when the writers don’t use it all.

Other than that, the terrorist storyline was not much exciting. At the end it really was just a stupid terrorist attack, because Red Flag doesn’t want any more Alphas to be born. How easy all of it was, was ridiculous, and it could have been a storyline for a couple more episodes. The stealing of the fuel truck alone is completely horrendous and made my eyes roll. I never would have believed that stealing a fuel truck is so damn easy. Or breaking through the barrier of a pharmaceutical building. Or blowing up the truck, despite all the chaos happening, which was actually not that chaotic. I wondered why so many people were still running around a place even one or two minutes after the truck crashed in uninvited, which also meant that Hicks (Warren Christie) didn’t have a chance to shoot Milos. Seriously, that whole thing was totally lame and riddled with illogical moments. It doesn’t seem that the writers have anything big prepared for the series in the future.

What I want to mention is the troubling dynamic in the group now. Hicks is still questioning his work (after three episodes, he still doesn’t know what the group does for a living?), Gary is standing up for himself against Nina (Laura Mennell), which was interesting to watch (I hope that’s a development, which actually holds on). Only Rachel (Azita Ghanizada) and Bill (Malik Yoba) are pretty much out of interesting work stuff. Rachel is just sniffing her stuff, while Bill tries to be the FBI agent he is not. There could be more coming, but somehow I like what is depicted here: The group is not so sure anymore about what they are doing, and they pretty much fight with their own conscience. 7.5/10

What happens, when Gary finds a computer virus in his streams?

Ready for the big shot?

And here we have it. This would have been the episode, where I decided to turn my back on the show and cancel it. The big twist surrounding Matthew (Devon Graye) was illogical, and the violent scenes taken through a coloring filter were just ugly to look at. I wonder why no one in post noticed that those scenes looked ugly.

And the story actually started to turn out to be interesting. A young woman with emotional problems and her pheromones being the reason of all the violence was nice, especially since it connected well to Nina (Laura Mennell), and how she saw her enhanced power through new eyes. Even more, I liked how Hicks (Warren Christie) was doubting his job as an investigator here, because he is doing something he is not trained for. And the episode went well, until Don Wilson (Callum Keith Rennie) came into the offices, behaved like a dick, wanted to take Matthew, and the twist with Matthew being the actual carrier of those pheromones came around the corner. First off: nice twist. But that doesn’t explain why there was a riot in the subway and in front of the youth hostel. When Matthew was able to control it, why would he start a riot? Just for love? Just for showing Tracy (Tatiana Maslany) what he can do, and eventually risking her life in the subway? Again, like in the previous episode, there was no logic to the characters’ actions, and I don’t get the feeling that the writers have thought clearly about the plot they wanted to tell.

But what was even more annoying was those two violent scenes color-filtered in red and yellow. They looked fugly as hell. I hated the fast cuts between all the characters beating each other up, and I hated how the camera was fixated at the characters, while the riot in the office was going. I know why directors chose this inverted POV style, but they shouldn’t overuse it. And it was definitely overused in that one particular scene. Even more, the scene at the bus station was horrendous. First, the coloring was pretty normal, and there wasn’t a filter used, but as soon as Matthew was pushing out his pheromones, the yellow filter went to action and brought a whole new look to the scene, even though it wasn’t even necessary. Why chancing the filter in the middle of the scene? Artistically, I don’t see a relevance here.

At least the episode had some good things too. First: Binghamton. Nice that there is a bigger back story to all of this, and that even Rosen (David Strathairn) has some secrets. When this is going to blow into the group’s faces, who knows what happens. Second: Wilson is dead, and Sullivan probably returns. Okay, now there is a question, why you change the character twice with the same other character, but maybe the casting directors couldn’t find a new actor or actress to play Wilson’s replacement. Third: Gary (Ryan Cartwright). He’s the heart of the show, but with a missing story. And I was thinking his buzzing would turn out to be the offices being bugged. Remember Red Flag? Two episodes and no mention of it. And how great would it have been, when the group is suddenly in a conspiracy, and only Gary noticed? 4/10

Another dead guy on this show

Hicks is carrying a girl out of the danger. What a hero

As expected, not so much of a great episode. It was a typical stand-alone one, with a rather lame story, a predictable outcome, and not so much development than I wanted to see. In fact, there was no development at all. There could have been a moment in the episode, when Marcus’ (Will McCormack) fate and Nathan’s (Mahershala Ali) involvement could have been connected to the Red Flag back story, but nothing happened. Instead, Marcus saw the Alphas as something of a bad seed, even though he was one of them. Consistent? Not really…

Meaning: The episode did not deliver anything storywise, which was predictable. Not even Marcus was enough of an interesting character to somehow save the episode, though it was good that he brought a back story for Dr. Rosen (David Strathairn), instead of bringing his group to the spotlight. That shows me that all of the characters are important for the writers, and that there is no star in the cast. Which could be interesting, when the writers finally find a groove for the show, and get deeper into the storylines.

But the episode had also a little disappointment: The dynamic of the group was suddenly lost. The only thing surviving was the “friendship” between Bill (Malik Yoba) and Gary (Ryan Cartwright), and how latter tried to teach the former something about specificity – which was great and the only ”funny” scene in the episode. I like Gary already, and how he is pushing Bill back, even though he is the meaner and big guy, hence his enhanced powers. But other than that, I kinda don’t like that the group settled away from their bowling office from the first episode into real offices in Queens. I don’t even know if it was necessary to do that. Maybe the move was necessary, so that Sullivan (Valerie Cruz) could be introduced, or maybe the writers expected to create a bit of new dynamic through the move. Well, mission failed. It all seemed so … unnecessary.

The “action” scene was completely over the top by the way. Why was Rachel (Azita Ghanizada) the only one smelling the gas, when it should have been everywhere around the block and should have been smelled by everyone? And I find it really ridiculous, when fireballs come shot out of the ground literally everywhere, just because some homos in the building were shooting at Marcus. When I see something like this in the second episode already, what’s there to come? A definite eyesroll moment. In addition, I didn’t understand why Marcus didn’t take Rosen earlier. There was no logic behind his plan of faking his death. He just could have continued running away, after he “showed” Rosen what he wanted to show him. What did Marcus expect after that situation? That everybody would treat him as a dead guy somewhere in the water? Even he should think logical – that Nathan would never stop looking for him, as long as his body doesn’t show up. Yes, there is a logical problem, and it makes me nuts.

Hm, two episodes in, and I’m nitpicking already. Not a good sign. But we’re only two episodes in, and no show is good after two episodes. Except FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. Or THE WEST WING. 5.5/10

Singh can't sing anymore. Because he's dead

If this is not turning out to be a romance...