Revolution
Season One
Episode
Seven
'The
Children's Crusade' - 2.0
 |
| It's not a good sign when I end up feeling sorry for the good actors caught up in this mess. |
Ok, so
perhaps last episode's enjoyable experience was a one-off event. 'The
Children's Crusade' returned to the predictable, politically correct, horribly
written shit that perpetuated the first five episodes of the season.
To be simple
and - hopefully - concise, there are kids who have no parents and they are cute
and no one dies. The kids’ leader is taken by the Militia and a guilty Miles
decides to let his idealistic niece infiltrate some recruitment ship and rescue
the leader. I'm sure I've said it before but these idiots deserve to die
horribly, even though they won't. Hell, even Grace isn't dead after being
kidnapped by 'Randall'.
On that
note, the bright light of this episode came from Elizabeth Mitchell getting
some more screen time. Mitchell has always been fantastic, and Rachel's
pregnancy woes gave her plenty of room to stretch her muscles of actingness.
Her reaction to her unborn baby's malady was realistic and touching, and I
believed the performances of both her and of Ben Matheson. I also appreciated
her initial collapse, as Rachel falls to the sidewalk with her hand to her
belly begging desperately for assistance, and it just goes to show how great
the actress is at portraying a woman dealing with her own or someone else's
pregnancy. It's a very bizarre typecast, but it definitely works for her.
In the
modern time, we also get to see Mitchell portray a morally ambiguous character
once again, as she tries to trick a former friend into giving her the location
of the pendants. It was a very well filmed sequence, as was the reveal of the
prisoner's daughter later on, which establishes this poor guy as a less
fortunate parallel to Rachel. Her break down as she realised what she'd brought
about was pretty damn depressing, and a testament to one of the two strong
actors on the show. The other is Giancarlo Esposito, by the way.
A weak actor
is Billy Boyd, or whatever, who continues to fail his deliver and conviction in
playing a troubled anti-hero. I don't believe that he has the sort of fury and
determination that allows someone to be that good at fighting and swordplay.
There's just no fire, nothing that makes me accept that this guy got a job
without sleeping with somebody or paying someone a whole chunk of money. I can
see that Tracy Spiridakos is able, if not always willing, to play the role of
Charlie, I just wonder if she relates better to the more badass side to the
character, as when she's being moral and typically heroic she can't sell it
well. For the good of the show they clearly need to make Charlie an anti-hero
like her uncle, and then they can get rid of Miles and get on with the story in
style.
Putting
children in the middle of the action is ultimately an easy way to evoke an
emotional connection, similarly, Rachel's pregnancy troubles. At least the
latter was well executed, because the actual 'Children's Crusade' was horribly
acted and presented. I just didn't care, I could see that it wasn't real and I
knew that the children would succeed. They're fucking children in Revolution,
they aren't like sweet little girls in The Walking Dead. They are in absolutely
no danger whatsoever. I don't think I can stand this predictability!
And that's
pretty much how I feel about Revolution. Shit. I don't like it anymore, the
episode wasn't any fun, the characters suck ass, the plot is uninteresting and
a promising premise is wasted by worthless writers and directors. Why don't you
do something?
No comments:
Post a Comment