Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
06:00 Tell Me You Love Me
07:00 Flash Gordon
10:00 State Of Mind
Tell Me You Love Me. Episode 1. Impressive opening episode to this new drama series about relationships. We are introduced to four couples and given a (very intimate) view of their lives and sex lives. It's a lot like watching Once And Again, but with graphic sex scenes! The cast are fantastic (particularly Ally Walker, who says so much with one look), the characters are likable, and the writing is painfully honest. It's extremely well-observed stuff, and I'm hooked.
Flash Gordon. Episode 4. The producers of this show got a lot of things wrong (casting, tone, setting, etc.) but they did get one thing right: they introduced us to the character of Baylin. This alien bounty-hunter, in exile here on Earth and helping Flash in his somewhat wishly-washy quest to find his father, is easily the best thing about the show. She's grumpy, she scowls at everyone, she's agressive, she climbs tall buildings at the merest provocation, she can really handle herself in a fight, she's swallows bombs (yes, she eats a bomb in this episode!) and she's sexy as all get up.
Pity the show build around her is so weak. This episode features some kind of morphing alien soldier coming to earth to kill scientists who worked on rift technology thirteen years ago. Why, exactly, Ming suddenly decides to pursue these scientists a this particular time is never dealt with. Neither is his reason for sending a morphing alien disguised as... Flash's long-lost father. You might think that he was sent in this manner to serve the story in some way. But, no, Flash and he never actually meet and - although Flash initially believes that this is his dad - by the time they first engage in gun battle he's already seen the alien do his morphing thing, so the father-aspect makes absolutely no sense.
But nothing in the episode makes sense. Ming sending the morphing soldier at all (never mind his odd choice of disguise) given that we learn in the closing seconds of the episode that he possesses a far superior method of retrieving things from Earth. Also, it seems that the entire future of the morphing-technology program depends on the success of this one soldier on this one mission. When the mission fails, Ming (in a very wishy-washy way, it must be said) orders the discontinuation of the entire program. Seems like a less-than-sound military decision. The failure of the mission having more to do with the fact that the soldier he sent is The Worst Shot Ever Seen In Any Motion Picture Or Television Series Or Comic Book. He continually misses Flash, Dale, Baylin and Zarkov when he shoots at them. He does, however, manage to hit things that are directly behind them! How do I know this, you ask? Well, given the poor FX it's hard to guage where exactly the lazer beams are going in any given scene, but - this I know for certain - things that are directly behind the heroes blow up when he shoots at them. It looks cool, but - c'mon - things that are directly behind them! Even more hilarious, later on, he shoots at Dale from close range and part of wall nowhere near her blows up. So, apparently Ming sent Mr. Magoo on the vital mission and then decided the morphing technology was at fault. Yeah...
There is also a lack of logic in the way Flash and Dale behave around her boyfriend. The actors playing the parts have zero chemistry, so there's no great belief in them as a couple. Flash and Baylin, however, have great chemistry (thanks to the casting) but there seems to be no push within the show to put them together. Yes, they've abandoned everything in the Flash Gordon mythology, but for some strange reason they are clinging to the idea of a Flash-Dale romance.
Anyway, I took a break from TV for a few hours after Flash Gordon. Not to go beat my head repeatedly against the wall, as you may think, but to go for a long walk, eat and converse with someone who doesn't even know there's a new Flash Gordon series. I've stuck with it for four episodes, but - I think - that may be as far as this passenger rides the train. We'll see.
State Of Mind. Episode 6. I love this show, but I was hoping they would continue to devote stories to the patients like they did in the opening episodes. Not so. This installment has three storylines. All are good, but they have nothing to do with psychiatry/therapy. It could be a show about lawyers or dentists at this stage. Heck, they could be aliens with morphing technology for the difference it makes.
Having said that, the stories this week were very, very good. One regular had to the deal with the posibility of becoming legal guardian to a nine year old, one regular had to deal with a father showing up while on the run from the law and - in the show's best storyline - one regular had to deal with a stalker. This plotline began in episode 4 and the cliffhanger to that episode was super creepy. Well, this episode had several scenes that went off the creep-o-meter. The confrontations between stalker and stalkee were rivetting. Genuinely scary.
But, my favourite show of the night was the opening episode of Tell Me You Love Me. Painful, quality drama.
Tell Me You Love Me, Flash Gordon, State Of Mind
