Steven Moffat (or maybe it was Russel T. Davies) once pretentiously put it that writing for Doctor Who was like burning the concept for an entire franchise on forty minutes of television and I think this is the first episode of AoS that achieves, if not the lofty heights of a franchise concept, certainly a mid-budget action flick. I guess episode 2 had the concept 'they go to Peru', and for the life of me I can't remember the third episode given a week's distance, but this one feels all the better for having had a few days to stew in my brain before taking the time to blog about it (this is serious work).
Our concept of the week is a mysterious woman who manages to rob several banks of their diamonds while they are in transit, a supposedly impossible task. How does she do it? With precognition? (No, that's impossible in this world of Gods). Why it's with the artificial eye she has been given by a mysterious, evil organisation. Through the eye, the organisation are able to see everything that she sees and send commands and information to her.
Akela is a former trainee of SHIELD and an ex protégé of Coulson himself. We get some juicy guilt scenes where Phil waxes lyrical over his former propensity for authoritarian mentorship. The connection between Akela and her current counterpart protégé Skye is bashed out and we learn that the difference between them is that Akela didn't work well in a team. Skye 1: Akela 1 missing eye. Here is the central theme of AoS hashed out again in a new context. The moral that working in a team is good. It doesn't have the same emotional and lyrical resonance as a Buffy or a Firefly but I guess I like the consistency. It does get a bit waring, two decades into the era of superhero media to see the genre tackle the 'teamwork is good' moral once again, but I guess no one was aiming for high art.
The episode takes it's concept and runs with it into a couple of really nicely conceived, intertwined set-pieces. As Ward, wearing a pair of glasses which have jacked the eye-feed must complete Akela's mission without revealing that he is not her. He has to avoid looking at mirrors, accomplices or his own body, all while passably navigating the world as a woman so as not to arouse suspicion. Meanwhile, the bumbling duo of Fitz and Simmons must perform their first surgery, removing the explosive eye from Akela's head so as to preserve her life once her lapsed loyalty is no longer a secret. Elizabeth Henstridge again provides the most laughs, the most charm and the most memorable moments of characterisation as the nerdy blabbermouth out of her depth. The body horror and the action with a twist really bolster this episode into something more memorable than the previous episodes.
Eye-Spy is a confident hour of television which has enough cleverness in there to feel worthwhile. I for one was happy to go along for the ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment