Silo (2023) s01e04 – Truth

I spent a while this episode worrying last week’s superior episode was a fluke, but, no, “Silo”’s found some great footing, even with the still wonky future accents—which make even less sense because we flashback to Harriet Walter when Rebecca Ferguson gets down to the engineering department as a kid, and Walter doesn’t have the weird accent. Even with the very real possibility the show is going to kill off a supporting character every episode, which I don’t remember from the Wool comic book adaptation, and means they’re going to need to start introducing more characters real soon….

Even with those potential problems, “Silo”’s great. Well, it’s another great episode. It’s going to take a while for these peaks to prove stable.

But this episode’s got a lot of good gristle for the future. In addition to Ferguson becoming sheriff and working up a mutually reluctant partnership with her deputy, Will Patton (who’s so good, especially as “Silo” becomes a Western this episode), we also find out Patton’s in some weird up-top-copper conspiracy with secret police agent Common. Tim Robbins also gets a bunch more to do, which turns out very well. Until this point, Robbins has been a peculiar stunt cameo. In this episode he gets to do stuff, including have stand-offs with Ferguson; they’re great. As long as neither of them dies too, there should be plenty more good stand-offs.

It takes Ferguson and Patton most of the episode to decide to work together, partially because Patton’s on a self-destruction arc, and Ferguson’s got to prove herself reliable not just for being his boss but for cleaning him up when he’s a mess.

The flashbacks—starring Amelie Child Villiers as young Ferguson—set up Walter and Ferguson’s “down deep” future but also establish Villiers’s relationship with dad Iain Glen. Things in the present are too busy for Ferguson to go say hi to Glen (even though we’ve already met him). The episode opens with a flashback in the flashback, to when Sienna Guillory—as Villiers’s mom and Mrs. Glen—is still alive. Also, there’s a little brother. They die between the first and second flashbacks, which then establish Glen’s not suited for single parenting and Villiers would be much happier anywhere but with him. Luckily, she’s simpatico with Walter, who somehow knew Guillory.

We don’t find out how Guillory or the brother died, we don’t find out if Glen’s thirty-six pounds of de-aging makeup (or is that bad CGI) was a personal appearance fad in the silo or if they didn’t have enough budget (not to mention the possibility of different casting), and we don’t meet the judge yet. So we’ve got one major cast reveal left. I don’t think it will be Susan Sarandon, but it should be Susan Sarandon. Or Susan Dey.

This episode’s also got a different director, David Semel, who is a very experienced television director and not that cinematographer who ended up directing Steven Seagal movies (Dean Semler). Semel does a perfectly reasonable job directing. He knows how to direct the actors, he gets how the show’s straddling multiple genres—they’re not sexist against Ferguson, they’re classist—and it’s precisely what the show needs after Morten Tyldum’s wanting work from the chair. Semel’s sturdy.

“Silo” may stumble and fumble going forward; it may even get stronger, but as long as they can deliver on half their promises… the show’s going to be okay.

Even with those accents. And the often too iffy special effects (no more “young” Glen, pretty please).

Also, it’ll be a problem if they solve the mystery by killing off all the suspects until it’s just Ferguson versus the bad guy. I mean, obviously, that one. Really hope they don’t do that one.

Silo (2023) s01e03 – Machines

Is Machines a great episode, or is it a sign “Silo”’s going to be great? It’s a phenomenal fifty minutes of television (in an hour-plus episode), but the show’s still got all the existing problems. There’s just this one outlier. So far. But the episode, writing credit to Ingrid Escajeda, is fantastic. If director Morten Tyldum, who wouldn’t know if a cinematic shot if it were a hundred-foot-tall steam generator spinning around, ready to slice up the heroes going to replace it so the silo doesn’t lose power forever… well if it weren’t Tyldum, it’d be better. Even with his profoundly banal direction, it’s great.

And the cast can find the energy in the action, even if Tyldum can’t bring it, even if the weird accents continue. They’re intentional. I’m pretty sure. Based on Iain Glen having the same weird, not quite anything, but definitely a very white European-ish accent. Glen hasn’t given this bad of an accent since he was in Resident Evil and has spent his subsequent career showing off his ability with accents and middling directors. So if he’s giving a bad accent now, it’s because they told him to give a bad accent.

Harriet Walter’s back with her weird one too. However, she has some okay scenes. One opposite Geraldine James, who’s walking down the silo to offer Rebecca Ferguson the sheriff job while also getting in some quality time with Will Patton. Halfway through the episode, I turned to my wife and asked her if she thought it was weird Patton has become a soulful, sensual type in his old age. She hasn’t seen H40 so she was very confused.

But it’s fine. I’m here for it. It’s at least not wasting Patton.

And James, with her weird, weird, weird accent, is more likable this episode. This episode should’ve been the first episode, and they should’ve figured out how to get the backstory in later. It’s got an excellent three-act structure for a feature narrative. James needs to decide if she’s hiring Ferguson or if she’s going to kowtow to her rival branch of government (an unnamed female judge, who will be a stunt cast later on) while Ferguson needs to convince boss Shane McRae they’re running out of time to fix the generator.

If they don’t fix it, the silo loses power, and everyone dies. Badly.

Along the way, we finally find out Tim Robbins really is an asshole and doesn’t just seem like one in the flashbacks. And Common threatens James, which is a weird moment, but later on, we find out Common’s just a good dad trying to get by in a bad future. Common works for Judicial; James is the Mayor, so her rival is the Judge.

I wonder if it’s Diane Lane. There’s a somewhat deep cut.

Susan Dey would be baller.

Especially if they make her do an accent.

Anyway, the stuff with the generator is great. It’s not a real-time episode because Tyldum’s bad, but it’s exceptionally tense, with big stakes.

It’s so good it makes up for the cliffhanger resolve being almost entirely toothless.

Ferguson also gets to run a room instead of brood or moon. She does okay. Not great, but successful.

The episode also doesn’t shy away from comparing how worker-class boss McRae supports and values women to how Robbins hates them.

I was reluctant on “Silo.”

Tedious Tyldum or not, I’m much less so now.

Machines is great.

Silo (2023) s01e02 – Holston’s Pick

As is the way since, what, “The Shield” in 2002, “Silo” changes its opening titles to adjust for last episode’s big “surprises” as far as lead actor deaths. Also in this episode’s titles is Harriet Walter, which made me happy. I couldn’t wait until Harriet Walter showed up.

And I’m glad she’s getting work other than her standard British lady stuff. Maybe someday it’ll even be a good part. And, maybe someday, her director will tell her—and her British costars—to work on their freaking accents. It wasn’t until Walter shows up I realized… none of the British cast members in “Soil” can hold their accents. Now, “Silo” takes place in an unknown future location. There’s no reason to think it’s not in the UK. Maybe it’s just a Brexit thing.

But neither Walter, Rebecca Ferguson (who’s Swedish, sorry; director Morten Tyldum doesn’t care either), David Oyelowo (who has more to do in this episode than last, even though he’s dying in the present), nor Geraldine James (as the mayor) can do normal sounding accents. They all sound like they just remembered they’re supposed to be doing American and did anyone notice they weren’t. Except Walter. Walter’s doing a voice out of a fantasy cartoon.

This episode opens with Oyelowo walking outside the “Silo,” presumably to his death—only, as all the people inside the silo watch, it’s obvious they’re not going to reveal it right away at the start of the episode. “Silo,” the previous episode established, is all about leaning in on the timeline manipulation. Like in this episode, which establishes Oyelowo is walking out three months after he met Ferguson last episode and had his “connection” with her, or whatever Will Patton called it.

Except as we find out later on in the episode, not only is calling it a “connection” tenuous, they only meet the one time. Oyelowo’s just a special guest star. They have a relatively eventful first meeting—including Ferguson revealing she and Ferdinand Kingsley are lovers and have been exploring the history of the silo—the forbidden history. Also, they’re forbidden lovers. Kingsley’s an amateur archeologist, which is super-illegal, and he doesn’t want to put a ring on it because then Ferguson would be liable for his crimes or something.

This episode also introduces Common—who may have been in a crowd shot last time—as one of the future KGB guys or whatever. They all dress in black, and they make people disappear and whatnot. It’s pointless because the show’s obviously waiting to explain it for emphasis later, not just telling the audience what they need to know. Then, the content might have to be interesting rather than its presentation.

But it’s 2023, and presentation over content is how streaming prestige series roll.

Director Tyldum failed some very basic sci-fi imagery last episode and continues to do so here, except this episode’s also where AppleTV+ apparently told “Silo” to cut back on the CGI a bit (not a good sign telling them to cut back on episode two, obviously). The composites are particularly poorly lighted, but since Tyldum’s not interested in making it visually engaging or compelling… it doesn’t matter?

They promise things will get interesting next episode—unraveling conspiracies and solving murderers interesting—but it’s also their TV show. They could’ve just made it interesting from the start.

Silo (2023) s01e01 – Freedom Day

“Silo” is about future humans living in a giant, hundreds of levels deep silo because the outside atmosphere is toxic. They don’t remember why it’s toxic; just it’s toxic. They also don’t know how they got to living in the silo. If you say you want to go outside, you have to go outside. And die. They ask you to clean the single video camera with a piece of wool as you go outside.

“Silo” is based on Wool, by Howey, the first book in the Silo series. I read the comic book adaptation, Wool. I sort of assumed the series was a one-and-done, but if it’s a series now, maybe they’ve got future seasons in mind. I don’t remember the comic very well, other than it being pretty good and thinking a movie or TV show would be solid.

The TV show’s okay. I’m not sure if it’s solid. It’s prestige-y streaming, with Rashida Jones playing a rare dramatic role in a special appearance. She’ll come back in flashbacks later, I’m sure, but the cold open—slowly—spoils she’s dead, having gone outside, and her husband, the sheriff, played by David Oyelowo, is going out after her. Sometime later. We later learn it’s two years later. There are lots of indeterminate time periods used for dramatic effect, which the show can get away with because it takes a full day to walk from the top of the silo to the bottom.

Would it help to understand how life worked in the silo? Oh, heck yeah. I skimmed my old posts about the comic and the show’s following its narrative structure (and presumably the novel’s), but it’s a bad structure for TV. We start in the present with Oyelowo, jump back to Jones’s story, jump forward in Oyelowo’s a bit so the show can introduce eventual lead and executive producer Rebecca Ferguson, then jump forward back to the present to get ready to kill Oyelowo off.

Neat trick in a novel if the writer can pull it off. Neat trick in a comic if the writers and artists can pull it off. Neat trick in a TV show if the showrunner, episode writer, show director, cast, and crew can pull it off. Director Morten Tyldum really doesn’t get it. Graham Yost—also the showrunner—gets the writing credit, and he doesn’t not get the relatively simple noir structure, but Jones isn’t playing for it. The actors in “Silo” don’t get much direction, whether Tyldum’s got a good idea or not. Professional competence and affability get them through.

I mean, Will Patton’s the deputy. There’s basically a genre of “Will Patton’s the deputy” TV shows now.

The flashback’s about how renegade IT clerk Jones and husband Oyelowo got permission to try to have a baby for a year, and over that year, their continued failures to get pregnant will drive Jones to question their reality. Oyelowo’s got an iffier part the longer the episode progresses, as he eventually manages to gaslight Jones both as a lawman and just as a man. It should be a better part, and it’s not Oyelowo’s fault at all. In this case, it’s mostly Yost’s.

Jones teams up with computer repair guy Ferdinand Kingsley to uncover the secrets of “Silo,” and then she can’t live with them. Fast forward two years but not to the present, Kingsley’s dead, and Oyelowo’s investigating. Patton’s voiceover tells us Oyelowo then has some reinvigorating due to Ferguson (who may not even have an audible line of dialogue, just sweaty biceps).

Then the episode’s over, and they’ve killed off (imminently) two likable protagonists.

Tune in next time for a third?

It’s nice to see Jones in a dramatic thriller, I guess. And it’s decently produced. Unfortunately, there’s just nothing particularly exciting yet.

Halloween Ends (2022, David Gordon Green)

While I had some expectations about Halloween Ends’s plot going in, based on the previous entry, the franchise, and behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt, nothing prepared me for a soft remake of Nightmare on Elm Street II.

Halloween Ends is not about Jamie Lee Curtis getting out the butcher knife granddaughter Andi Matichak gave her in the last movie to kill Michael Myers (once again James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) with Will Patton helping like they’re an adorable old couple hunting serial killers. It’s about local boy Rohan Campbell who accidentally killed a little kid he was babysitting a year after the last movie’s events. On Halloween, obviously. So, Ends’s opening kill is a child’s graphic, accidental death.

It’s incredibly manipulative but also really compelling.

The action then moves ahead three more years. Curtis has given up the prepper life (which seems entirely unlikely given Ends would then take place in 2022, post-Covid—but just like with its immortal septuagenarian spree killers, it doesn’t take place in the real world). She and granddaughter Matichak live together in a charming house where Curtis works on her true crime memoir. Matichak’s a nurse, so she didn’t slow down with college after her entire life was destroyed. Despite being Matichak’s best performance in the series, she and Curtis still don’t have a rewarding cinematic relationship. They’re just too slasher movie broken for it to work, and the movie doesn’t even try.

Curtis happens across Campbell in the present—some high school seniors in the marching band are bullying him—and introduces him to Matichak, who’s apparently been dating a bunch of dudes since Courtney murdered her boyfriend last movie. Her most recent beau is a shitty cop—shitty even for cops—Jesse C. Boyd. Luckily for Matichak, thanks to the bullying, Campbell’s about to snap and has no qualms about picking fights with a cop. Not when he’s a bad boy who zooms around town real fast on the motorcycle he’s fixed up.

Ends fearlessly rides a motorcycle over its shark tank, no qualms about all the eighties horror movie tropes it implements (in addition to Nightmare II, Boyd also does a Christine-esque transformation). It’s shameless, which works for it. Especially since Matichak finds her newest Bonnie in Campbell, and they have eighties teen movie montages riding around on his bike, trying to escape their respective traumas.

The movie pays a lot of lip service to trauma and recovering from it. Curtis has a bunch of narration about it, including narrating clips from the other Halloween movies. It’s a little weird to have a forty-year-old franchise, but they’re only using the clips from the first one, H40, and Kills. They should’ve CGI’ed something else together for it. There’s not a lot of flash in Ends, all things considered. It’s a muted finale.

Albeit one with some bizarre plot decisions. Like having everyone in town hate Curtis for the 2018 massacre—she spent her life bullying a man with brain damage, what did she think would happen—or Patton basically being a cameo. If it weren’t this Halloween series with its deceptive opening titles vise a vie cast importance, he’d be unbilled.

Best music of the H40 trilogy from Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, and Daniel A. Davies. Solid photography from Michael Simmonds and especially editing from Timothy Alverson. Green’s direction is fine. He’s not mimicking the original movie anymore, not with Campbell as the new protagonist, which helps.

It’s not good or successful, but it’s also not terrible, and it’s definitely the most engaging of the H40 series.

Swamp Thing (2019) s01e10 – Loose Ends

The saga of the 2019 “Swamp Thing” ends with a reasonably good season finale. It’s not a series finale; the episode’s oddly reductive by the end, low-key revealing they never really had the budget. It’s a “who will survive, and what will be left of them” type of finish, clearing out all the old business.

Well, all the old business except Maria Sten’s disappearing live-in girlfriend and job at the town newspaper. Unfortunately, Sten lost character development after “Swamp Thing” finished its first act. Besides Derek Mears’s lengthy battle against intruders (led by Michael Beach and apparent stunt cast Jake Busey), the episode’s all about Kevin Durand’s zucchini sliding off its cracker as he races to save wife Selena Anduze.

The episode opens with a resolution for Ian Ziering’s story arc (including an odd farewell with Sten, two characters with a scant relationship), then heads over to Virginia Madsen. Sonuvabitch husband Will Patton had her committed last episode, which seemed like a lousy finish for Madsen, given she’d just done a big character development arc.

This episode doesn’t make it any better. It doesn’t make it any worse, just doesn’t make it any better.

Plus, it gives Jeryl Prescott a scene in the last episode. Everyone comes back for the finale—well, okay, Prescott and Andy Bean. Bean’s got a tough scene, and it works better than I’d have thought. It’s a too little, too late bit, but pretty much everything’s too little, too late at this point.

Being a streaming show and being a season finale, the episode works its way through the various cast members who definitely won’t be back and the ones who may. The only two who get any actual conclusion are Crystal Reed and Mears. Reed’s got shockingly little to do for a show where she’s top-billed, but she and Mears sell the premise going forward. It’s not perfect, it’s not the comics, but it’s okay. The show stabilized what it needed to stabilize.

Good performances from Jennifer Beals, Patton, Durand, Anduze, Mears. The show cops out of Reed’s early freak-out about potentially crushing on a vegetable, which is bad, but director Deran Sarafian clearly couldn’t handle it.

The rest of the direction’s fine, just the immediate follow-up to last episode’s cliffhanger reveal.

Speaking of cliffhanger reveals, the episode ends with a tease for next season and another cast change or two. It’s a bad end for at least one character’s season arc, which is unfortunate. Even Mears and Reed get something of a lackluster finish (theirs is budgetary), so it fits. There’s only so much you can do with a cut season order.

But as a proof of concept, “Swamp Thing” shows the special effects for a successful adaptation have arrived; it’s just being able to afford enough of them. Doing it on the cheaper “Swamp Thing” does surprisingly well.

Swamp Thing (2019) s01e09 – The Anatomy Lesson

Asterisks about Writer’s Guild credit rules, I knew when Mark Verheiden’s name came up on this penultimate episode’s opening titles, The Anatomy Lesson was in trouble. It’s not a lot of trouble, but there are definite backslides. The script’s not interested in Crystal Reed’s experience at all; on the one hand, she’s the action hero rescuing her kidnapped love interest, so it’s not primed for character drama. On the other hand, Ian Ziering gets that action hero arc without any stakes whatsoever, just to not be a selfish white surfer bro.

It’s a packed episode, with three main plots, then three subplots. Reed and Maria Sten team up like it’s seventh grade to track down kidnapped swamp monster Derek Mears. Kevin Durand and Will Patton are going to dissect Mears. Ziering gets a visit from still not Kevin Smith Macon Blair, who tells him to (blue) devil up and save the day. Subplots are Selena Anduze’s Alzheimer’s getting worse while Durand’s busy on his supervillain origin story and then Henderson Wade being mad at mom Jennifer Beals. Beals isn’t in the episode, though, and Wade doesn’t have anyone to talk with, so it’s not clear why he’s mad. Is he angry because she didn’t tell him Patton was his real dad, furious because she got mad when he killed someone to stop Patton from blackmailing her, and just sad he’s a murderer? Doesn’t really matter, it’s the second-to-last episode, and Wade’s got a comics-ordained arc to complete. Then Patton has to get his revenge on wife Virginia Madsen, who hopefully gets a better send-off next episode.

Speaking of comics-ordained, this episode takes its title from Alan Moore’s famous (second) issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing. It’s not a direct adaptation (unfortunately), but it’s got the same basic reveals. The episode focuses on Durand, not Mears, which… might work out next episode or might be a missed opportunity. The episode’s got some big reveals and some reveals pretending to be big, but no reason they won’t be able to land it. Might be nice if Reed got something to do.

One last thing: director Michael Goi. Not good. Gets Sten’s worst performance in like four or five episodes, which is back when Verheiden was getting credits too. Once the action oscillates away from Reed and Sten, Goi’s direction improves, but every time it returns to them, it flounders. It’s impressive the show’s got the momentum to get through it, but it does. Good work from Durand, Anduze, and Ziering. Mears and Reed are fine but barely get anything to do.

Let’s see what happens next time.

Swamp Thing (2019) s01e08 – Long Walk Home

All right, the show’s definitely intentionally traipsing into the endgame, which is a hopeful sign they’ll be able to wrap it in the remaining ninety minutes.

Crystal Reed returns to Atlanta with the sample of “the rot” and finds best friend Leonardo Nam less supportive than expected. And Reed’s got a new boss, Adrienne Barbeau, who isn’t impressed to hear Reed’s been hanging out in the swamp instead of doing case studies or something. Suddenly, the show’s about CDC bureaucratic procedure and minutiae, but really just to set Reed up with some personal conflict.

It’ll turn out that she doesn’t need the personal conflict, but it’s nice for her to get some character development on the professional arc. The show hasn’t been about Reed as a hotshot, globe-trotting scientist since episode two at the latest.

Meanwhile, Will Patton is hallucinating his way through the swamp, including flashbacks to his origin with his dad. We find out why the swamp hates Patton and Patton hates the swamp. Despite that hostility, Swamp Thing Derek Mears isn’t willing to let Patton bleed out, so the two have a moment. Thanks to Mears’s field dressing, Patton doesn’t get so woozy he’s going to reveal any of his own secrets. It’s a surprisingly good scene. I’d thought Patton had run out of mandibles to chew at “Swamp Thing,” but he’s got another set.

And Mears is successful in his first significant scene opposite anyone but Reed.

The episode keeps another couple of subplots percolating. Henderson Wade’s not feeling great about his recent actions and discoveries; mom and boss Jennifer Beals’s constant reminders to buck up and get through are wearing thin. It’s treading water but not bad.

Finally, there are more machinations with Michael Beach’s malevolent venture capitalist, including his continuing team-up with Kevin Durand. No Virginia Madsen at all this episode, which is a bummer. Hopefully, they’ll get that thread resolved okay.

I already wish “Swamp Thing” had another episode to finish up. This episode’s mostly getting the pieces back into place; it does rather well, functionally, with the now separated leads in their own respective dangers, making for a compelling forty-five minutes.

But this episode’s pacing being successful is contingent on next episode having enough time to get things done.

Fingers crossed.

Swamp Thing (2019) s01e07 – Brilliant Disguise

It appears to be the end of act two for “Swamp Thing: The De Facto Mini-Series,” with one character presumed dead at the end, another three saying goodbye to Marais or at least seriously considering it, and a big twist revealed. Maybe multiple big twists. But it’s hard to keep track of the double-crosses when dealing with soap opera villains like Will Patton’s not-quite-successful industrialist.

Patton was about all they had for forceful performances when the show started. But, thanks to plot perturbations and the casting of Jennifer Beals (still wish she’d been around for the pilot), the performances have improved across the board. It’s still not great when Crystal Reed talks about her duty as a “CDC scientist,” but the better material outweighs it now.

Plus, Virginia Madsen gets an amazing episode arc as she realizes she can’t rely on Patton to negotiate her future—having recovered from her supernatural struggle against a malevolent spirit assuming the form of her dead daughter, Madsen apparently had to give up fostering the little kid who the spirit possessed. So she’s got more time on her hands.

What’s particularly great about Madsen’s arc is how it unfolds across the episode. Sure, Reed and Andy Bean have a whole adventure together, but they’re off in a lower-budget nature sci-fi Netflix series. Madsen’s got a character development arc. It’s awesome.

Especially once Michael Beach shows up.

He’s playing Nathan Ellery, who was a Bond villain in the comics. Most seventies comic book villains were Bond villains. The show characterizes him as a venture capitalist whose mysterious organization is funding black book projects. Or something. It doesn’t matter, Beach is fantastic. And he’s not chewing through it all like Patton.

Patton was great stunt casting for “Swamp Thing” as a nighttime horror soap. However, with the other characters showing agency around him and actors finding their performances, it doesn’t work as well. Particularly with Madsen and Beals.

And the show seems to know it, moving the chess pieces for the final act.

As for Reed and Bean… we’ll see. Swamp Thing Derek Mears—who almost calls himself a swamp thing—doesn’t get much screen time this episode because he grew Reed a hallucinogenic spore, so she sees him as Bean most of the episode.

It’s definitely Bean’s best performance. He’s mansplaining about things only he and the plants know, which kind of makes Swamp Thing the ultimate white male role. Or at least, Alec Holland in hallucinations post-transformation (Alan Moore actually wrote Alec Holland’s human soul as a dick, which is perfect).

So, Bean tells Reed all about his new understanding of life, the universe, and everything, including there’s a very dark place nearby they totally shouldn’t ever go and inspect.

Reed immediately zooms off to the nearby dark place where the “Rot” has taken over. The Rot is a newer Swamp Thing villain, so I’m not familiar with it. It’s gross, grey, and has tentacles.

It’s eventually an exciting adventure plot, with “Swamp Thing” finally using some of the budget to make the swamp look pretty. Right before showing it all rotty.

And then Kevin Durand and Selena Anduze have an excellent arc, full of muted conflict and quiet tragedy.

All in all, solid episode. Despite the lengthy, early slog, I’m both now on board and bummed it’s almost over.

I’m also pretty sure they’re doing the good stuff intentionally at this point.

Swamp Thing (2019) s01e06 – The Price You Pay

So, “Swamp Thing” keeps the momentum. It’s not a breakout episode like last time, with a combination of action and reveals. This episode’s got the reveals and developments—the show’s not taking its time with subplots. Not sure if it’s because their order got cut or if they were just unsteady in the “pilot” episodes, but they’ve found very solid ground.

Apparently, they just needed to up the actual supernatural instead of the mysterious and probably supernatural. Swamp Thing and Blue Devil and the Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu—get all those gears working and the rest of the show being a Southern Gothic corruption soap opera shot muddy evens out. “Swamp Thing” needed to escape reality as soon as possible; now, free of it, the show’s character choices work all the better. Human heart in conflict with itself, others, and its (supernatural) environment: just ups the ante.

Potentially.

The show continues to make interesting choices, plotting-wise. This episode, it’s Selena Anduze (as Kevin Durand’s wife, fellow scientist, and moral compass), Jennifer Beals, and Henderson Wade. Wade in particular. He’s revealing a brooding side to the beefcake. And Beals is just great at this point. If the show had opened with her and then transitioned over to Andy Bean and Crystal Reed, it would’ve been awesome. Well, so long as they had the current few episodes’ writers on it. The first couple episodes got rough on the dialogue.

Will Patton and Kevin Durand are delightfully restrained bad guys. Reed confronts Patton about sending thugs to rough up Maria Sten (who’s not as good as last time but better than before), which led to Ian Ziering getting smacked on the head. He’s now comatose with low brain activity and little chance of recovery per Reed.

He does, however, have REM sleep visibly going on, but no one’s paying attention to him, which fits the characters a little better than it should. Everyone in “Swamp Thing” is operating under unimaginable pressures and would constantly be making sleepy, bad choices. The show’s not a lackadaisical anthology of supernatural incidents; traumas hammer. I may be making excuses, but there are a couple of really deft moves in the episode—Tania Lotta gets the writing credit—and I feel like there’s agency behind the show’s better decisions.

Also, Toa Fraser’s direction is good. Not showy, sturdy; funny how the big-time movie director couldn’t find a tone, but the TV directors can; you’ve got to direct for the soap.

And it’s not a particularly soapy episode. Patton and Durand’s machinations are sci-fi, and Ziering’s their guinea pig.

Good episode for Ziering. He’s been likable on the show, but he’s downright charming now. Guess burning him alive in blue flame adds sympathy.

Reed and Swamp Thing Derek Mears have a bit to do—the episode opens with an action scene, then there’s lots of talking before some suspense sequences and chase scenes, but no more Swampy action. There’s some Swampy magic—he’s talking about the Green a lot, and I’m very curious if the show’s going to be able to do it (either in terms of success or of four episodes left). It comes at the end, setting up a precarious next episode.

But the show’s definitely improved—a lot.