SUPERGIRL, SEASON ONE - A Quickie Review

It took time and effort and a network change and a promise to integrate it more into the Arrowverse, but I finally gave the first season of 'Supergirl' a chance. And I'm actually quite glad I did. Let's go to the only bar/coffee shop/restaurant in town and discuss it!

SPOILER WARNING - We're breaking down the major plot points and characters of the entire season, so...duh. There gon' be spoilers. 

Sometime last summer, I caught a bootleg of the pilot of 'Supergirl' and it was not impressive. Mostly, what it reminded of me of was that SNL sketch where Scarlett Johansson plays her Black Widow character but in a rom-com version of a superhero movie. How, oh how, does the strongest woman on earth manage her career as a lowly, underappreciated, abused assistant AND her crush on the new boy at work AND her obliviousness to the other guy at work who is obviously in love with her? It...was...rough. It felt at times like Ally McBeal, if she'd been from Krypton (and having Calista Flockhart play the bossy boss, Cat Grant, didn't help matters) I watched a couple of the first episodes when they aired on CBS, but didn't watch another until Grant Gustin crossed over in episode 18.

But when word came down that the show would be moving to the CW this fall, that Supergirl herself would be part of the now-annual crossover episodes, and that the series would aim to be more integrated into the Arrowverse as a whole, I felt compelled to give it a second shot. It was available on Netflix, so I started over again.

I am very glad I did.

Oh, there are some problems, to be sure. Some of the vibe from the weak pilot lingered for too long, the show occasionally looked cheap (while the Red Tornado episode is fantastic, the android itself looks pretty half-assed) and any time they relie on romantic entanglements to drive the plot, the show's momentum ground to a halt. But the show eventually found it's footing, and developed the characters in a way that made them enjoyable to watch, even when the week's major plot didn't feel so strong.

Look at that face! She's so sweet!

Let me start out by saying that Melissa Benoist is a wonderful Supergirl. She's plucky, sweet, and has the sort of "aw, shucks" face that makes you both like her and believe that she's putting on a distracting act in the same way Clark Kent does every day. Though the season starts out with her somewhat boring struggle to control her powers and her love life, her character evolves in a much more compelling way as the show goes on. One of the strongest episodes (the Red Tornado one) finds Kara having a difficult time dealing with her anger. The episode focuses on that anger so closely that when it's revealed that she's actually struggling with overwhelming grief, it is somehow a combination of surprising, obvious, and heartbreaking. Of course, she'd still be dealing with the loss of her parents, her culture and her world. She isn't Superman - she remembers Krypton, and she feels its absence much moreso than Clark. It's a fascinating concept for the show to explore, and provided a much needed boost of realism and pathos.

Other characters are fleshed out pretty successfully, too. Calista Flockhart's Cat Grant goes from one-dimensional bitch/boss to compelling and sympathetic mother figure to both Kara and Supergirl. One episode finds her believing that Kara IS Supergirl and as a viewer, I almost felt like, "well, maybe she should just tell Cat the truth." Chyler Leigh plays Kara's adoptive sister Alex. She doesn't get as much to do besides escort Kara into the world of the D.E.O. (more on that later) but she gives Kara someone to talk to, and narratively, that helps in the same way it helped for Batman to have a Robin. Heroes don't often just talk to themselves, so when they have another character whom they implicitly trust, they will let you know what's on their mind. Alex is a way into Kara's psyche.

Then there are the two guys, Winn (short for Winslow Schott, Jr, aka Toyman's son, which comes out in a particularly strong episode) who is in love with Kara, and Jimmy, er...James Olsen, fresh outta Metropolis, trying to make a name for himself out from under Superman's shadow, and with whom Kara enjoys a strong flirtation. Neither one of those plot lines is particularly compelling, but while Winn eventually makes himself useful by being the resident IT genius (think Cisco/Felicity) James doesn't really go anywhere as a character, and exists solely as someone for Kara to pine after. And that falls flat. I'm not sure if that's on the actor, Mehcad Brooks, or the writing, but either way, his character just doesn't work*. Elsewhere, Peter Facinelli brings his natural sleaziness to the recurring villain of Maxwell Lord. A stand-in of sorts for Lex Luthor, Lord hates Supergirl simply because she's alien and he don't trust her. That's. About. It. But he gets the job done, so I can't knock him too hard.

*Supergirl's second season premiere was this week, and it feels like the writers were just like "fuck it, it ain't working" because Kara basically dumps James with a "yeah, just not vibing you anymore. Sorry. #Friendzone" I don't have ill will for Mehcad Brooks, but if he leaves the show, I'm fine with it.

But I'm saving the best of the supporting characters for last. And that is David Harewood who plays D.E.O. chief Hank Henshaw, aka J'onn J'onzz aka MARTIAN FREAKIN' MANHUNTER! And boy, he does a wonderful job. His character evolves a great deal during the season, from no-nonsense boss, to mysterious boss, to secretive boss, to accomplice boss, to captive, fugitive, ally and back to boss. Harewood has a couple of really strong episodes, in the flashbacks focusing on the near-extinction of his race, and his first meeting with Kara and Alex's father (Lois and Clark's Superman, Dean Cain!). His stoic face and baritone voice gives those episodes a real pathos, and easily make him my second favorite character on the show. I don't think it was common knowledge that J'onn was going to be part of this show, but the slow reveal that he's a major character was done well, and goes a long way to making 'Supergirl' feel like a DC Universe show instead of just a one-hero world.

I haven't mentioned the season's primary villains yet; the kryptonian's Astra and Non - Kara's maternal aunt and her husband; and the coluan (Brainiac's race!) Indigo. While Astra's conflicted emotions about warring with her niece make her interactions with Kara somewhat interesting, Non and Indigo are pretty much lame. And Laura Vandervoort's blue make-up looks both cheap and like some terrible, unlicensed Brainiac knock-off. The plot of the season's big bads' is pretty weak, but thankfully, there's so much more happening on a weekly basis that their lightweight-ness doesn't hurt the series too bad.

Bottom line, this show got off to a promising start, but still has room to grow. And I think changing over to the CW might give it the boost it needs to put it on par with 'Arrow' and 'Flash'. They've already got strong and likeable characters, they just need to give them more to do. I feel being out of the overtly family-friendly confines of CBS is just the ticket. So I'm glad I was wrong when I dismissed it in the beginning, and I'll be tuning in from now on.


FINAL SCORE - 7/10

'Supergirl' now airs on The CW, Monday evenings at 8/7c

MARVEL'S LUKE CAGE - Season One - A TV Review

I'm back! I took a longer break than I'd anticipated, but you know what? It was needed and it was worth it, and now I'm back and ready to tackle the upcoming new seasons of comic book TV shows. Let's start off by dissecting the newest collaboration between Marvel and Netflix, Luke Cage!

Spoiler Warning - Oh, you bet your sweet ass this is gonna be chock full of spoilers, so consider yourself warned sucka!

It's been about what, ten months? Since 'Jessica Jones' dropped on Netflix and we were first introduced to Mike Colter's portrayal of Luke Cage. And what we saw was certainly promising - Colter's tough physicality and leading man looks definitely added to the success of 'Jessica Jones' and stoked up my interest in the series we all knew he would be headlining soon. So what's the verdict?

Honestly, kind of a mixed bag. There are moments of sheer brilliance, some really top notch acting - Colter, Mahershala Ali, and Alfre Woodard particularly stand out - but the plot is frequently unfocused and meandering. While this is not necssarily a bad thing, it can sometimes hamper the overall message of the finished product. Look, I think ambition, especially when working in the comic-book-adaptation genre, is to be aspired to and admired. But showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker wants to say so many things, that while most of it is worth saying (especially his various messages about the nature of being a black man in modern America) maybe some of them could have waited until season two, so that season one doesn't get bogged down in so much plot, and the occasionally ham-fisted speechifying.

While Colter, Ali, and Woodard are the biggest characters with the biggest arcs, other characters definitely stand out. A veteran character of the Luke Cage comics, Misty Knight, played here by Simone Missick, is the kind of cop I wish we'd see more of on TV: smart, capable, and willing to listen to both the evidence and her gut and seek the conclusion that makes the most sense. A native of Harlem, Knight has police IQ to have moved on to bigger and better things, but her loyalty to the neighborhood motivates her to keep it safe more than further her own career. Missick also has chemistry with her partner, Scarfe, played by Frank Whaley, a dude I haven't seen play a good guy since 'Career Opportunities'. So when we're told, fairly early on, that Scarfe is dirty, it comes as little shock. What is surprising however is that Misty, while ostensibly the "good cop" definitely has a dark side, and Scarfe, the "bad cop" has a backstory so heartbreaking that by the time his life hangs in the balance, you're rooting for him to live so that he can redeem himself.

Mahershala Ali brings a real sense of danger and charisma to Cottonmouth

The slow-burn nature of the series also affects the thing a good comic book hero needs most - a good villain. 'Luke Cage' breaks from the Netflix/Marvel pattern of having a season-long big bad. Unlike Daredevil's fight with Wilson Fisk, and Jessica Jones' battle with Kilgrave, Luke finds himself beset by several bad dudes, the most engaging of which is Cornell Stokes, aka Cottonmouth. Dressed to the nines, Ali plays Cottonmouth (he really hates that name) with such magnetism, I can't imagine why the writers would think "yeah, let's kill this dude halfway through the season" let alone act on that impulse.

So when he is killed at the hands of Black Mariah (Woodard), I found myself thinking, oh, ok, I guess she's the REAL bad guy of the season. And then she's supplanted by Willis Stryker, aka Diamondback, a few episodes later. Diamondback's sneering monologues are almost a diametric opposite of Cottonmouth's slick speeches, and I found myself missing Mahershala Ali's charisma nearly immediately. While Stokes' death does provide Woodard's Mariah Dillard with a powerful character turn, I wish we'd have spent more time with her than with the clearly batshit insane Diamondback. Played by Boardwalk Empire alum Erik LaRay Harvey, Stryker - while given a "tragic" backstory to motivate his hatred of Luke - is too much of a one-note psycho to be as interesting as Cottonmouth, or as compellingly  insidious as Black Mariah. And unfortunately, during his final battle with Luke, Coker and co. elected to put him in an outfit straight out of the comics that looks so dated and silly that I was unable to keep from rolling my eyes during what was otherwise a pretty badass fight. And then there's also Shades (Theo Rossi) a guy who evolves from lacky to genuine threat over the course of the season. He's interesting, for sure, but he's also one more dude to follow in an already full cast.

Shades, Diamondback, Black Mariah and Scarfe

Yet while the plot definitely takes its sweet time getting where it's going, it's never boring and most of the stories it slows down to tell are actually rather compelling. One in particular, the origin story of Luke's powers is fascinating because of the way it turns what we know about Luke's late wife on its head. When last we saw the late Reva Conners, she was Luke's beloved saint of a wife who was punched to death by Jessica Jones (while under Kilgrave's control). Reva's death was a painful ghost that hung over both Luke and Jessica in her series' first season. Yet Coker and company twist things up, first introducing Reva in that same saintly light before revealing her as a lying and manipulative cohort of the scientist whose inhumane experiments granted Luke his abilities. And yes, Reva eventually helped Luke in his escape from prison and they apparently did get married at some point, but the revelations we're given here change Luke's perception of his wife so much that he's able to more or less move past her death. And it also gives him enough freedom from his grief to gently pursue a relationship with Claire Temple.

Speaking of Reva and Claire, while there are numerous references to other MCU entities - particularly 'Daredevil' and 'Jessica Jones', the latter of which is actually pretty necessary to understanding a good portion of this series - 'Luke Cage' never feels too beholden to whatever else is going on in the Marvel world. Oh sure, there are plenty of easter eggs, and Justin Hammer's company plays a significant part in the story (under apparently a far more effective R&D leader, because the tech they provide to Stryker actually works). But with all the hubbub about Luke and his abilities (which become public knowledge as the season progresses) it does seem a bit weird that no one ever mentions The Avengers, or the events of Civil War/the Sokovia Accords or any of the other massive plot points that have to do with "protecting" normal humans from superhumans. That Chinese wall between Marvel films and TV appears to be holding up strongly, even when maybe it shouldn't be.

Despite the fictional public's uncertainty about Luke, in our real world, I can't imagine a better time to tell a story about a superhuman black man who wears a hoodie and is literally bulletproof. That is, until the police grow to fear him so much that they unwittingly get into bed with criminals so they can use bullets that WILL kill Luke. It says a lot about the current atmosphere of racial tension and fear in America, particularly between the police and black men. In an extraordinary, late-in-the-season sequence, we see many people in Harlem sporting bullet-riddled hoodies in a show of solidarity with Luke as the police publicly denounce him. It's also completely and totally badass that this sequence is shot over an original song from Method Man who has maybe the coolest cameo this side of Bill Murray in Zombieland. This is Coker's message at its best.

Shortcomings aside, Coker is clearly the right person for this job. And the reason I say it is because the way every shot it set up, the lighting, the composition of the frame, the set designs shows a real love and respect not just for the source material and characters, but for the other major character of this story - Harlem. As much as he as a million things to say about Luke, Coker has a million more to say about Harlem. And while sometimes he is eloquent, and other times less so, he is certainly and undeniably at his best when he lets his handpicked soundtrack do the talking. From the stage music in Cottonmouth's throwback club, Harlem's paradise, to the scoring, which sounds at times as though it could have come straight from a 70's blaxploitation movie, the music is the lifeblood of this series, and elevates even some weaker scenes and sequences into pretty good stuff.

It's abundantly clear Coker and the writers had a lot to say, and a lot they wanted to do, because they tried to do so much. I have no doubt 'Luke Cage' will be picked up for a second season, so maybe it would have been better served if some things had been left for later. That being said, this is still a very solid first season, and if/when Luke returns for season two (and there are several dangling threads that Power Man has to tie off if I'm to be satisfied!) I'll definitely tune in and binge watch the shit out of it.


Final Score - 7/10

Misty Knight and Luke will be back for The Defenders

All thirteen episodes of 'Luke Cage' are currently streaming on Netflix. Luke will next be seen in next year's ensemble mini-series, Marvel's The Defenders, where we'll see him team up and kick ass with Daredevil, Jessica, and Iron Fist. Sweet Christmas, I can't wait!

LUCIFER, SEASON 1 - A Quickie Review

From the minds of Neil Gaiman and Mike Carey comes...a Jerry Bruckheimer produced TV series about the devil?? Huh?

Spoiler Warning - for the TV series only, though really, there's not much to spoil. 

'Lucifer' the comic is a dense, cerebral, thoroughly serious and brooding exploration of the character of the one-time lord of Hell. A supporting player in Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman: A Season of Mists', Lucifer Morningstar is bored and disillusioned by the realization that he's still playing a part in God's plan. He abandons hell, no longer interested in the torment of the damned and relocates to Los Angeles, where Mike Carey's spin-off series picks up. Carey's series goes way off the deep end, with angelic duels, japanese demons, the machinations of hellish aristocracy, alternate dimensions, the birth of a new God, and Armageddon itself. Amazing though it is, as it's written, 'Lucifer' would be unfilmable. Yet now it's a TV series about to enter its second season.

One of these Lucifers has no penis.

Developed by Tom Kapinos (whose résumé includes the stunningly vapid and absurd, if not still amusing 'Californication') and Jerry Bruckheimer (the man primarily responsible for bringing us Michael Bay, so insert "real devil" jokes here) 'Lucifer' the TV series abandons all but the  barest bones of the premise and resets the deeply philosophical series as a largely light-hearted police procedural.

Still based out of his swanky bar called Lux (though it's now a hoppin' nightclub instead of a elegant piano bar) the former King of Hell is profoundly different from his comic counterpart. So different in fact, that it's nearly pointless to compare the two, because there's really nothing to compare (It's like trying to compare Affleck's Batman to Adam West's - you can try, but why bother?). But can we still appreciate a show that bears little resemblance to the source material? 'Preacher' strayed, but just wasn't very good. 'Outcast' didn't stray very far, but had a great first season. So where does 'Lucifer' fall on that spectrum?

The answer is probably closer to failure than success. Yet I can't completely write it off and tell you that it's atrocious and I hated it. Because I don't. I can't say it's good, but what I can tell you is that it has one solidly good thing going for it, and that's the devil himself, played by Welsh actor Tom Ellis. Getting by solely on his charm, Ellis plays Lucifer as an unrepentant hedonist who finds himself drawn into the intrigue surrounding the various humans he comes into contact with. And the pilot serves him up a human he finds fascinating in Detective Chloe Decker, played by Lauren German. In possession over the power to make people confess their deepest desires and make women swoon with minimal effort, Lucifer finds himself curious why Det. Decker seems to be totally immune to his "charms" (yet in a funny bit, not immune to Amenadiel's, which pisses off Lucifer mightily) This sort of romantic chemistry which mixes sexual attraction with genuine affection gives their chemistry a very clichéd will they/won't they vibe which will eventually cause problems when Chloe starts to fully understand who Lucifer really is. 

Chloe Decker and Lucifer Morningstar

German is one of those actresses who just flat-out looks like an actress. It's unfortunate for her, because I don't for one second buy her as a cop, or as a mom. But she has enough chemistry with Lucifer that it's tolerable. Ellis plays Lucifer as a wide-eyed and eager helper, someone with absolutely no filter (he frequently and casually tells Chloe the truth about his divine origin and hellish nature, but he does it with such cheer and forthrightness that she thinks he's just being a weirdo) who gives in to every impulse, expresses every thought, and is devoted to a new god: fun. Chloe, on the other hand, is very clearly the straight-man to Lucifer's almost zany sidekick. When they're just talking, they do have a good rapport, and it's funny that he's supremely uncomfortable around children and treats Chloe's daughter the way one might treat an annoying dog. Yet when they're "working" it just seems entirely implausible that she'd tolerate his endless interference.

And so we can now touch on the low-point of the series, which is the policing aspect. There's no other way to put it...it's boring as hell. Nearly every single episode features a murder and a whodunit, and not a single one of them was interesting. It also undermines the entire reason Lucifer abandoned Hell; though he was sick of torturing humans for all eternity, now he somehow finds himself compelled to track down the guilty and make sure they face "justice". It just doesn't work, however, because he almost never uses his power to either expose the bad guys or kill them. Instead he just kinda follows Chloe along, occasionally spouting uncomfortable exposition. It's a weakness of the series that seriously damages its chances at greatness.

Wayne Palmer stars as the angel Amenadiel

Yet there are interesting parts of the show. Whenever the story just focuses on the interaction of the main characters - Lucifer, Decker, Lucifer's sometime paramour, Mazikeen (nicknamed Maze), his antagonistic and angelic brother, Amenadiel, and Lucifer's therapist, Dr. Martin (oh yes, Lucifer has a therapist and their back-and-forth is certainly a highlight of the series) the stories tend to thrive. When it explores the idea that Lucifer hated being in charge of hell, and that he never wanted to torture the human souls that ended up there, but they literally brought it on themselves, then it shows glimpses of Gaiman's and Carey's original ideas. When they dig into the mythology, the show thrives. But then Lucifer repeatedly shows up at various crime scenes, while no other cops seem to care or mind that a civilian is butting in, and any previous momentum comes to a screeching halt.

As frequently annoyed as I was, 'Lucifer' is a show I'll keep watching. It's a show that can be pretty good, at times, though I don't know if it can ever be great. It's entertaining enough and it hints at some ideas that can elevate it above the police schlock that hinders it. I can't say for sure that I'll review it regularly when season two kicks off next month, but I'll watch it and maybe check in a few times throughout the season. Especially with Tricia Helfer and Michael Imperioli joining the cast - I love those guys. I certainly hope they find a narrative sweet spot. The show can't coast on charm forever.


FINAL SCORE - 6/10


Lucifer returns to Fox, Monday Sept. 19 at 9/8c

OUTCAST - Ep. 10, Season Finale - This Little Light - A TV Review

'Outcast' wraps up a stellar first season with an intense, thrilling, and worthy season finale! Let's get it started!

SPOILER WARNING - This post contains spoilers for the TV series only, because they're breaking from the comic books (as far as I know - I'm like a month behind on that...sorry)

Holy! Macaroni! (get it??? macaroni?? Because Aaron's last meal was some shitty off-brand mac and cheese!)

I really hope the makers of 'Preacher', a show I can't help but constantly (unfavorably) compare with 'Outcast', were watching because that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do a season finale! It was pretty damn close to perfect, and I absolutely loved it. And really, it was a damn fine way to close out what has been a great inaugural season for this show.

Throughout the season, there have been various threads that were somewhat related, but never really tied much into one another. Despite the fact that they weren't overtly connected, it never felt like they had nothing to do with one another, because they were clearly all part of the same weird shit that was going on all over Rome. But "This Little Light" brought every major character and every major plotline into swift and sudden contact with a very fluid and organic feel. Ogden's weirdness led into his allegiance to post-possession Kat, which led into conflict with Kyle and Anderson by virtue of them taking in post-Megan to help her usher in whatever entity was living in her. Aaron kidnaps Amber and brings her to Sidney, Kat and Ogden, Giles and his wife help deal with the more practical elements in the aftermath of Mark's death. Everything tied together so neatly, and not in a way that felt remotely forced.

The story itself was wonderfully constructed, but it was also well executed, too. The climactic showdown was tense and thrilling, with no one (except Kyle, but we'll get back to this in a moment) feeling particularly safe from death. Adding a time element helped ratched up the tension, too, since Sidney established that once a demon has been in control of a body for a certain amount of time, exorcising it destroys part of the human soul. Megan essentially spent the entire episode as a ticking time bomb of sorts, and saving her in time became just as important as saving her at all.

Hard to see given how dark it is, but this one looks different to me

Speaking of Megan, yet again, we're treated to really great work from Wrenn Schmidt, who plays her possessed self with remarkably convincing confusion. Post-Megan's curious poking of Mark's dead eyeball was an effective and icky, and really sold just how clueless these entities are about the world they're jumping into. One thing that caught my attention was that when Megan was vomiting out the...demon/entity/whatever, it seemed to be quite a big bigger, and more tentacley than other black goops we've seen in the past. I wonder if that was deliberate or if I just didn't notice it before, but, again, it makes me question just what the hell these things are...

I also want to take a moment to throw the spotlight on little Amber Barnes, played by Madeleine McGraw. Aside from being totally adorable, she's a great actress, playing a wide range of natural emotions, in an endearing yet strong way. And the revelation that she has the same "superpower" as Kyle can only serve to complicate and endanger the pair of them. It was a great twist.

And so was Anderson accidentally killing Aaron (or so we assume). I don't think anyone actually thought he succeeded in burning Sidney to death inside his trailer, so that twist did feel a bit telegraphed. Especially since we saw Aaron hanging around in there uninvited multiple times over the last three episodes. But what does make this development interesting is that, as an audience...does anyone really care that Aaron is dead? No, that kid was an asshole*... what we really care about is how Anderson is going to carry this. Patricia may indeed never find out what happened to Aaron, because once Giles tells her (not seen last night, and I'm assuming will be broached next season) that Aaron was wanted for kidnapping, she and everyone else might just assume he split town. So really, all we're left with is how Anderson is going to feel about unintentionally murdering someone who was evil, but not the evil he was aiming for. Will the guilt force him to confess, will it bother him at all? Will he feel like Aaron had it coming anyway? (He did.)

*Aaron really was a bad kid, and his blanket hatred of everyone and everything was kind of annoying, so i'm glad he's gone. But I did like the look Sidney gave him once Aaron said he was down for whatever plan Sidney had -- Brent Spiner just pulled a face that was basically like "wow...i really underestimated how genuinely villainous this little ginger freak is." And while certainly won't mourn his death, I'm sure we're all going to feel sorry for Patricia once she finds out...if she finds out.

Despite the many answers from the season finale, we've still got a lot of questions leading into next season:

Why do they keep calling Kyle "outcast"? What does it mean? What are they trying to suck out of him?

What are they? What do they want? What are they planning?

What is Sidney, really?

Where are Kat and Ogden?

How is Anderson going to deal with Aaron's death? How is Megan going to deal with Mark's death?

Is Amber exactly the same as Kyle? Is she "outcast", too? And if she has the same power as him, does that make one of them expendable? Is Kyle, the character, safe from death? Is Amber?

Overall, I feel like this season finale was just the right amount of satisfying. The immediate threat was dealt with, but the bigger danger still looms. Some mysteries have been solved, and others remain. It's enough to make the wait for next year just the right amount of unbearable. We don't feel cheated out of a cathartic ending, and we're still compelled to return next year to see what Kirkman, Kyle and Co. have in store for us and for the poor, hapless sonsabitches of Rome, West Virginia.

I'm willing to bet, though, that it'll be pretty damn good!

EPISODE FINAL SCORE - 9.5/10

SEASON ONE FINAL SCORE - 9/10

Cinemax has already renewed 'Outcast' for season two, so I'll be back with more reviews next year! woot woot!

PREACHER - Ep. 10, SEASON FINALE - Call and Response - A TV Review

Preacher's season finale closes the door on a lot of things, including my patience. Let's wrap this charlie foxtrot up, yeah?

SPOILER WARNING - Spoilers for the TV show and the comic book. Like, for serious. Spoilery-ass spoilers. 

I really don't know what to say to that. Everything I feared about the first season of 'Preacher' was realized in the season finale.

Sometime after I watched the pilot, an idea formed in the back of my head. I dismissed it as stupid - nobody could be that stupid - and it faded into the distance of my mind. Then about four weeks ago, the idea popped back up, and I thought "well...maybe." But again, I thought, nobody could do something so idiotic. And then, two weeks ago, when Jesse told Quincannon he wanted one more sermon to help bring God to the people, I thought, "holy shit, they're actually going to do it.They're going to kill everybody in the season finale."

But I held out hope throughout "Call and Response" that at the last minute, I'd be proven wrong. And when I saw Jesse's parishioners file out of the church after the exposure of the impostor God (while Emily hilariously trolled them with some ? and the Mysterians), I breathed a sigh of relief. The town made it. They got out of the church alive. Thank god!

And then they all were all killed when the entire town exploded.

Why? Because somewhere several months ago, when constructing their idea of what this show should be, Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg decided to take what happened in the first issue of "Preacher" and instead of having it happen in the pilot, or 3-5 episodes in, they'd wait until the end of the first season to wipe out most of the cast, save the three leads. Now, why did they decide to do that? Who the fuck knows. There is no "why" that serves this story, and even more damning, there is no story that is served by this ending.

Oh sure, we have the story from the comic book - Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy riding around America searching for God with the Saint of Killers on their ass, but Catlin/Rogen/Goldberg didn't tell us that story for the entire season. It only just came up. They wasted our time for ten episodes half-assedly investing us in Jesse's desire to save Annville, investing us in the lives of the townspeople and their relationships - Emily, Sheriff Root, Donny and Betsy, Odin Quincannon. And killing them all now serves no obvious purpose beyond what I hope wasn't the case - that it'd be funny.

In a way, the season finale was a microcosm of everything wrong with this failed first season. Some part of it were good - very good, even - but in the end, a lot of it was just plain unnecessary and didn't really accomplish much.

There were several good laughs. The intro of Jesse running past Mabel as the cops chased him in a car got a pretty good one from me - it was very Wile E. Coyote. Donny and Betsy exuberantly engaging in some spanking play, only to have it interrupted by Tulip's unwanted violence was a clever twist. And Emily's wicked grin when she started playing "96 Tears" as the congregation filed out really made me laugh.

There were some really great dramatic scenes, too; Sheriff Root (Jesus Christ, can W. Earl Brown just win all the awards for his overall amazing body of work?) questioning Cassidy was an amazing sequence, both for Brown and Joseph Gilgun. The Angel Impostor's impression of Jesus was very well executed - he came across with just the right amount of "is this for fucking real? this IS real!...this can't be real" to keep the suspense going for as long as it did. And the brief reveal of Quincannon's meat daughter, along with finally and clearly showing us that he is a man crippled by grief and hate, was especially poignant.

All that good stuff wiped away by an inexplicable underground bunker of cowshit that made no sense at all.

But for all of the good stuff, there was Jesse's decision that murdering Carlos was ok now. Keep in mind, this happened prior to the revelation that God was missing, so the town's nihilism hadn't taken root yet. Why the sudden change of heart? "Yes, I'm intending to call God tomorrow, but today? Murder!"

There was the revelation that Tulip lost a baby to the aftermath of Carlos' envy - which should have had more impact than it did. Because Jesse and Tulip spent the entire season bickering, and all we ever saw was her childish and stubborn pining of him, I never felt any sort of connection to them as a couple, and therefore the fact that they suffered a miscarriage carried all the weight of two complete strangers having to deal with a tragedy. Yes, we pity them, but we don't really have an emotional stake in their sadness.

There's the teaser for what's undoubtedly a major part of next season's story, the Cowboy is on their ass now. And though we only spent maybe twenty minutes with the Cowboy throughout the entire season, it wasn't necessary that we spend any time with him at all. We didn't need his origin right now. We didn't need to know that he was in hell, or why. We didn't even need to see him before the final shot of the episode. If they'd wanted to hold back on the Saint for the entire season and only show him in those closing seconds, the show would not have been affected much. In fact, I think that would have actually been a hell of a lot cooler, and I guarantee the comic fans would have lost their shit when they got a surprise entrance from the Saint of Killers.

And once again, we saw Cassidy essentially defending the showrunners by invoking the Coens again, in another of own his Anti-Lebowski tirades. Now, here's the thing guys: 'The Big Lebowski' was silly and surreal and zany, but it still told a pretty simple story. And it told it well. It didn't waste a large portion of time with unnecessary stuff, and even when it stopped for a hallucination sequence, it still fit within the context of the characters. And it was funny! So if you're going to compare yourselves to anyone, don't compare yourselves to the fucking Coen Brothers. You've not earned that right yet. Not by a long shot.

Overall, I have to call this first season a pretty big failure. I'm pretty bummed about that. I love the comic - a lot. I had my doubts about the creative crew behind this series, and I fear that my doubts were well founded. It wasn't a complete failure; when it succeeded, it did so pretty admirably. But when it fell short, it fell way fucking short. And the first season is too early to start deliberately fucking with your audience, which is the only reason I can see for making the decisions they made to wrap up the finale.

Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg: you have good actors and good source material. Fix this mess, or I won't be back for next season.



FINAL SCORES - Episode - 6/10
                               Season - 5/10

OUTCAST - Ep. 7 - The Damage Done - A TV Review

The pieces are moving into position as we head into the final trio of episodes for season one of 'Outcast'. Let's dive in, yeah?

Spoiler Warning - spoilers for the show and the comic, up in here, up in here.

Really, not much happened in "The Damage Done", and yet it was still a pretty compelling hour of TV. When you have a bunch of people you're actually interested in following, not every single week has to be fighting demons, and shrieking black masses of goo that try to strangle you. And while the subplots of the Reverend, Chief Giles, and Megan and Mark all moved forward, we didn't see much resolution. With the exception of the Allison storyline, this mostly played like an episode that needed to get folks into position for the season's final act. And I'm fine with that, because I like everyone involved (though, I'm bordering on pity for Anderson because that poor sonofabitch is just having a rough go of it lately)

Let's talk about Allison, Kyle, and Amber first, though, because damn...that business was rough. Sad, and poignant, but rough as hell.

Now that they've removed the tension of is-she-or-isn't-she-possessed from Allison's story, we can see that much clearer how badly she's struggling with life in her post-separation world. And before, when we might have been in the dark about how much Amber remembers about what happened, we're not anymore - and neither is Allison. The horror that washes over Kate Lyn Sheil's face when she remembers viciously strangling her own kid is both painful and disturbing (and great work as an actress). Amber remembers everything, and still harbors anger and fear toward her mother, and more importantly, doubt about which mother she's going to get on a day-to-day basis.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I said divorce is so traumatic that the side effects of its aftermath were being presented as similar enough to demonic possession to make a specialist like Kyle sit up and take notice? Well, Amber noticed, too. And as worried and scared as Kyle was, imagine feeling that when you're six years old. And as Allison, Sheil puts all that realization across her face in every scene. Even her love scene with Kyle isn't played as particularly sexy or gratuitous - it's the desperate act of a woman who is horribly sad, alone, and afraid. She knows everything bad that has happened is her fault (though only in the most technical sense of the word, since I'd hardly blame her for her actions under possession, and we don't know how much she knows about that - at this point, she may blame herself 100%), and as obviously painful as it is for her to leave, Allison can't bear the thought of both potentially endangering her child again and...just facing her daughter, knowing that she nearly killed her. It's hard and haunting and ugly, but definitely in keeping with what we've seen of how emotionally fragile Allison has been thus far. This didn't happen in the comics, so I'm hoping that Allison comes back. Both because I want Kyle to be happy, but also because I really dig KLS's performance.

As for the rest of our peeps, both Anderson and Giles seemed to have grown weary of fuckin' around, and they both went right after the bad guys they'd been eyeing. Anderson called Sydney out in public, labeling him The Devil (whether or not Sydney is the devil is still up for debate in both comic and TV show, but I think he definitely could be. and Brent Spiner is definitely giving off a sort of superior malevolence), but mostly looking like a deranged old man in the process. After the crowd sees pentagrams on both the defaced and carved into Anderson's chest, they may think he did both things himself. Even Patricia's douchebag son has to offer some snotty commentary.

Giles, on the other hand, plays it much cooler, and though he confirms Ogden isn't possessed, it raises the original question with even more fervor: what the hell was he doing out there the woods that he'd want to hide so bad, he'd light a fire? If we didn't already mistrust and dislike Ogden before, his whole "yeah, you should have died, too" aside to Kyle was pretty douchey. So I hope Giles gets his ass.

But Ogden IS human (or so we currently believe) and so is the demon haunting Megan and Mark. Once again, Wrenn Schmidt kills it in nearly every one of her scenes, whether pleading with her former rapist to take every cent she has in the world, or angrily admitting the full truth about her past to Mark, she plays it all with gut-wrenching sincerity. And, with Donny being the complete piece of shit he is, of course he'd take the money and still rat out Mark. Donny may not be possessed, but he's evil. And his sort of evil is just as frightening and unpredictable as the demonic kind. Except Kyle can't just lay hands on him to get rid of it, so I have to wonder...how much worse are M&M going to let Donny make their lives before one of them is compelled to drastic action?

So like I said, even though not much happened in the episode, it was still an instance of the stakes being raised considerably, which elevated what could have been a kinda boring episode into a pretty good one.

Only three more to go this season.



FINAL SCORE - 7.5/10

 
Outcast airs on Cinemax, Friday nights at 10/9c

PREACHER - Ep. 9 - Finish The Song - A TV Review

Perhaps realizing that their paper is due in the morning, Catlin/Rogen/Goldberg finally stopped dicking around and put the pedal to the metal. A lotta shit went down in this episode, so let's see what's what now that the dust has settled, shall we?

 

Spoiler Warning - heads for the comic, tails for the TV show...

Jesus H. Christ, Emily...what the fuuuuuuuuuh....?

As far as unrequited love resolutions go, "feed Miles to convalescent vampire" was not exactly what I was expecting. Granted, my expectation for where next week's season finale is heading hasn't changed, despite Emily's decision to FEED MILES TO A GODDAMN VAMPIRE! I'm still pretty sure where things are going, ALTHOUGH MILES WILL MISS IT BECAUSE HE'S DEAD BECAUSE EMILY FED HIM TO A GODDAMN VAMPIRE!!

But in the end, it may not even matter. EXCEPT THAT IT DOES!!

Talk about your dark horses, man. I didn't think straight-up murder was in Emily's playbook, but if there's one thing this show is trying to teach you, it's that even the cute mom next door is capable of cold-blooded executions.

But all that being said, Miles may have had it coming a bit. And not because he is a rival to Jesse for Emily's affections, or because he was complicit in Quincannon's murder spree from a few episodes back. But because it really creeped me out the way he said "I'm staying over tonight" on the phone. The malignancy of the Miles' words comes across more in its intent than his actual tone. It wasn't exactly an explicit threat of rape, but it definitely felt like it was down the road from it. An expectation of sex, and Emily would have no choice. And perhaps that vague air of menace from Miles is what gave Emily the push she needed to feed him to a goddamn vampire.

And while Emily has been a soft touch, constantly presented in contrast to Tulip's unapologetic hard one, this week saw them both dispatching unwanted gentlemen, with Tulip finally clipping the dangling thread of Carlos. It's an interesting ride she's been on the last three episodes. While I'm mostly just grateful that she hasn't been nearly as annoying, seeing Tulip wash her hands of Jesse was unexpected. And it does point to her growth as a person that she's not sitting around Annville anymore waiting for Jesse to come to his senses (or at least, to Tulip's own deranged perception of what his senses should be). We're tricked, in the end, to think Tulip is listening to Jesse profess his love (really awkwardly, too) on her answering machine, but she's already in the ABQ, ending Carlos with a damn meat tenderizer.

Jesse, meanwhile, appears to be brushing up on his bro code, as he decides that apologizing to Cassidy should come with a complimentary mayoral corpse disposal. Cassidy's scenes with Jesse always shine with real chemistry within the banter, and this week is no exception. It was just made even more darkly funny by the fact that they forgave and forgot over Miles' exsanguinated body, and while Cassidy was looking like a 150-year-old football that goes to the tanning salon every day.


Aside from all this time spent with the core foursome, much of the main plot moved forward, and other previously disparate storylines have started to come together. The Seraph is back at full soccer-mom power, having been mercy-strangled by the bereaved Sheriff Root. Fiore and DeBlanc hilariously try to talk themselves into mustering the courage to return to Heaven (the coin toss was a bit of inspired comedy from Brook and Yusef), and finally the Saint...er, the Cowboy's role in all this is revealed.

The revelation that the Cowboy's been living in the Ratwater circle Hell, and having to relive what we can assume is the worst few days of his life was an interesting take on the inferno. It is a big departure from his origin in the books, and while that might have been outside their budget, I actually like this original idea. Though it's unclear how much the Cowboy understands of what is going on in every cycle, it would explain why he didn't seem in that big a hurry a few episodes back when his daughter's life was on the line. If she's always going to be dead when he gets home, why rush? But now he's got a couple angels there with a whole new target for him to gun down. We'll see how well that goes. I'm sure he'll bring his sword.


Overall, I feel like this may have been 'Preacher's best episode yet - or at least, it's most complete. It wasn't that it was particularly flabbergasting, though again - Emily fed Miles to a goddamn vampire, and that shocked the hell outta me - but it was, for the first time, a fully-realized and well-constructed, fluid story. And that, for damn sure, is progress.

Next week's the finale. And I'm pretty sure at this point, I'm gonna be pissed by the ending.

Cowboy-level pissed.


FINAL SCORE - 8/10

Preacher's Season Finale airs Sunday night at 9/8c on AMC

OUTCAST - Ep. 6 - From the Shadows It Watches - A TV Review

Kyle takes a backseat of sorts as Reverend Anderson's crisis of faith reaches a ...um...crisis point.

Crap.

Whatever, let's talk 'Outcast'.

Anderson's tattoo goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Spoiler warning - tv show spoilers, comic spoilers...warned!!! 

Even if this week's episode of 'Outcast' wasn't chock full of action, I'd still call it a success because Kirkman and co. ratcheted up the tension to a point where it feels like danger and disaster loom around every corner and behind every shadow. When Kyle can't even look at a hot bucket of tar without losing his shit, you know things have gone pretty sideways. And even though the various subplots of the episode don't directly tie into one another, it feels like they do, because they all feel like they're reaching a crescendo of just straight-up bad news.

Kyle seems to be having a good little week at first. He's found himself a job tarring roads (which sounds like hell to me, but I suppose when the entire town hates you, you take what you can get) and is earning enough money to both keep him in beer and pizza AND to send a bit to Allison and Amber. He has a lighthearted lunch with Megan, and yet when she reveals Allison doesn't want Kyle's money, he seems to take it in stride.

Of course, this all goes tits up when Mildred decides she wants a hit of whatever mojo Kyle has in his breath. In an extremely creepy scene, Grace Zabriskie returns to beat the shit out of Kyle and then suck the whatever out of him until an unseen force pulls her off. And the fact that her hummel figurines are her own version of a Joker card just makes it all the creepier, if you ask me.

Mildred's attack sends Kyle into a downward spiral. The assault leaves him unconscious and bleeding, and hallucinations cause him to walk off the job. He's powerless. And really, it's the first time we've seen the adult Kyle truly  afraid. He has always approached the possessed from a position of, if not power, then at least caution and awareness. Yet this time, he's caught unaware, and gets pummeled by a little old lady who could have killed him were it not for someone else's intervention. Obviously, this has to leave him feeling pretty uneasy. So despite his conviction to stay away from Anderson, that's where he finds himself heading.

During her picnic with Kyle, Megan gets a phone call from Donny. Once he reveals that Mark beat the everlovin' tar outta him, then we really start to see that, despite their love for one another, Megan and Mark have some serious trust issues. Megan kept Donny a secret from Mark, Mark kept his attack a secret from Megan and now they're sleeping in separate rooms as Mark's choices have a major impact on Megan's state of mind. What is truly sickening though is that Donny is still turning the screws on Megan. His despicable attempts to blackmail her only serve to show that he deserved every bit of the ass-kicking Mark gave him. Once again, 'Outcast' shines a light on the mindset of a rapist, which I feel is pretty damn important in our current state of affairs. Donny isn't some creepy looking monster. He's a not-unattractive tire salesman, who publicly says the right thing, and privately spews venom. And in the context of this series, it makes him even more frightening, because his actions are not caused by demonic possession -- that's just who he is. A villain.

Chief Giles, too, is dealing with a man who seems to be A-OK on the outside. His buddy Ogden always has an answer, says the right things, but Giles knows he's lying. Once Mark finally tracks down the "missing" girl from the camper, she too says the right things. She was never missing, her DNA is all over the town (charming) and she was never in any danger. Yet she heads right over to Ogden's to compare notes and cover their asses. And while all this is going on, Giles has to deal with Anderson, too. He's got a stressful job, the chief.

At the heart of this episode, though, is Reverend Anderson, whose crisis of faith is reaching a boiling point. After shutting her out, Anderson pulls Patricia into his currently-failing exorcism, as if he needs a sounding board to convince himself both that God is on his side, and that Kyle isn't particularly special. That he is not a failure. He even cuts his hand open, believing any blood will have the same effect on the possessed as Kyle's blood. But once we learn that it's Caleb who is down in the basement, that Anderson can't save him, that he may not even want to be saved, and that faith and God's protection won't save you from either possession or a pissed-off Sydney carving a pentagram into your chest, Anderson is finally defeated. He can't honestly believe that God is on his side anymore. It's not a crisis of faith anymore...it's just a crisis.

Going back to Caleb for a moment, he underscores a lot of the same things Mildred first brought up in her conversations with Anderson. Caleb spoke of how good it felt to be "possessed" which raises the question of what is truly happening with them. Is it just like Anderson said, the seduction of evil? Or could it possibly be something more? Beyond that, Anderson has to feel even more like a failure for not being able to save arguably the most devout member of his flock; evil right under his nose. Again. And he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

It was a turning point episode for both of the main characters - Kyle learning he can't hide from whatever this darkness is anymore, and Anderson, that he can't fight it alone. And while this storyline may not directly tie in to the Megan/Mark/Donny, or maybe even Chief Giles (we have't seen anything yet there that can definitely be said to be demonic), every single person on this show is dealing with some very frightening shit. And that palpable sense of dread permeates every plot, making it all seem intertwined.

Great episode.



FINAL SCORE - 8/10

Outcast airs on Cinemax, Friday nights at 10/9c

PREACHER - Ep. 8 - El Valero - A TV Review

Well, a lot of stuff definitely happened in this week's episode of 'Preacher'. The pieces moved for sure, just not very far. Let's break it down, ok?

Jesse goes all Butch Cassidy on your ass

Spoiler Warning - not just for the show, but for the comic it's based on, too. You be warned.

Last week I opined that despite episode seven ending with the promise of a violent altercation between the Quincannon faction and the Preacher, episode eight would somehow find a way to underwhelm. And to an extent, I was wrong. But also...not. For once, though, 'Preacher' didn't do much meandering this week. The story was pretty straightforward (if a little underwhelming), and the couple of subplots tied directly into other things we've seen this season. 

Nice day to assault a church in front of law enforcement

In the church, Jesse fends off Quincannon's goons like he's holding down the Alamo. When some men breach the inside of the church, in the aftermath we're told (no, we don't actually see) that Jesse quickly, efficiently, and brutally disarms them. I know the 'Preacher' production has a relatively limited budget, but sometimes it feels like we're not shown the action because they can't afford it. And even if that's the case, it should never feel that way. (The shark didn't work, but 'Jaws' sure as fuck did, because Spielberg knows how to tell a fluid story. My point is, even if the budget is the reason for not showing something, the not-showing-whatever shouldn't feel so jarring). But a lot is going on inside the church, even as Quincannon and his mean regroup outside and come up with ways to drag Jesse out. I mean, those boys need a food court, amirite?

Sidenote - I did love Donny's pretty clever, yet totally batshit crazy, plan to render himself immune to Jesse's powers. Given all we've seen of Donny this season, and they way they made it seem like he was suicidal, it was a pretty good payoff for an inconsistent subplot. Kudos.

While Jesse holds off the not-Mexican Army, he's interrupted by a few guests. The first is Eugene, who crawls up through the dirt and the hole in the floor Jesse tore open last week. These scenes were awkward, though one could argue it's deliberate. Jesse's words seem stiff, and his apologies feel a bit ham-fisted. But then you notice that Eugene's behavior is a little off, too. At first, he claims that Jesse's order compelled him to start climbing up (straight-up chill-inducing exchange: Jesse: You dug your way up from Hell?/Eugene: "it's not that far"), but when he mentions the angels he'd have no way of knowing existed, Jesse realizes Eugene is just a hallucination. (At first, given Eugene's insatiable desire for water, I thought maybe it was a demon making a play to sieze Genesis, but I guess I was wrong). But Eugene's question gives him an idea, and Jesse sends for DeBlanc and Fiore.

DeBlanc throws some withering shade at the Preacher

Trying to barter for Eugene's release from Hell, Jesse goes back and forth with the angels, desperate for an actual plan. This shows us, for the first time, despite all his talk about "doing good" and "saving the town", Jesse is just a man, fumbling in the dark, pretending to know what God wants. And this leads to him being confronted by perhaps the most pointed question in this young show's history.

With withering judgment, DeBlanc asks him, "Genesis, the greatest power ever known, and you've had it all this time, right there at the tip of your tongue. And what good have you done with it?" It's a question that leaves Jesse speechless, yet I feel like it can be applied to the show itself.

Catlin/Rogen/Goldberg have one of the most revered comic series of the last twenty years at their disposal, great actors, a great concept...and what have they done with it? I have an idea what they're aiming at, but I don't want to explicitly state it. But if I'm right...they'll be doing about as much "good" as Jesse's done.

And so, by the end of this week's story, despite the assaults, the violence, the gunfire and the one-man-against-an-army odds, the meaningful conversations and revelations not much has really changed. Jesse's in custody, but in the midst of talking his way out of it. Quincannon has ownership of the church, but looks like he might grant Jesse one last hail mary. Genesis is pulled out of Jesse but literally spends about a minute in the coffee can before bursting free again, leading DeBlanc and Fiore to simply walk away. And Cassidy and Tulip are just chillin' and eating a dog.

Wait, what??

RIP Brewski - the other kind of drink

This is, for me anyways, Ruth Negga's best episode both as a showcase of her abilities as an actress, and for her character. Her subplot is a great example of the writers doing exactly what I asked for last week - showing a character through actions, not words. Tulip shows herself as a loyal friend, an animal lover, capable of warmth and kindness and a certain bloody pragmatism. She spends the entire episode bonding with Brewski the dog, giving him one final glorious dog day before feeding him to what we assume is a convalescent Cassidy. Tulip has three good scenes with Brewski and though they don't make sense at first, they're short so they don't feel like they're derailing the main plot. But the way the final reveal that Brewski is just food for a vampire makes all that has come before it make sense is very well done. So I gotta tip my hat to the writers for that very excellent way of showing us that Cassidy is, in fact, still alive, and Tulip is capable of genuinely caring for someone, or something other than herself
.

And it also serves to keep the two of them away from the church...for now.

I have a dread feeling that I know what this entire season is building to -- and if you've read the comics, it's likely an event that honestly should have been in the pilot. And if not the pilot, then maybe like, the fourth episode. It's my theory that a good drama usually takes around four episodes to properly world-build and kick-off the story. The pilot gives you an overview of your main characters and the world they inhabit. Episodes two and three develop all characters a little bit more and offer you a deeper insight into your protagonist. Episode four should have a turning point of some sort that throws your season's main story arc into gear; some good examples of this are 'The Sopranos' episode "Meadowlands". 'Deadwood', "Here was a Man", and 'The Shield' which did it in episode five with "Blowback"

As for 'Preacher' if things pan out the way I suspect, then I think it has the potential to turn a lot of people off. And given the way the audience responded to 'The Walking Dead' fucking with them one too many times, I fear for the long-term fate of 'Preacher' if they do this. Second season renewals aren't set in stone. Just ask the producers of 'Vinyl'.

FINAL SCORE - 6.5/10

Preacher airs on AMC, Sunday nights at 9/8c

OUTCAST - Ep. 5 - The Road Before Us - A TV Review

'Outcast' maintains its form and comes back from the holiday break with a tension-riddled episode. Let's dive in, yes?

Spoilers - There's going to be show and comic spoilers up in dis bitch.

I wrote about 'Preacher' earlier in the week, and it's kind of hard not to compare it to 'Outcast'. Both come from comic books, both by acclaimed authors, and both deal with a spiritual world that throws faith away and gives you irrefutable proof of the existence of the divine...or at least, that the divine once existed.

But while 'Preacher' is content to get by on style and mosey along from episode to episode with brief spots of action and minimal plot, 'Outcast' has been moving its story forward nearly every week. In a lesser show, advancing the plot would take priority over character development, but 'Outcast' is seamlessly combining them. Who these characters really are shows through their actions, which is really the best way to tell a story. Kyle is the reluctant hero, humble, but strong and ready in a moment to protect those he loves. Reverend Anderson is devout, but proud and stubborn. Megan is strong, confident and very loving of her family. Chief Giles is intelligent, Sidney is vicious, and Kyle's estranged wife Allison is...a question mark. Or at least, she was.

The decay of Kyle and Allison's marriage is something that's been teased for weeks now, with snippets of information being doled out, but this week brought it front and center. And even though it was fraught with the tension of whether or not Allison is still possessed, it clearly illuminated who both of these characters are. And that - Catlin/Rogen/Goldberg - is how you tell a story!

For the first time, we're allowed to spend a significant time with Allison, played by Kate Lyn Sheil. In the midst of Kyle and Rev. Anderson's frantic search for the "formerly" possessed, Allison is presented as sullen, withdrawn, short-tempered, confused and unfocused. She is hard on her daughter, refuses to have anything to do with Kyle, barely considers even listening to requests from Megan to see him, and recoils when Kyle barely touches her. It speaks to the success of this week's story that I kept going back and forth in my mind..."oh no! she's still possessed! ok...she's not possessed. whew! SHE'S POSSESSED!!"

Despite the fact that Kyle is clearly concerned for all the people Anderson thought he'd saved, he spends the entire episode with his attention half-focused on Allison. When Allison won't let him touch her, you can see the wheels turning in his head as he considers whether or not to kick the door in.

But the reveal that Allison isn't possessed is somehow even more tragic. Separation and divorce are ugly, painful things, and it says a lot about how damaging it can be, when the emotional side effects, under the right context, can be mistaken for demonic possession.

This whole interaction between Kyle and Allison, though, is perfect example of character being revealed through action. We see how damaged Allison is now, weak, fragile, unsure of herself, and confused about things that don't add up when she considers who she knows Kyle is and what the police think happened. She knows Kyle wouldn't hit her, and she knows he's patient - she even calls him overly apologetic. When we see her horribly bruised and swollen face in the hospital flashback, we understand her disbelief. This can't be the work of her husband. And the pain on her face at the end of the episode as she begs Kyle to tell her the truth lets us know how much she still loves and needs him. It's a heartbreaking, and very effective example of efficient character development. None of this means the plot gets short-changed, though; far from it.

Throughout the rest of the episode, we see tension rising between Kyle and Anderson, with Anderson digging in his heels and almost stubbornly refusing to believe his God could let him down. Anderson's almost foolish naivete, though, is becoming far clearer than he realizes. Sidney and Mildred meet up, and let us know something big and horrible is on the horizon (even if the malicious entity posing as Mildred won't last to see it). Chief Giles continues to sniff around his increasingly suspicious buddy, Ogden. And Kyle and Anderson seek out a runaway girl named Sherry (Vanessa Marano), who disappeared after Anderson allegedly exorcised her.

As it becomes clear that very few, if any, of Anderson's prior exorcisms were successful, Kyle finds Sherry living on the streets. But instead of the demon inside her seeking to flee, Sherry leaps toward Kyle as if she needs him. We see that same mouth-smoky-sucky thing that Joshua did in the very first episode (and Mildred seemingly attempted on Sidney, too), before the gooey black demon lifts Kyle several feet into the air, as if embracing him. This raises the question - if Sidney and the demons need Kyle...is Kyle really the hero of the story? Or is he a danger waiting to be unleashed?

These are good questions to have, and they, for me at least, draw me in more and make me feel like continuing to watch. I don't ever feel bored, or cheated by the constant teasing of future elements. The plot is advancing, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. and while that happens, Kyle and company are very likable and engaging characters. So far, this has been a pretty damn good first season.

'Preacher' could learn a thing or two from watching 'Outcast'.


FINAL SCORE - 8/10

'Outcast' airs on Cinemax, Friday Nights and 10/9c