We’re sampling the summer season’s selection! Check out our other pilot write-up’s –
Call it a didactic streak, but I’ll respond pretty favorably
to a show if it delivers what I deem to be a relevant and pointed message. To clarify,
I don’t think the protagonist necessarily has to be a positive role model for
this to work (to the contrary, it usually
works better when the lead is a cautionary example), nor do I find
it that appealing if the moral is just a trite platitude. Indeed, the latter is
actually a real turn-off, because it always smells like something the crew just
parroted from another show (or worse yet,
a bumper sticker), instead of extrapolating it from real, applicable
experiences.
This pilot maybe just boils down to that familiar axiom - - “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
However, I think it takes it a few steps ahead of that with some key choices.
For one, maybe our lead is the archetypal Holy Fool at the
start - - a country bumpkin venturing
into the big city - - but he’s not exactly naïve. When he realizes he’s dealing
with a bad guy, especially some silver-tongued ingénue who’s intentionally manipulated
him, his mean streak flares but good.
There’s also a bit of nuance to when the cat girl shows her
true colors - - stressing the point that there are degrees of morality. Just
like you might be not like an abrasive jerk, but you’d still prefer dealing
with him instead of a two-faced liar, so too does her switcheroo emphasize
how, in the scope of things, you’d rather deal with somebody trying to rip you off
than somebody to kill you.
And there’s the third point, where these first two meet…
How our hero is so eager to be a white knight, protecting
whom sees as a damsel as distress - - only to find out that she’s actually the aggressor.
That turns one of the most fundamental sword and sorcery set-up’s right on its head. Not too bad for a pilot, no?
Watch "Kill the Darkness"
and decide for yourself.
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