A:01 – Scary Monsters
Following on from the movie ‘Original Syn’, Sofia Romero journeys to the Rupert Giles Academy for Girls with the mythical Scythe. Meeting her dorm-mates, she is suddenly attacked by a demon that’s nesting and feeding on Sofia and Emma…
As virtual spin-offs go, it’s nice to see one that’s full of original characters in an advancement of the JossVerse that (to my knowledge so far) isn’t full of questionable fan-fiction decisions. Yet there’s still some niggles that I personally do feel can let down scripts. An unnecessary reference to the Cheese Man is a prime example of one of the reasons I’m wary of virtual series.
But there’s a nice original twang to this, references aside, a Xander cameo, and The First I hope that the series will begin to bring itself away from it’s Universe origins and bring an original spin on things. In terms of characters, it’s the first time that I have some across the characters of Skye and Sofia. They make a decent impression, with Sofia shining. Skye is okay, but I’ve not fully warmed to her yet. Emma was nice, if a bit annoying – brave move killing her off though. Just a shame Frankie wasn’t gutted. And while she didn’t make an impression, the final image of Alita is gold and one of the episode’s highlights.
I have to admit, the stand-alone story with the dream demon is similar to something seen in Ravenshill, and the way that the characters solve the problem is very similar – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, there’s a kind of ensemble Britishness trying to creep through in an increasingly weird mix of Buffy and Hex. Very good opening episode. 8 – matt
A:02 – Field Trip
The Academy welcomes Greg Pierce into it’s ranks as the girls head for their first mission, find out what’s happened to everyone in a small local town…
With ‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Pure Shores’ in the soundtrack, the Britishness continues to shine though it, although it’s hard to not read some characters as American.
Some very interesting moments in here, with a nice recap of the main girls though a conversation between Greg and Barbara as voice-overs, and some humour over the technology. However the episode is determined to try and establish Greg and the format of the series, and it’s nearly successful. While we’re not any wiser about the characters (Frankie is still very unlikable) and there’s another unnecessary reference (although this one’s directed at Paris Hilton), the characters go through the motions. With the exception of Sofia, who has some touching moments at Emma’s gravestone – not to mention a dream visit from the Texan.
The episode also opens arcs that will presumably deal with the Vampires attempting to walk in the sunlight – and while interesting, Roland still falls foul of another Lee A. Chrimes typical villain cardboard cut-out. Although he looks to be back, and hopefully something will stand out. The series is settling into its stride, finding it’s place – but it’ll be good to see how it’ll develop… 7 – matt
A:03 – Open My Eyes
A Hellmouth is on the verge of opening in Moscow, and the Slayers head over to close it with the help of a blind Russian Slayer called Erika…
Ahh. Hellmouths and The First. I remember now how boring The First can get. Doesn’t anyone remember Jenny Calendar feeling up Angel in Amends? Or is that just me?
Anyway, the episode does slacken in pacing and gets boring in places, Erika is an intriguing individual, but she gets some ridiculously long speeches that feel a chore to read. Points for giving Frankie some humanity though – but the French words are becoming to get annoying. She needs likable character traits. Or at least a nice death scene.
Skye still isn’t fully clicking with me for some reason though – and I can’t put my finger on it. She does feel like Twist from SiB at times, merged with a bit of Chris…and it’s hard to find her really likable. Sofia continues to be the most likable character, while it appears that Alita’s enigmatic spotlight in episode one has been completely forgotten about. Average. 5 – matt
A:04 – Nothing Else To Say
It’s the return of the Initiative, and they have a presence in the Academy now with the introduction of Ellen, a Slayer who’s “passed her expiry dateâ€. On a good note, Frankie’s lost her voice.
I liked The Initiative. I always felt that there was a lot there that wasn’t fully tapped into, and while unfortunately the poorer later episodes of Buffy were usually found to be focused on the aftermath of it, there was a lot of stuff that could’ve been further explored. So their appearance is a surprise, but oddly welcome. Ellen’s appearance raised some interesting questions as well as showing that Willow’s spell was more powerful than first thought.
However, the episode twists and turns…what appears to be an episode about Frankie turns into something that constantly exceeds expectations and leads into interesting territory – heading into what happened in episode 2. Some strange revelations about experiments would’ve been more hard hitting…just a shame that we do kind of know what the bad guys are planning…
Still, this is all interesting development that should lead to some interesting developments in later episodes. The spell to help revision has been seen before (and stinks of fleshing out an episode), but it doesn’t distract that the episode’s ability to mislead the reader. 8 – matt
A:05 – Fine By Me
Remember the Buffy episode ‘Helpless’ where Buffy had to go on a test once she reaches her eighteenth birthday? Well it’s Sofia’s turn now. While Greg and the others (along with Blind Slayer Erika) head to Gothenburg to look at people dying after having sex…
Hmm…there’s something that’s extremely odd about the field work style of going to investigate things in foreign countries that doesn’t seen to want to click with me. The whole Sweden part of the episode was really dull stuff, only lightened by the Greg/Skye dialogue – which did occasionally get dogged down by some laughable pop-culture references (for all the wrong reasons).
The real meat of this episode, was the Sofia aspect of the episode – which was more about learning to be a Slayer than the Swedish exposition ever was. Many beautiful character moments remove the fact that the idea that the whole Rite of Passage for Sofia would go belly-up – and that someone would end up helping her. While it ends slightly haphazardly – intriguing scenes with Emma and a lovely reassuring phone-call from Xander Harris do lighten up a below average episode.
Heidi (another Slayer) doesn’t make that good an impression apart from being a bit impulsive and the whole pay-off for the Swedish incident just doesn’t seem satisfying. Could it be a co-incidence that the other lower scoring episode involves a trip to another country? 4 – matt
A:06 – Runaway
Slayers and Watchers are disappearing over the world, and the Watchers Council has put the Academy on High-Alert. Greg and the Slayers journey to Africa to try and figure out the case…
An impressive start appears to be the only thing that had this series, as it appears the ferrying off characters to different countries isn’t really working. A huge thing has cropped up a few times in the past few episodes, one of them in this episode is the constant need to reference everything from the original show. Did we really need to have Tamblyn’s pressure revealed by him mentioning Giles’ name? This has happened in previous episodes as well.
Also, it appears that some of the main characters are not getting any more interesting. Greg is just flat out boring and dull, the revelation about his sexuality was predictable. Alita is an enigma that really needs to be given something a lot more to do. Frankie is still pissing me off. Skye’s second-hand wit of constantly wanting to pop-culture reference is reaching the point of annoyance. Sofia is still the best out of the line-up, with a lot opening up for her – but she still has some stuff left to go as she. In fact, what’s surprising is the character that got the best moment was Heidi (her scene with Keeya) – and she’s only recurring status. Plus the dialogue has some of the lazy ‘useless-facts-to-try-and-flesh-out-characters’ twist in some parts.
But again, the best parts of the episode is the internal politics of the Academy, where a growing Cold War of paranoia between The Initiative and The Watchers Council is starting to stir gently. It’s no surprise that the story picks up after the return from Africa either – as it appears that this series might be better off being the Deep Space Nine of the Buffy-Verse. There’s a few bugs in this system that needs ironing out… 4 – matt
A:07 – Long Distance
In Tokyo, a Slayer is killed and the team head over there and they meet Alita’s father…
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I don’t know what it is, but when the action isn’t based at or around The Academy it feels as if everything is being dragged along through the motions of the plot. Finally getting some background story to Alita – which does add a little to her character…but the story just appears to drift away from her slightly and just lets her be the hero for a change. However the interactions with her father was slightly…dullish – and it doesn’t seem to link to the same girl we saw shaking in fear at the end of the pilot. Overall the episode seemed a wasted opportunity – showcasing nothing new. Although Alita staying behind might show a slight change in dynamic.
What’s also slightly off-putting is that the dynamic is slightly iffy in places. Skye and Greg’s pop-culture popping is very inappropriate along with Greg’s flirting, which all is clear stalling to fill an episode with a half-decent action scene (although I admit I was rushing the end because of the DSR pilot). Also noticed that Frankie’s accent ‘ad been missing in some parts of the dialogue.
What is happening to the series that killed off a main character in it’s first episode? There’s a lot more potential here than there’s being shown. 3 – matt
A:08 – If You’re Lonely
When the plane they’re on lands in Manchester, the girls (sans Alita) and Greg wait for the Academy mini-bus to arrive and Greg meets a guy…and some demons are after him.
This episode goes through several different stages, with scenes changing gradually in quality. Some scenes were awful, while some changed the momentum and were very impressive, my final score was fluctuating up and down.
The episode had some poor points. Skye is actually beginning to irritate to the point she’s nearly Frankie. The episode sees an extraordinarily poor shift in style as it tries to pay a ‘homage’ to CSI and instead of being funny it falls out flat and confusing – ruining the episode. And Greg’s nervousness was annoying.
Talking of which, while this episode was given the aim to try and explore Greg, it was uneven and Greg only got interesting in his scenes with Ellen. In fact, the increasingly dangerous rift growing between the Council and the Initiative overshadows the episode again. In fact, it was the appearance of Ellen and Greg’s impressive defence against her that really knocked the episode up – and for most of Act Four, this was readable entertainment again. The symbolic image of the slayers fighting the army sparks a haunting image for the so-called alliance between the two ‘Good Guys’. Then the van explodes and some strange woman takes the Vatosh. A nice touch was that the demons weren’t exactly ‘evil’ either.
Surprisingly what appeared to be another duff episode lightened up in a similar vein to SiB’s annoying habit of thinking the episode you are about to read will be rubbish. Only this SA attempt wasn’t exactly consistent – some scenes in this are worth double the final score; it’s just a shame some of the scenes weren’t worth a fifth of the score. 5 – matt
A:09 – Gale Force
The girls are asked to check out a possible ‘Elemental’ – a being that can manipulate certain elements that it’s linked to. With the aid of another Slayer, the girls try to fight the demon.
Ahh, some of the similar charm that Lamkin puts into episodes of Pathways is slightly apparent here in some bright moments with some nice touches. I tried to resist a cruel smile when Frankie mentioned the girls had become ‘dignified dog catchers’. Which was a first from her. Still, they are small bright spells in a reasonably average episode.
I just don’t know what it is, but Frankie and Skye just aren’t clicking with me. Frankie has no revealing sympathetic qualities to talk about just yet – no reasons why she appears mean besides from being a spoilt rich bitch (which isn’t helped by having her as Paris Hilton in my head). Skye is still coming across as the poor man’s Twist McFadden – at least the pop-culture references have been cut down in this episode.
Another Slayer. Another new recurring character. This one being one who is reluctant about her destiny. Debbie makes an okay impression to be honest, if only by the Characterisation Teaser from her which raised a smile. An average episode that has some nice sparks to it.
Oh, a small thing. Does Sofia have to be told to shut up about Buffy every episode? 6 – matt
A:10 – The Nightmare Before…
Christmas time. And Sofia has a guest – Xander Harris! Alita is acting weirder than usual, Skye and Xander have some sort of history, Frankie is the same while Greg is told to take a break from the girls because he’s getting too emotionally attached to them…
Now. This is the standard people. Character building tension where the characters come first and none of this gallivanting across the world looking for Hellmouths rubbish. This was an episode that should’ve been seen episodes ago, and I’m finally glad I’ve got to an episode I can praise properly – all the reading’s paid off for an enjoyable episode that I admit I cringed, laughed and winced at.
Xander is my God. The whole ‘Xand’ screen-name stemmed from the guy. ‘Xander999’ ‘The_Zeppo’ ‘Xandmatt’ ‘Xand’. All come from that guy. And I have to admit that it is credible about him visiting Sofia. Also, it’s nice to see that the episode didn’t revolve around him!
And I really thought Frankie was going to take the place of ‘Xand’s Most Hated Character’ (current resident: Angelina Samson from Ravenshill) but alas, there’s something…dare I say it…likable that happens! Punching Heidi around the mouth was quite a shocking moment. I expected her dream to involve her father – but it was her being paralysed, which is a lot more interesting as it can be seen as a lot more symbolic than usual. My interpretation is that Frankie is someone who appears to want or need other people, but doesn’t like to admit it very often (unless it’s daddy). Her dream of being paralysed also sees her being left alone…which suggests one of two things; she’s either afraid of being left alone and helpless – or the fact that it may have been caused by Heidi is that she’s starting to question or thinking about her spoilt attitude and fears it might bring about this helplessness – but she’s too stubborn to do anything about it.
Skye does still get some dodgy one-liners (was the Firefly reference necessary?) but her fear of her vampire side has been seen before – but not on this scale, and this is where things begin to separate herself from SiB’s Twist, who does in part embrace her Vampiric nature, and that she does seem to hate it – or at least fear it. This then makes her seem more on the lines as Chris – but the major difference is that Skye is part Slayer – and where as Chris is an increasingly isolated individual who is becoming lost in his own world, Skye is beginning to see the value of teamwork – even though there’s a constant fear of having something pointy and wooden driven through her heart.
Finally we get to see another side of Alita. In a humourous moment where she and Skye get drunk (more character moments like that please) we see that her belief in ridding evil is strong…but we also learn that her dreams have been haunted by the Sonho Demon – which explains the image at the end of episode one. We also receive subtle suggestions that Alita maybe slightly jealous and envious of Sofia and what she has accomplished. She’s had all the training but she isn’t Buffy’s replacement (although to be honest – I’ve never gotten that. Wouldn’t it actually until Faith ‘retires’?) and Sofia is. This raises a question whether Alita’s father has figured this out and that’s why his disappointment of her is made known to her…
And with Sofia we begin to see what makes her tick with some lovely scenes with Xander and her fighting Alita. An orphan who hasn’t got any real family – she’s finally been accepted into a real tight-fit family of the Scoobies with a Claddagh Ring. This is probably the biggest development for Sofia, and it links back to the end of last episode where she shed a tear after seeing Debbie and her mother hugging.
Each of the four main characters are given something to do and are explored and we learn an awful lot more about them than we previously have. Nicely written and engaging scenes, some moments that shock you, move you and make you laugh.
Best episode yet. You see what happens when there’s the character development? 9 – matt
A:11 – Butter Fingers
Frankie and Heidi keep spontaneously breaking into a fight whenever they’re around each other. So, to get them to settle their differences – Barbara sends them out on a mission, where they find a mysterious girl…
We get the buddy-cop movie for SA as Frankie and Heidi are forced to work together. The episode seems slightly off, mainly because we really don’t see any visible change during the mission of the girl’s opinions of each other actually changing.
It’s actually another average episode, boosted by some arc development, as we learn who abducted the Vatosh – and that they are using Slayers to do their dirty work. There’s not a lot revealed mind, but enough to tease in another slightly above average episode with nothing majorly standing out. 6 – matt
A:12 – The Slayer Who Loved Me…
Greg recounts the events that led to his meeting of Jaz…
A nice surprise is the revelation that Jaz is in fact a Slayer who’s been de-potentialised. The episode unfolds in a nice stand-alone bit of fun, with some interesting snippets of information. A mention of Kira. Greg’s mother. All hiding in the background.
While nothing groundbreaking, it was a nice diversion from the original format, taking a break from the annoyances and giving some more background to Jaz and Greg. Preston Thrusting raises a few smiles – but nothing exceptionally standing out as I feel as I won’t remember this episode in a year’s time. 6 – matt
A:13 – Sports
It’s Sports Day! And there’s strange things afoot in the Academy as it seems that someone has infiltrated the building…
It bugs me that we never covered Sports Day in Ravenshill, a lost episode for the season would’ve followed rivalry between School Football Teams…but no stand-alone plot around Sports Day.
Thankfully the Britishness of the series began to shine in this episode – especially with the Sports Day theme with it – and the benefits of not having to set-up boring exposition mission scenes and travelling to other countries are showing in this episode with nice character moments. Some very interesting questions become raised about the nature of Alita and Skye…which confuses in the case of Alita since we saw her parents. The moments with Heidi are golden, as we get to see what happens with people who don’t like each other being forced to live on common ground (kind of like DS9 and B5…). Frankie is beginning to flow seamlessly into the group – however, there has been a few moments the past few episodes that seems to want to and force a kind of suspicion towards each of the core cast members and will probably end up in some touch confrontations later on.
The mysterious Rachel is presumably the same that Kira mentioned in episode eleven…there’s a lot of things opening up in terms of storylines that may or may not converge. With Skye’s missing memories (and experimentation on her) and Vampires wanting to walk in the day are now being added with Kira – a possibly powerful witch. Raises some interesting questions…
And a point for using the term ‘lamp’ for violence! Yay for the Brits! 8 – matt
A:14 – The Long Weight
It’s time for Skye’s Cruciamentum…and tormented by The First in Spike’s form attempts to go through some strange caverns while we learn stuff about what happened between her travels from LA to the Academy…
There’s just something with Skye that really doesn’t want to click with me; the flashbacks reveal more to her character (with her wanting to distance herself from her old life, including changing her surname) and trying to find a line that separates the Vampire Self from the Slayer self. It’s all good stuff…but I still think she can get annoying at times and I don’t really care much for her.
The story itself is one that’s weak, with a lot of ‘Skye goes through this and bickers with Spike/The First’ mixed with brief flashbacks. The story does lose an interesting exploration of the Vampire side of Skye, the removal of her Slayer side does practically nothing. A real shame. Although the idea that the Council would want to
Although the episode ends on a nicely touching scene though that lifts the Skye part of the episode. Skye phoning her mother to tell her that she died was a lovely way to end the episode.
A surprisingly good part of the episode involved the relationship between Frankie and Dunstall, leading to Frankie losing her virginity (First impression: Slut, actual Virgin – another Ravenshill co-incidence). Hopefully this does mean a slight change in her character so hopefully she gets more likable… and if there is a cold-war brewing between the Initiative and the Council – there hs to be some people caught in the middle… 5 – matt
A:15 – Charity Case
Files from the Council’s network goes missing, and the girls (with Ellen and Debbie) go to track the files down and come face to face with some familiar faces…
D’oh. “The Spike? Mr. vampire-with-a-soul, the blonde-haired lover from Los Angeles who broke your heart?†Cringe worthy dialogue alert that insults the intelligence of the reader slightly.
Still, that aside, an intriguing episode that gets ready to set-up later episodes as the Slayers meet the mysterious Kira and a strange guy called Hamish. We hardly learn anything new, apart from that Greg and Barbara have dealt with Kira before.
Frankie’s finally going somewhere, that look she had when she walked away from the other commando was as cryptic and intriguing as the look Alita had on her face in the pilot. Skye is slowly getting more rounded, but I still haven’t clicked with her…and there has to be something more dramatic going on between the Initiative and The Council going on… 7 – matt
