Swamp Thing 10 Basic story, badly told. First Jim-centric...

Swamp Thing 10

Basic story, badly told.

• First Jim-centric episode since number 7. He’s in pretty much all the scenes and the entire story is about a night he crept out of his house to go into the swamp to see a Swamp Maiden.
  
• It’s an odd story, typical for this show. And it’s badly told. Also typical. While the pace is good, the are many things left unexplained which is frustrating. It feels like a first draft, where another draft was needed to tell the story properly.
  
• The fight scenes are terrible. Just actors running towards each other, arms flailing.
  

5/10

Swamp Thing 09

Roscoe Lee Browne. Another episode that isn’t Jim-centric (in fact he doesn’t appear). This one is structured more as you would expect from a show called “Swamp Thing” in that - for a change - ST is central to the story and the focus on on his ongoing war with Dr. Arcane. It’s not a good story, a real make-it-up-as-you-go feeling pervades, but Browne is worth watching and it’s a change to see ST actually behaving like a protagonist. 4/10

Swamp Thing 08

Swamp Thing 07

Summer Phoenix .

• The dialogue between the two kids in all the early scenes is fairly awful.


• There’s a nice bit of misdirection concerning the new character Lilly. We are led to believe she is dangerous but, in the end, the clues we’ve seen mean something else.


• Compared to other episodes Swamp Thing is reasonably proactive in this one. He appears very little, but he saves Lilly during an attack (by causing high winds!?) and he brings her dead rabbit back to life (!!) in the last scene.


• No Dr. Arcane in this episode.

5/10

Swamp Thing # 006

Freak Show. Fascinating to watch. As random stuff keeps happening for no reason. A real make-it-up-as-you-go feeling pervades. 5/10

Swamp Thing 05

The dialogue is bad, and the episode has a clunky structure but there’s an interesting story buried under it all.

When you think about it, ST is quite an ineffectual superhero. In this tale he impacts upon the events three times: first he causes the problem to get started, then at the end he talks to some attacking foliage and (finally) he sends a young kid into danger (kinda) to save his own mother. 5/10

Swamp Thing 04

Another strange, atmospheric episode. Dreams play a large part in telling the story, and Swamp Thing again does nothing much. Mostly, he hangs around and frets. 6/10

Swamp Thing 03

• Not quite as strange as the first two episodes, but still an oddball mixture of events masquerading as a story.


• The main plot revolves a dying man who has stolen and hidden some money, while the secondary plot revolves around Swamp Thing trying to get out of Jim’s house.


• Performances are better, but some of the dialogue is clunky and the episode fades to black with many questions unanswered.

5/10

Wed, Dec 17, 08 - Sarah Connor, Hitchhiker, Swamp Thing

07.30 Worst Week
08.00 The Sarah Connor Chronicles
09.00 The Hitchhiker
09.30 Swamp Thing

Worst Week. Episode 6. "The Ring" Olympia Dukakis is somewhat wasted in this average episode. After six episodes we know what to expect: Sam means well, but is dogged by bad luck. You get the feeling that the writers have decided to cut the guy a small break, as Dick seems to have grown tolerant of him at this stage. It's nice, but it takes some of the edge off.

Anyway, in this chapter... Sam lets the baby swallow the wedding ring and has to wait for it to poop. When this does happen events conspire and he ends up destroying the Wedding Dress. Which suits Melanie who hated the dress.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Season 2, Episode 13. "Earthlings Welcome Here" The weakest episode of the season so far. Sarah is off on her own, obsessed with her vision of the three dots and unsupported by the rest of her team. She winds up in the middle of a group of UFO abductees, befriends one of them and ends up getting shot at some secret facility. It lacks the tension and coherence of most episodes of this great show. In general, I'm not enjoying this Sarah-is-obsessed-and-nobody-believes-her storyline.

The sub-plot, meanwhile, tells us Riley's backstory. It is much as we suspected. It's not great, but it is much better than all the Sarah stuff.

The Hitchhiker. Season 3, Episode 6. "Ghostwriter" One of the very best episodes. Willem Dafoe fakes his death to make his books sell better. His wife and his agent are happy to find him dead, since they are lovers, but his return complicates things. So a real murder is planned. However, all is not as it seems and the fast-paced script keeps you guessing as to who is really working with whom.

Swamp Thing. Episode 2. "Falco" It's an odd world, the world of the Swamp Thing. The bad guy of this one is a former bird who has been turned into a man by the evil Dr. Arcane. He makes an attempt on the evil scientist's life and then... does nothing much for a while. He just kinda wanders aimlessly. A bit like the script, really.

Jim, possibly the most annoying child ever featured in a TV series, falls out of a boat later on. And the bird/man saves him and learns a valuable lesson: it's not so bad being human.

Swamp Thing appears, too, and talks to the bird/man a couple of times without really accomplishing anything.

A very strange series.

Highlight? The Hitchhiker (twists galore)
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Wed, Dec 10, 08 - Logan's Run, Sarah Connor, Twilight Zone, Swamp Thing, Captain Power

06.30 Logan's Run
07.30 The Sarah Connor Chronicles
08.30 The Twilight Zone
09.00 Swamp Thing
09.30 Captain Power

Logan's Run. Episode 9. "The Judas Goat" It's all a bit slow-moving and serious, and there is a logic flaw at the start, but this is a very good story in several respects.

It starts off in the City Of Domes that Logan and Jessica ran from at the start of the series. The police force (the Sandmen) have created a double-agent (Nicholas Hammond) whose mission is to head out after Logan and fool him into coming back. He does this with ridiculous ease, making you wonder why the Sandmen don't just head out and ambush Logan since he is that easy to find.

Nevertheless, the stuff with the double-agent is very good. Before he leaves the City Of Domes he is brought to the council of rulers (last seen in the pilot) and learns to his surprise that all is not as it seems in the City. This short scene adds a nice political subtext to the series: corrupt city officials trying to keep the population in the dark, etc.

Once our double-agent finds/joins Logan the rest of the episode plays out like a typical adventure-of-the-week: the trio (now a quartet) find a hidden society and run foul of it's leader (the excellent Lance LeGault). That fact that one of the heroes is a double-agent (and we know it) makes the story much more interesting than it would normally be. Logan and the new guy have a strong dynamic. And this conflict between the 'heroes' is a nice change of pace for the show.

All in all it's a solid hour. Logan's Run is such a serious drama series, it's difficult to think of it as being only a couple of years older than Buck Rogers. The two shows are decades apart in style and sensibility. One is fluff and nonsense and the other (while flawed) is a very strong drama series with occasional flair in the storytelling.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Season 2, Episode 12. "Alpine Fields" Another flawless outing. And another example of this show's fantastic storytelling.

Derek is the main character this time out (with Sarah having a very strong b-plot). The story unfolds on three fronts: one in the far future, and two of them in the present day, but six months apart. It's the story of a family that (first) Sarah and (then) Derek are trying to protect from a determined Terminator.

Samantha Krutzfeldt almost steals the episode out from under Brian Austin Green, but not quite. Nevertheless, she makes quite an impression as two versions of the same young woman separated in time by six months of experience. The story leaves no opening for the character to return, which is a great pity, but given that Krutzfeldt is exceptionally beautiful she will undoubtedly appear on Supernatural before too long!

The Twilight Zone. Season 3, Episode 5. "Dream Me a Life" Absolutely superb. J. Michael Straczynski (once again) delivers a really great story, and Eddie Albert delivers a showcase performance.

Roger is living a quiet live in a friendly retirement home when he starts to have a series of vivid nightmares, when he meets a woman who is terrified of something trying to break down a door and get to her. She pleads for help. Over and over. It all means nothing to Roger until the same woman suddenly moves into the same retirement home. He tries to speak to her, but she speaks to nobody. She just sits there. In silence, shut off from the world. Next time Roger enters the dream to try and save the woman, he burns his hand and wakes to find the same burn on his hand here in the real world...

The dream sequences looks fantastic and Albert is fantastic to watch. On one occasion the camera just stays on him for a long passionate speech/rant and he covers about 96 different emotions and moods going from line to line. It's pretty cool, and Roger is one of the Zone's coolest heroes.

Swamp Thing. Episode 1. "The Emerald Heart" A strange concoction. Which probably owes something to Twin Peaks for it's odd flavour.

There's no story, as such, just a lot of random events involving a mad scientist, a kid and a mysterious 'monster' who dwells within the swamp.

Some of the cast are very, very weak and the lines they are given are often quite dreadful. There's no logical behind most of what happens. Characters regularly say and do things that make no sense, and don't serve the story.

It's really odd, and deadly serious.

Captain Power And The Soldiers Of The Future. Episode 1. "Shattered" Solid opening episode. It opens with a long, exciting action sequence and follows up with a good story of betrayal and loyalty.

Captain Power (who leads the resistance forces against evil Lord Dredd) gets a message from an old flame. He goes to meet her in the remains of San Francisco. Turns out that it's a trap. But there's more to it than that, and a fairly compelling reason behind her actions. Guest star Ann-Marie MacDonald gives 100% to the role and sells all the horror and pain that is needed to justify what the character does. She's amazing.

The regular cast comes across very well, too, with Jessica Steen in particular making a great impression as Pilot.

Highlight? The Sarah Connor Chronicles (blows me away, yet again)
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