Spotlight: Chuck vs. The Tic Tac

I knew I was going to love this episode the moment I saw Robert Patrick’s smiling face. What I didn’t realise was that this week’s episode would turn out to be even better than last weeks!

If you told me that this weeks writers Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc were not fans of the CBS show “The Unit” I would call you a liar because despite turning out to be an evil Ring operative, Robert Patrick is Col. Tom Ryan right down to the speech he gives John Casey about becoming part of an elite unit of black ops specialists.

It’s a shame actually that Col. Keller (Robert Patrick) turns out to be a baddie in this episode. I would have loved to think that possibly “The Unit” still existed, even if it was only in the world of Chuck. (I miss The Unit).

Right then, let’s get down to what exactly it was that made this episode so special. This was definitely one of the funniest episodes to date but it also took huge steps towards making Team Bartowski feel like a team again. Plus there was added tension and intrigue as it looked like Casey had turned rogue and joined up with the Ring.

The episode begins with Alex Coburn a.k.a John Casey being recruited by Col. Keller, back when John was in his early twenties. Then we flash forward to the present day and Keller tasks John with a secret mission to steal an experimental drug from the CIA. John gets his chance to do so during the next mission which is to test out the CIA buildings security system.

Casey however is growing sloppy. Last week he was nearly killed, this week he lets Chuck catch him stealing the drug. Casey warns Chuck not to say nothing. Unfortunately when General Beckman reveals that the drug was stolen Chuck assumes he is being tested as to whether his loyalties lie with his friend or with his country, so he turns John in. Hilarious scene!

Casey is arrested and moved to CIA HQ (the same building the team just broke into for the test). However Sarah and Chuck discover that Keller is working for the Ring and that John is being set up. So they bust him out, unfortunately so does Keller and shock horror Casey leaves with Keller and Sarah and Chuck are forced to accept that John is a double agent working for the Ring!

Casey however stashed the drug (which eradicates fear in those that take it) in the Buy More, so he tasks Morgan with retrieving it. Luckily Chuck catches up with Morgan first and takes the package. Then together Chuck and Sarah confront Casey and force him to reveal the truth. The Ring is forcing Casey to work for them by threatening the life of his childhood sweetheart (and mother of his daughter).

Casey explains how he had been offered the opportunity to serve his country and how he had had to choose between his real life and his spy life… Exactly as Chuck did at the start of the season. He had given up everything to serve.

So with everything straightened out Casey and Sarah go after Keller while Chuck goes to protect Kathleen (Casey’s ex-fiancé, played by Clare Carey from Jericho and Point Pleasant). Chuck poses as the gas man, as do the bad guys, which leads to a fantastic line from Zach “I’m the gas company!”, his facial expression is superb.

Back in Keller’s shack Casey beats the Colonel black and blue before snapping his neck while Sarah looks on horrified. Back at Kathleen’s Chuck finds himself unable to flash and with his life hanging in the balance he takes the pill. With his fear and all other feelings pushed aside Chuck kicks some ass, finally pinned one of the guards to the wall in a sequence taken directly from the one Sarah just witnessed with Casey. Chuck is about to kill the guard when Sarah bursts in and stops him.

And so we learn that Chuck and Casey are more alike than we thought and it is Chuck’s connections to his family and friends that make the difference, that make him the better man. Certainly since the end of season 2 we have seen Casey soften towards Chuck and now we know why, because the two of them have faced the same situations, the same choices.

Back at Castle General Beckman chooses not to arrest John for Treason, but she strips him of his rank and kicks him out of the service. Chuck and Sarah point out what John has given up for his country but it’s no good, the General’s mind is made up.

Well, with only three episodes left we certainly are building towards the finale. Casey is no longer a spy, The Ring is getting bolder and Chuck is becoming more and more capable as an agent. I don't know where the show is going to go for the finale but I would suspect Casey will play a big enough role to get reinstated or possibly that he will heroically sacrifice himself.

This week’s episode was filled with so many good moments, like Morgan and Awesome’s “Do you know” moment and the softer side to Casey moments. Even Chuck’s fight scenes were really good this week (as they have a tendency to look silly). All this coupled with Casey’s dismissal and Ellie and Awesome’s decision to stay just makes this a brilliant, brilliant episode.

Keep it like this and a fourth season is a sure fire thing!

This has been My Very Impressed Two Cents…

Until Next Time…

BRING BACK THE UNIT!!!         

Spotlight: Chuck Vs. The Beard

This week’s Chuck turned out to be a contender for the best episode to date. In a laugh filled, action packed story, Morgan finally learns the truth, Big Mike leads a rebellion and Casey nearly dies…

So the episode opens with Shaw relieving Chuck of spy duty until he can learn to flash again. Chuck tries to point out that he is a spy, regardless of whether or not he can flash and that he gave up everything (looking at Sarah) to be useful. However, it seems that the U.S government only see his ability to flash as being useful and so he is cast aside.

When he gets to work, Chuck is first reminded that he has not only lost his job, but Hannah too and that blow is quickly followed by an even more crippling one as Morgan fires him as his best friend. Things are not going well for our poor Chuck.

On top of this some suits arrive with the prospect of buying the Buy More, possibly putting everyone, including Chuck out of work. Except… they are actually Ring operatives searching for Shaw’s secret base (i.e. Castle) underneath the Buy More.

The Ring floats a story about a defecting CIA operative to draw Sarah, Casey and Shaw out of Castle while they try to find their way in. The fake story, leads the gang to Devon and Ellie, which really upsets Captain Awesome as he had had assurances from Chuck that he and Ellie would be safe from Chuck’s spy life. Clearly they are not.

Back in the Buy More a nosy Lester discovers (wrongly) that the new buyers intend to sack everyone and just keep Chuck and Morgan. Armed with this news Big Mike leads a revolution, barricading the store and refusing to back down.

However, the Ring operatives have already discovered the secret entrance to Castle behind the lockers, but what they don’t know is that Morgan is watching them. Everyone’s favourite bearded BuyMorian follows the Crooks until he too discovers Castle. Realising that the Ring intend to destroy the secret CIA base below the store Morgan returns to the Buy More to seek out help from the one person he knows he can rely on… Chuck.

Our hero quickly realises that Morgan knows too much now for it to be worth keeping the truth a secret and together they enter Castle but with Chuck still unable to flash, they captured.

Meanwhile Casey, Sarah and Shaw have arrived back at Orange Orange only to discover that they have been locked out of Castle. Casey returns to the Buy More to try the back door, while Shaw prepares to phone Langley to have Castle’s self destruct sequence activated.

Casey is spotted trying to hack the back door and two Ring operatives appear. Had they shot on sight Casey would never have made it out of this episode alive. Even though they didn’t kill him, Casey seemed unable to best his attackers until Jeff inadvertently saved him.

So, Chuck and Morgan finally have a heart to heart and air out everything that has come between them over the last three years. It really is a touching sequence. Watching Chuck and Morgan drift apart has been quite saddening and something we can all relate to in our own lives I think… Finally the talk turns to Sarah and Morgan tells Chuck exactly what he needs to hear. He reminds Chuck that no matter how hard he tries to deny it, he loves Sarah. When Chuck finally admits this to himself a weigh is lifted from his chest and he is able to flash again.

Quickly the terrible twosome dispatch the Ring operatives and save Castle. Afterwards Shaw decides that Morgan needs to be placed in witness protection but both Chuck and Sarah fight his corner and the bearded wonder is allowed to stay.

Finally the episode closes out with Devon freaking out about the Ring and his life constantly being in danger and having to lie to Ellie and all gets too much so he asks Ellie if they can go away… TO AFRICA!

Huge implications from this episode. Firstly what happens with Morgan now that he knows the truth? Will he get involved with missions like Devon did? Will he become part of the team or will this revelation be ignored with only the occasional nod? Are Ellie and Awesome leaving the show? Surely not? And is Col. Casey past his prime?

This episode really has been one of the best so far, there were moments where I thought the show might chicken-out and not have Morgan learn the truth, but it didn’t, it stuck with it and the show was allowed to change, hopefully for the better. The opening segments which made Chuck out to be useless without the Intersect were interesting too considering how hard the show has been pushing for Chuck to start working alone.

All in all a very good episode that made great use of the entire ensemble cast and one that I am eager to discover the ramifications of… something I will be doing the moment I post My Delayed Two Cents…

Until next time…          

Weekly Round-Up: 14/03/10

So… I’ve had a week off work and not managed to do a spotlight post… sorry about that. I’ve also not managed to watch Caprica…  sorry about that also. I did manage to watch all of Warehouse 13 though… t’was good! Cruel, cruel cliffhanger though…

Right then, lets round up the Tv I did manage to watch.

Chuck – Vs the Beard

Dual meaning title and everything this week. I still intend to spotlight this episode but I will say that this is the best episode of season 3 by far… a mythology changing episode. Superb!

How I Met Your Mother – Of Course

A very good episode that focused, for the first time, on the aftermath of Robin and Barney’s break up. HIMYM is really clever with how they set these episodes up. Very clever.

Anyway the episode deals with how Robin tries to get revenge on Barney because of all the girls he has slept with since her. It also examines the way Marshal and Ted have dealt with this in a very amusing and clever (did I mention they are clever?) sequence that continues to build throughout the episode.

Very very good and a lot of laughs to boot. Oddly it ends with Robin finally going on a date with Don, who really doesn’t seem that suited to her. I guess I’m just hoping that her and Barney finally work things out as they are the only two character we haven’t seen “in the future” glimpses of and therefore could end up together.

Lost – Dr. Linus

Hmmm… There is possibly a lot to talk about this week as more characters return from the dead in a Ben-centric episode. Interesting Dr. Artz seems to be getting a lot of screentime this season considering he was only in season one what… two episodes?

Anyway the episode focuses on Ben’s choices in life. In the island reality he chose power over Alex, while in his flashsideways his decision was reversed.

A very interesting piece of information that was revealed this week was the Candidate’s inability to kill themselves. This explains Jack and Locke’s failed suicides. Interestingly however Richard too is unable to die (explaining his youthful appearance) but he is not a candidate. Does this mean that anyone touched by Jacob is unable to die? Also, I’m fairly sure that someone revealed that there are only six candidates left. So does that mean that Frank is not one?

Also… did Ben believe that Alex was a candidate (maybe she was) is that why he thought she couldn’t be killed? Or are there further rules that we haven’t learnt about yet?

Miles reveals this week Jacob’s final thoughts, which were, predictably, that he hoped Ben would stop himself and be redeemed. How very Judas…

Finally, the most important piece of information was that Charles Widmore is enroute to the island. Presumably to take his place in the war (as the new leader of the Others?). Will Penny and Des be returning with him? Is Desmond important to the end game? Is there really an end game?

All these questions and more to answered on next weeks LOST!

Caprica – The Imperfections of Memory

So, the major plot points this week? Joseph goes in search of Tamara in New Cap City. Philomon goes on his second date with the Zoe Avatar where she gives him the idea that reason the chip that Daniel stole works is because it is based on an analogue program that cannot be copied.

However, this leads Daniel Greystone to (possibly) finally understand “who” is inside his robot.

Meanwhile Clarisse gets friendly with Amanda (who is now hallucinating visions of her dead brother) and Lacy kisses Keno, immediately after she reveals her intention to become a member of the STO in order to move the Zoe Avatar off world…

Things are certainly heating up in Caprica but has it done enough to keep it’s audience? I hope so.

Next Week

Now, if IMDB is to be believed Tv is returning in force next week. Legend of the Seeker, Flash Forward and Clone Wars, all alongside our regularly scheduled programming. Leaving us looking forward to Supernatural’s return the week after along with *yawn* V.

See you next week for another Round-Up…

First Impressions: Warehouse 13

Jane Espenson has been involved in a list of shows longer than my arm. As a writer and producer she has worked on Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Gilmore Girls, Tru Calling, Jake in Progress, The Inside, Battlestar Galactica and Caprica to name just a few… but now she comes to us with a show that she created… Warehouse 13.

In the interest of fairness I should probably mention that Jane is only Co-Creator with D. Brent Mote. 

Warehouse 13 is a fusion of the X-Files, Bones, Chuck, Supernatural and Eureka with a dash of Indiana Jones and some Whedonesque quick quips. I could stop right there because no doubt I’ve already got you hooked… but for the sake of completeness I’ll go on and waffle about the pilot… but if you want to skip ahead to the conclusion I’ll tell you right now it says “Go watch it…!”

So, the story… Two FBI agents get recruited by a mysterious woman called Frederic who runs the Warehouse 13 project. Pete Lattimer played by Eddie McClintock who I know as Sully from Bones is recruited for his finely tuned intuition and his open minded nature. While Myka Bering played by Joanne Kelly is recruited for her astute attention to detail and her brilliantly deductive mind.

Warehouse 13 is “America’s Attic” run by Artie Nielson played by Saul Rubinek and it is essentially a depository for every dangerous artefact known to man, including the legendary Pandora’s Box…! Lattimer and Bering are to work for the Warehouse by collecting these dangerous artefacts from around the world and bringing them back.

The show is not in the least bit serious about this last part, much in the same way that Chuck is not a serious Spy drama. Everything from the music to the comedy segments let us know that this is, at heart, a comedy drama, like Eureka and if you try and take it too seriously you will be disappointed. But by the same merit if the writers try and take the show too serious, without doing the appropriate ground work, the show will fail to deliver it’s impact. Keep it light, keep it fun, but build in the drama too.

The pilot itself is very good. Although it’s not rolling in the aisles funny (which is a good thing) it’s charming, it’s intelligent, it’s everything we’d expect from someone with a credit on every Joss Whedon series to date. The characters are well set up, we learn that both of them are flawed in one way or another, as all good heroes are. Pete lost his father and suffers from a drinking problem, while Myka believes her drive and ambition led directly to the death of her partner. Artie, who we discover has been the caretaker of Warehouse 13 for quite some time, is simply delightful. He reminds me of a cuddly version of Q or Marshall Flinkman (from Alias).

As the pilot progresses and the two agents are recruited to work for Warehouse 13, they remain sceptical about the magical artefacts they have been recruited to collect. A scepticism that will pass (mostly) before the first episode closes out. Unlike Scully in the X-Files who spent an unbelievably long time disbelieving. But, like Scully, Myka rails against the assignment, believing it to be a demotion, although by the time she is offered an out at the end of the pilot she obviously chooses to stay.

The second half of the double length pilot episode focuses on the retrieval of an artefact in the shape of a hair comb. The comb has the power to possess a person, driving them to extraordinary lengths to protect their loved ones. Both Myka and Pete flounder about, completely out of their depths with unhelpful clues and tales of death from Artie in a light hearted and fun exploration of the world of the show.

This will be the format that the series will take as it continues forward, but with each passing episode the characters will slowly learn to depend less on Artie and begin to actually understand what is going on. Of course, as soon as they do, everything will change. It isn’t a new format but it is fresh and fun and it has a lot of potential, especially going down the light hearted “mild peril” route.

If the episode had one flaw it would be the final set piece, which came across as a bit silly and stage-y But this is a flaw that many shows with a supernatural element face, just look at Reaper. I hope that as the show progresses that it will change from an “Artefact of the Week” show into something more, without losing the fun stuff, but uping the drama and the tension, maybe raising “Mild Peril” to “Intermediate Peril”

But all in all I loved the pilot and I’m really glad I decided to check it out. Warehouse 13 has already been renewed for a second season and the first series is currently being repeated after Caprica on Friday nights on SyFy. My advice, go watch it and enjoy the fun.

This has been My Two Cents… Coming Soon a Spotlight on Chuck vs. The Beard… 

Weekly Round-up: 07/03/10

Even with the Olympics out of the way it’s still been a slow week for Tv. This week enjoyed another episode of Chuck, HIMYM, Lost, Caprica and Legend of the Seeker… That’s right folks, I’m all caught up!

So without further ado, lets get right into it… beware episode spoilers may feature below…

Chuck -  Vs. The Fake Name

Another pretty good episode of Chuck in which Chuck assumes the identity of an assassin paid to take out Agent Shaw. In the process Chuck discovers the relationship between Sarah and Shaw and realises he still has feelings for her, which drives him to break up with Hannah (Gasp!).

However the fact that Chuck is really beginning to out grow his handlers seems to be changing the feel of the show. There is less camaraderie between Casey, Chuck and Sarah and that is a shame. I’m interested to see where Chris and Josh will take the show, I just hope it doesn’t lose it’s charm in the process. 

How I Met Your Mother – Hooked

This week’s episode examines that part of the human psyche that we all use from time to time. The part that preys on other peoples affection for us to our own benefit. Of course, HIMYM refers to it as “being on the hook” and they don’t make it sound as dark and depressing as I just did.

It’s not a bad episode, quite a few laughs but nothing ground-breakingly funny.

Lost – Sundown

I’ve already talked about this earlier this week, but I will say that the show is certainly building towards the War we were promised and Smokey-Locke looks like he’s winning.

Caprica – Know Thy Enemy

Finally James Marsters in Caprica… well… a little bit anyway. Caprica, so far, has been one of those shows that builds up really slowly and we’ve never really known exactly where it is going, but now I think we are beginning to get an idea.

Firstly Graystone Industries is pushing forward the idea of Cylons as labourers because of Amanda Graystone’s revelation that her daughter my have been a Solider of the One. This will fulfil that opening segment of the BSG pilot that reads “The Cylons were created to make life easier on the twelve colonies.”

Secondly Lacy is trying to get Zoey’s avatar to Geminon and she hopes to use Barnabus Greeley (Marsters) to do. This means, of course, stealing the Cylon prototype, which will presumably fall into the wrong hands.

Finally Clarice, one of the Soldiers of the One, hopes to discover the truth about the Zoe avatar to offer all STO members eternal life. Will this plan work? Will all the Cylons have distinct personalities?

Who knows…?

Legend of the Seeker – Princess

Ok… so this didn’t air this week… but I watched it this week… that has to count right?  

This was an episode showcasing just how beautiful Tabrett Bethell is. However it was also one of the funniest and least serious episodes of the show to date. Tabrett certainly brings a fantastic new energy to the show that it sorely lacked in the first season and it is great to see her get two episodes about her character in a row.

Sister Nicci, leader of the Sisters of the Dark, returns to life this week as she tries to capture and kill Kahlen, the mother confessor. She uses a local Lord to have him kidnap Kahlen in exchange for immunity from the Keeper. However, of course, Richard, Cara and Zedd go after her. Unable to use magic they portray a family of royal suitors to gain access to the palace and hilarity ensues.

I’m still not a big fan of the one-shot nature of the story telling in Legend but I’m still spell bound by the production quality.  

Coming Soon…

Nothing new to talk about next week. Supernatural, Legend of the Seeker and V will all return the week after next, with FlashForward back in April.

Until next week…

Spotlight: Lost – Sundown

Although in this weeks Spotlight I will be talking about the events in episode 5 Sundown I will also touch on various points from the last two weeks.

Well… We certainly need more than a Spotlight to find our way through Lost these days, we could have used the Lighthouse, if Jack hadn’t smashed it up last week. Despite the series tagline “Answers are Coming” the creators still insist on bombarding us with increasingly silly questions and offering answers that make no sense.

I know some people love the “mystery” aspect of Lost, but for me, it stopped being a mystery at some point during season 3 because, truth be told, there are no logical answers to be had. A mystery can be solved by the application of logical deduction, the end game of Lost, however, is about giving the audience an answer they haven’t thought of. For example:

The Numbers

Despite the fact that 4,8,15,16,23,42 and 108 have all been around from series one, they have remained central to the mystery of Lost. Unfortunately the question “What do the numbers mean?” has been answer too many times! Now we find out that the numbers also correspond to names written on the wall of cave by a mystical figure, possibly centuries before the people therein named were born. We also discover that Jacob contrived events to bring these people to the island where, presumably due to the fact that most of them are crossed out, they all died.

However those people with names that match the mystically empowered numbers are not dead. Soooooo if the numbers 4,8,15,16,23 and 42 are so important then why all the other numbers in the cave? And how come all the people with corresponding names to the magical numbers all arrived on the same plane… Come on, that’s just a little too much coincidence.

In short, in trying to make the numbers significant, Lost has made them meaningless.

Sayid

Much of this week’s episode focused on Sayid. Despite being a member of the Oceanic Six, Sayid is one of the dullest characters on the show, in fact, when he was shot at the end of last season I assumed he was done and out. Not so. Now Sayid has died and been brought back by some malign spirit and this week he brings about the death of the rest of the Others by killing Drogen and Lennon and letting Smokey-Locke into the Temple.

Interestingly it now looks as if Sayid and Claire will join forces with Smokey-Locke to presumably fight the “War” we were told is coming. However, what makes that more interesting is that Kate seems to be with them. Is that why her name isn’t written on the wall? Or is she the other number we didn’t see… 108? And do we really care about the numbers at all any more anyway?

Is Kate joining forces with Smokey-Locke or is it simply a self preservation thing? My vote is for the latter, all though a final climatic battle between Sawyer and Kate could be fun.

Non-Crashed Sayid however is still in love with Nadia, although she is married to his brother. In fact it is his love of Nadia that convinces Island Sayid to join with Smokey-Locke. Anyway, his brother is in a lot of debt and so Sayid kills his debtor, none other than Martin Keamy and also rescues none other than Jin. Is it just me or is this “Course Correction” thing just a little far fetched?

Ilana and the Others

Ilana seems to have taken over as leader of the Others and Ben seems to have reformed and agreed to follow her orders. Frank, it appears is her right hand man. Together they bust into the temple and successfully save the main cast from Smokey, i.e. Miles Straume as only he hasn’t gone walk about after being “captured” by the Temple-Others

Drogen

In this episode Drogen reveals his back story as to how he was chosen to lead the Others and then he is promptly killed by Sayid. Clearly there is no more room in Lost for more mystery and killing Drogen off is easier than trying to explain anything about the Temple or the Others that reside within.

Jack and Hurley

Still seeing visions of Jacob, Hurley leads Jack to the Lighthouse, which seems to be a tool Jacob used to spy on all the people who’s names are scrawled on the walls of his cave. Jack however smashes the Lighthouse. It would seem the 815 survivors have a rather detrimental effect on the islands architecture…

Sawyer

Smokey-Locke led Sawyer to Jacob’s cave and showed him the names, explaining that they were the names of the Candidates to take over from Jacob. Sawyer was offered three choices, take the job, ignore the job or leave the island… He chose the latter. However, as we all know, Sawyer is a force for good and he will eventually accept the job and lead Jacob’s people into the war against Smokey-Locke. 

I think that pretty much sums things up… Ok, not in an in-depth way, but at this point reading too much into the Lost mythos is like trying to divine the future from the cooking instructions on a pack of oven chips. Pointless…

Until Sunday… This has been My Confused Two Cents…   

First Impressions: The Legend of the Seeker

Looks like I wont be able to get the Lost post done this week, so as an apology, here is something I made earlier…

So, during some downtime last week I finally got around to     watching Terry Goodkind’s Legend of the Seeker. It’s odd, that as a fan of fantasy fiction, I managed to be completely oblivious to this show for so long. I have to be honest, I’m not familiar with Goodkind’s work or The Sword of Truth on which the show is based, so this will not be a comparison of how closely the series pilot sticks to the book or represents the authors work, this is simply my first impressions.

And my first impression from the opening segment was “At Last.” because finally we have a network producing a 22 episode series worthy of the genre. Just the first five minutes made me think, “Wow… I love America!” For the last five years I’ve been stuck with Robin Hood and Merlin as the only fantasy shows on television and with the small budgets the BBC gives these shows there is no chance that they can truly represent a fantasy world on screen. Everybody knows that Sci-Fi is the most expensive genre to shoot, except, I suspect that Fantasy is and that’s why you just don’t see it as often as we should.

So, I had high hopes for the double length pilot. Certainly from a visual perspective it was far and away the best fantasy series I’d seen. However as the story progressed I found myself a little disenchanted.

Firstly, the episode plays out like the opening book of a trilogy, any fantasy trilogy, pick any one, they nearly all follow the same pattern. Book one is essentially little more than 300 pages of exposition and set up, gathering the heroes and starting the quest. The same can be said of the pilot episodes “Prophecy” and “Destiny”… I admit we need to know some stuff about the Legend, but did we need to know everything. Surely with a 22 episode season the exposition could have been a little more dragged out. As they say, show don’t tell. The old man in a hut with a legend is little clichéd, no?

Really? You don't think so? Well that brings me onto my second quibble with the show. How similar the story is to Star Wars!

There is a boy with a special destiny. Men are sent to kill him but an old man with special powers secrets him away to a far off land where he is placed with foster parents. One day a beautiful woman appears carrying with her a message. Her appearance causes drastic changes in the land and the boy discovers that his father is not his father and that he is destined to become a Seeker and to kill an evil emperor. He is given a sword by the old man who rescued him as a child, but he doesn’t believe in his destiny and he returns home to find his farmstead destroyed by fire and his father dead.

But… That doesn’t really make this a bad show. The plot may be the standard fare for a fantasy novel (or a b-movie) but this is a fantasy show, it’s allowed the clichés associated with the genre. As long as it delivers clever writing and stunning visual sequences and exceptional acting talent then it can drop as many rings into as many volcanoes as it likes.

I’ve already said that the show delivers on the visual front, it is spectacular. The actors too manage to look the part. Richard, the Seeker, is handsome and slender, which allows him to have that awkward, clumsy feel to him, while retaining a sexual presence that the ladies can enjoy. Kahlan, the Confessor, is both beautiful and intelligent, she is strong willed and enchanting, she is, in other words, everything the geek in me wants from a central fantasy character. Unlike with Sci-Fi where all women are strong willed and intelligent, the fantasy genre is open to allowing the “damsel in distress” character to exist and happily Legend avoids that stereotype completely. And finally, no mention of the cast of Legend would be complete without a nod to the fantastically characterful Bruce Spence who plays Zed. The life and youthfulness that Spence brings to the role is superb and a lot of fun.

So the actors look the part and for most of the time they do well to play the parts too. After all, it’s a pilot so the roles are as new to them as they are to us and over time the roles will mature anyway. But what about the writing…? Well… It’s better certainly than Robin or Merlin and a lot of fantasy films I could mention (the hugely popular Harry Potter series comes to mind) but it didn’t feel quite there yet. With so much story to tell I guess it is hard to judge the script because so much of it was exposition but if the pilot had a weak point, it would be the dialogue… not all of it by any means, just the odd moment here and there.

So then, in conclusion… This is a show set in a beautifully realised fantasy realm with the budget to pull it off. It’s a little clichéd but so is the genre. With time the writing and the characters will develop and I can see huge potential with the cast and crew to make this show feel spectacular. I’m itching for more and with over thirty episodes still to watch I’m going to wrap this post up and settle down to do just that.

This has been My Two Cents… Join me again soon for more First Impressions.