Irresponsible - Review
23/10/2008 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachel500Irresponsible is the 13th episode in Season Three of Stargate Atlantis.
Review
Given how prepared I was to hate Irresponsible the fact that I didn’t is a tribute to the performances of the cast, the direction which makes the most of every shot and the script which provides humour and team moments aplenty. Unfortunately, the episode also has its failings, the major one being the inclusion of a pivotal moment in the SGA universe that really deserved an episode all of its own and which ultimately leaves the viewer disappointed with not so much the episode but the series itself.
The moment when Sheppard finally kills Kolya is powerful and recalls the old Wild West as both men stare the other down. The direction builds tension using the old Western shots of the hands hovering over the holsters and the close-ups on the eyes before Sheppard is proven to be the quickest draw in the Pegasus Galaxy. There is a brief sense of satisfaction that Sheppard kills Kolya but it is brief because hard on its heels comes the stampeding thought that this moment should not be in this episode.
Firstly, the scene really loses something being set on a quaint village green surrounded by chocolate box houses. The saccharine nature of the parochial East European/Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang-esque set design may suit the main plot but it ruins this sub-plot. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, such an epic duel, indeed the climax to the nemesis relationship arc that has been building between the two soldiers since S1 deserved its own episode. Kolya’s return was highly anticipated and wanted especially given the superb Common Ground which was his last appearance and Robert Davi never disappoints. Unfortunately, here the character is buried in the sub-plot of an episode that actually focuses on the partial redemption of another; Lucius Lavin.
On the evidence of Irresistible, why anyone would think that Lucius is a great character and want to resurrect him, never mind devote another story to him, frankly is bewildering to me. However, the opening half of the episode does provide a glimpse possibly of the original conception of Lucius’ characterisation as it redraws Lucius as a con artist; unattractive, extremely annoying and self-centred carving adoration and attention but who is harmless beyond his deluding a town full of gullible marks. The test to prove he isn’t using the drug anymore, the demonstration of his scam in staging fights to maintain and enhance his reputation as a hero, the key to the scam being an ancient device that only affects Lucius, being punished for his previous behaviour and that he learned that what he did was wrong – all help with this reinvention and Richard Kind’s performance encapsulates this character perfectly. Here Lucius is a petty villain but something much more acceptable without the crime of rape and the hints of a real evil streak being part of the sub-text as was the case in Irresistible. Lucius’s character is even more cemented as nothing more than an opportunistic conman in the presence of Kolya, a true villain in the second half.
There is an attempt at further redemption with the invasion of the rogue Genii as Lucius chooses to go back to the village and help Sheppard, giving him the shield device, talking the villagers into defending the town although he can’t quite bring himself to lose his cushy position entirely. The latter means that while it’s not quite redemption, it’s close enough in terms of the character’s own story which is actually OK as the main meat of the episode even if it is uninteresting given the lingering horror that is Irresistible and the most obvious plot hole ever; the ancient shield device which makes the wearer invincible when the plot calls for it and not when it doesn’t.
The device made its first appearance back in the early days of Atlantis. Back then the device prevented the wearer from eating, drinking and imbued them with invincibility. Here, it not only allows Lucius to eat and drink but apparently Beckett to take a blood sample and a man to reach through the shield and hold Lucius under water…huh? The tweaking of established canon is always annoying; doubly so when the plot doesn’t even account for the differences between the devices; triply so when the rules concerning the device seem to change within the plot itself.
That’s not to say there aren’t enjoyable moments within the episode; the discussion on heroes is fascinating with Rodney’s comment on Batman especially suggesting how he might view himself, his tunnelling out of the jail cell with a spoon, Ronan’s deadpan delivery of the line; ‘She’s right. We’ll have to kill them all. [pause] I’m alright with that by the way’, Lucius’s ever-increasingly ludicrous plans on the way back to the village, the team volunteering one after the other to be shot first, Sheppard returning the defunct shield to Lucius. It is wonderfully teamy. It is lightly humorous. The cast turn in good performances. It’s just not enough.
Overall, the episode feels like two possible stories were melded into one with the less interesting, less important and frankly less wanted one about Lucius taking the primary position. As a result despite the fact that in the end this is a solid, average and in parts entertaining episode, there is an overwhelming sense of disappointment because that Koyla/Sheppard moment didn’t come at the end of episode focusing on them. It is a hugely missed opportunity in the SGA universe; Koyla deserved a better ending; the viewers deserved a better episode for the culmination of this particular arc within the series. The disappointment it evokes detracts from whatever enjoyment might have been derived from the rest of the episode. In the end, I didn’t hate Irresponsible but I didn’t love it either.
Review
Given how prepared I was to hate Irresponsible the fact that I didn’t is a tribute to the performances of the cast, the direction which makes the most of every shot and the script which provides humour and team moments aplenty. Unfortunately, the episode also has its failings, the major one being the inclusion of a pivotal moment in the SGA universe that really deserved an episode all of its own and which ultimately leaves the viewer disappointed with not so much the episode but the series itself.
The moment when Sheppard finally kills Kolya is powerful and recalls the old Wild West as both men stare the other down. The direction builds tension using the old Western shots of the hands hovering over the holsters and the close-ups on the eyes before Sheppard is proven to be the quickest draw in the Pegasus Galaxy. There is a brief sense of satisfaction that Sheppard kills Kolya but it is brief because hard on its heels comes the stampeding thought that this moment should not be in this episode.
Firstly, the scene really loses something being set on a quaint village green surrounded by chocolate box houses. The saccharine nature of the parochial East European/Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang-esque set design may suit the main plot but it ruins this sub-plot. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, such an epic duel, indeed the climax to the nemesis relationship arc that has been building between the two soldiers since S1 deserved its own episode. Kolya’s return was highly anticipated and wanted especially given the superb Common Ground which was his last appearance and Robert Davi never disappoints. Unfortunately, here the character is buried in the sub-plot of an episode that actually focuses on the partial redemption of another; Lucius Lavin.
On the evidence of Irresistible, why anyone would think that Lucius is a great character and want to resurrect him, never mind devote another story to him, frankly is bewildering to me. However, the opening half of the episode does provide a glimpse possibly of the original conception of Lucius’ characterisation as it redraws Lucius as a con artist; unattractive, extremely annoying and self-centred carving adoration and attention but who is harmless beyond his deluding a town full of gullible marks. The test to prove he isn’t using the drug anymore, the demonstration of his scam in staging fights to maintain and enhance his reputation as a hero, the key to the scam being an ancient device that only affects Lucius, being punished for his previous behaviour and that he learned that what he did was wrong – all help with this reinvention and Richard Kind’s performance encapsulates this character perfectly. Here Lucius is a petty villain but something much more acceptable without the crime of rape and the hints of a real evil streak being part of the sub-text as was the case in Irresistible. Lucius’s character is even more cemented as nothing more than an opportunistic conman in the presence of Kolya, a true villain in the second half.
There is an attempt at further redemption with the invasion of the rogue Genii as Lucius chooses to go back to the village and help Sheppard, giving him the shield device, talking the villagers into defending the town although he can’t quite bring himself to lose his cushy position entirely. The latter means that while it’s not quite redemption, it’s close enough in terms of the character’s own story which is actually OK as the main meat of the episode even if it is uninteresting given the lingering horror that is Irresistible and the most obvious plot hole ever; the ancient shield device which makes the wearer invincible when the plot calls for it and not when it doesn’t.
The device made its first appearance back in the early days of Atlantis. Back then the device prevented the wearer from eating, drinking and imbued them with invincibility. Here, it not only allows Lucius to eat and drink but apparently Beckett to take a blood sample and a man to reach through the shield and hold Lucius under water…huh? The tweaking of established canon is always annoying; doubly so when the plot doesn’t even account for the differences between the devices; triply so when the rules concerning the device seem to change within the plot itself.
That’s not to say there aren’t enjoyable moments within the episode; the discussion on heroes is fascinating with Rodney’s comment on Batman especially suggesting how he might view himself, his tunnelling out of the jail cell with a spoon, Ronan’s deadpan delivery of the line; ‘She’s right. We’ll have to kill them all. [pause] I’m alright with that by the way’, Lucius’s ever-increasingly ludicrous plans on the way back to the village, the team volunteering one after the other to be shot first, Sheppard returning the defunct shield to Lucius. It is wonderfully teamy. It is lightly humorous. The cast turn in good performances. It’s just not enough.
Overall, the episode feels like two possible stories were melded into one with the less interesting, less important and frankly less wanted one about Lucius taking the primary position. As a result despite the fact that in the end this is a solid, average and in parts entertaining episode, there is an overwhelming sense of disappointment because that Koyla/Sheppard moment didn’t come at the end of episode focusing on them. It is a hugely missed opportunity in the SGA universe; Koyla deserved a better ending; the viewers deserved a better episode for the culmination of this particular arc within the series. The disappointment it evokes detracts from whatever enjoyment might have been derived from the rest of the episode. In the end, I didn’t hate Irresponsible but I didn’t love it either.
