OK, the episode begins with Random Dude camping. Giant vacuum cleaner sucks Random Dude's tent. A spaceship is seen hovering. Gray Alien approaches Random Dude:
Gray Alien: "Have you heard the word of our Lord and Savior, the Holly Hive?"
Random Dude: "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
(FADE TO BLACK)
OK, the problem with that opening scene, is actually two problems, I mean, you can see it from two ways and it doesn't work either way. I won't even mention the use of in-your-face, alien puppets, so there's no shadow of a doubt IT'S A FREAKING ALIEN and there's no mystery there whatsoever. I mean, I got past that. The problem is that either you later remember Random Dude = Ray Loengard, or you don't don't. In my case, I didn't, so the scene was pointless. "But you were not paying attention, it's not their fault," you're gonna say. OK, so if you do remember it was Ray, then it's precisely when the scene doesn't work, because the best part of the episode was finding out Ray was implanted. When Ray starts talking to John referring to himself in the third person, and John started asking him apparently senseless questions, and Ray kept answering them like everything was OK, that was one of the creepiest (though subtle, and the show doesn't do subtle well) scenes of the show so far.
And speaking of subtlety and aliens, for that you should watch The X-Files, because it took ages for us to be sure Mulder was really right and aliens were real. Dark Skies tried to be just like The X-Files, but is that particular, went in a opposite direction. And it's not really working, unless a new mystery was added.
I'd say the main problem of the show at this juncture is that it has no goal whatsoever. John and Kim should have a goal, like "find the golden orb," "find the missing scientist that can destroy the hive for good," "find the hive's nest where it can be destroyed and the invasion can be thwarted." There's no such thing. John and Kim are just reacting, and Kennedy is willing to wait four years (!) to even think of doing something.
Instead, John and Kim are reacting to incidental events. "My sister is getting married, we should go there." "My parents have some bank bonus in my name, we should go cash them." "My friend Hewey died and we should go pay our respects." "Hey, I found these poker chips in Steele's pocket. Let's go to Vegas, it's not like we have something better to do anyway." "Next let's go to Miami just because."
Before I go on, a couple quips just because i feel like it:
- Steele: "Touch the ball of light, Ray. When you touch it, you'll be a part of us. And as it is our tradition, Ray Loengard, you'll be given an alien name. From now on you'll be known as DEATH RAY!!!" OK, that was weak.
- Now, will someone please touch that damned ball of light? Somebody please! Nobody wants to touch it! It's getting on my nerves. Now even I want to touch it! (But I got the impression that when John pushed Ray to the ground, John pushed him INTO the light. Well, it's hard to tell the perspective of an object added in a poor CGI effect of the 1990s.
OK, this is what Dark Skies does well (sorta): alien conspiracies, retconned history, realizing someone close to you is implanted.
This is what Dark Skies definitely doesn't do well (among other things): developing a character with a touching story for us to care about them. In modern story telling writers have learned to present characters several episodes before, making them interesting, and THEN killing them. "The Enemy Within" was a step up from "The Last Wave," as last episode we only saw Hewey having a tantrum and dying, and here we had a whole episode dedicated to Ray and an attempt to build a character background. But the problem is that Ray turned out to be an annoying character, pretty much like the marine biologist/life guard we saw last week, and I wasn't even a little fazed when he died.
In conclusion: Dark Skies better keep showing things of the 1960s, alien conspiracies, close friends suddenly implanted, rewritten history, and that's it. No more sob stories, please, unless they learn to do them well.
By the way, I liked John's dad. I would've felt bad if he had died, so they should've killed him. But if someone close to you came and said they were being chased by aliens/time travelers/vampires/elves, OK, of course you wouldn't believe them. But if they told you that in a rational tone of voice, and seemed in complete possession of their mental faculties, wouldn't you at least give them the benefit of the doubt? Not that you would believe them, but obviously something strange would be going on. Would calling the loony bin be your very first option?
The scene at Majestic headquarters left me thinking, it's quite inconvenient when you have huge facilities (with countless floors, bathrooms, ventilation shafts, empty offices, so many nooks and crannies), and not enough manpower to even go look at all of them. I mean, if your team consists of six or seven people, and you work in a 25-floor building, chances are whoever escapes will find plenty of places where to hide and go unnoticed.
Oh, well, at least the episode ended promising something for next week: the Attorney General wants to talk to John and Kim. Not much to hold on to, but, what the heck, at this point, any new plot-related incident is better than none.
This one gets six problematic siblings.
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