Defiance Pilot – Review
Syfy's latest Monday night drama Defiance is oddly familiar to long time viewers of the network, perhaps maybe too familiar.
Haven Sins of the Fathers
In the season 2 finale, we finally get some answers as to what's been happening. Most of the episode is filler for the gripping final 5 minutes though, so let's just delve into that.
Friday Followup – September 24, 2011
Friday night continues to be a light night for TV, but there are a still things on the air to check out.
Monday Monitor – September 19, 2011
There were a lot of premieres on Monday night and it's hard to write about everything. There were a few season finales, and a bunch of new shows returning. Here's a recap of the what happened.
Haven Resurfacing
In this week's Haven, a mysterious force attacks visitors to a troubled home, and we learn a huge reveal about Audrey.
Since last week's events, Audrey finds herself as just a regular detective with the Haven PD as she quit the FBI. This week's murder mystery involves a washed up boat with a dead body in it after having gone missing a year prior. These events bring back some of the turmoil of the Garrick family, as most of the town blames husband James for the loss of the ship.
In the main story, a mysterious force in the Garrick home is attacking people, and Audrey learns that is is the missing husband James who, like many of the troubled, has been trapped all this time. James moves so fast that he can't be seen, but oddly Audrey is able to hold him down just long enough to reveal a corrupt pair of metal-workers responsible for the shipwreck and many others.
The interesting part is James identifies Audrey as Lucy, having remembered Lucy as a boy. There is a lot of leads to think that Lucy has some type of power to neutralize the Troubled abilities, and that Audrey has inherited it as well. The final reveal though is that James injured Lucy severely all those years ago, and Audrey has the same scar, which implies Lucy and Audrey are one in the same.
The side story between Nathan and Duke seems to merely create the idea that they are starting to put their differences aside and come together, while the main story is a round about way to introduce the thought that Lucy and Audrey are in fact the same person. There is just one more episode of Haven, and I look forward to any more revelations about Audrey's past and her abilities. Is she really the same person, and in either case, what happened in such that Audrey just appeared somewhere and was taken in?
Other Thoughts
- Nathan and Duke finally come to terms with each other as they play poker with thousands in counterfeit bills.
- Nathan and Duke work well together as a con team.
Haven The Trial of Audrey Parker
In a semi recap episode, "The Trial of Audrey Parker" finds Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) and Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour) trapped on Duke's hijacked boat headed out to sea.
Audrey's FBI boss Agent Howard has come back to Haven to figure out what Audrey has been up to and why her reports are so thin in content and they both end up trapped on Duke's boat. Meanwhile, Duke and Julia are trapped in the ship's hold as a pair of mind reading casino con-artists look for one of Duke's off the books deliveries. We never find out the contents of the mysterious package, but in reality it doesn't matter. The interesting bit is that Agent Howard's arrival (and subsequently Parker's departure from the FBI) is actually part of an orchestrated plan to get Audrey to remain in Haven and track down the whereabouts of her mother and the origin of the Troubles, the mysterious happenings around Haven.
From reading the initial synopsis, seemed like a typical annoying recap episode. Fortunately, it was very light on the recap and merely talked about some of the cases Audrey worked on while spending a lot of time trying to retake the ship. The B-story involves defining a bit more of the relationship between Audrey's partner Nathan (Lucas Bryant) and his father Chief Wournos (Nicholas Campbell), and why Nathan hates him so much.
While initially not as strong as the similar show The X-Files, Haven is a well written and engaging show with a lot of acknowledgment to it's X-Files heritage and plenty of charm amongst its characters. Like the ships in the town of which the show is based, Haven has been a slow but steady show with great interpretations of classic mystery stories. With two episodes remaining this season, hopefully Haven will end on a strong point. It is a very underrated show, and you should definitely check it out from the starting episode.
Other Thoughts
- Audrey talks about "that other agent that chased aliens" which, to me, is a obvious reference to Mulder.
- What is the relationship between Chief Wournos and Agent Howard?
- While having mediocre ratings on SyFy-US, it has had very strong ratings on Showcase in Canada. Hopefully it's enough to get a renewal.
Warehouse 13 Reset
And with that, we are left with a bittersweet end to Warehouse 13 Season 2. Pete and Myka save the world from utter destruction via H G Wells, but it comes at a grave cost.
Warehouse 13, though originally thought of as good, but not that good, has finally come around to being a great science fiction show with a lot of appeal to a broad range of demographics. In tonight season finale, Pete and Myka must stop Helena from her utter quest to destroy the entire human race as punishment for the sins of humanity in general. The whole concept of her resurrecting her daughter was merely a red herring, as her daughter's death was the primary catalyst for her unbridled rage towards humanity. It ends up being an interesting social commentary on the idea that the world is so messed up that it needs to be wiped clean of people and allowed to start over again.
I think what appeals the most about this show is the idea that many of the things we learn about in history could have had some type of supernatural reasoning behind it in the form of the various artifacts. Many times, I take a moment to think about what historical relevance the case might have and how an artifact plays into our concept of its history. Sadly, it is unknown if there will be a third season, but the finale was written out in such a way that it could end as it is and satisfy the serial story arch advocates. Hopefully we'll have an announcement soon as to the show's fate, and I hope SyFy understands that their core audience truly enjoys these types of shows.
Other Thoughts
- With Myka leaving, would a new season revolve around getting her back or is she gone for good?
- Will there be a new Regent liasion after the death of Valda?
- Pete trying to make a the carpet fly was hillarious.
- Are the Regents going to unbury Warehouse 2 and collect its artifacts?
- How is everyone not insanely jet lagged from flying back and forward across the world multiple times with no breaks?