Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Alien Nation, Episode 4

Last night's Secret Invasion had some decent action scenes and a few moments I found interesting or funny. It began and ended on disappointing notes, not the least because of how repetitive this note is getting.

So it looks like G'iah survived. It was so much more interesting thinking about what her death would mean to Talos than thinking about what Talos' death would mean to her. For the simple reason that Ben Mendelsohn has been giving a much better performance than Emilia Clarke. Well, also, Talos' motives are a little better defined.

But, yeah, this episode ended with Talos getting shot and apparently being killed. Which gives the next episode a no-win scenario. Either he stays dead, which means no more Ben Mendelsohn and diminished potential overall for the final two episodes, or it's another fake-out, which will be silly and exasperating. But this is three out of four episodes now that have ended with a major character apparently being killed. It's starting to feel really cheap.

Samuel L. Jackson and Charlayne Woodard give good performances but I'm really not feeling invested in their relationship. I still don't understand what brought them together and don't get any sense of chemistry between the two. They're just kind of cordial. And they like Raymond Carver, blech.

Surprisingly, the best part of the episode turned out to be Skrull Rhodey.

There's the kind of interesting reveal that it's a Skrull woman impersonating him for some reason. Then there's the nice scene over the bottle of bourbon, giving me the impression that this Skrull is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Don Cheadle seems to be having real fun with the role. I was amused when the president smelled bourbon on Skrull Rhodey's breath.

Secret Invasion is available on Disney+.

No comments:

Post a Comment