Tuesday, May 05, 2015

My Review of Atlantis's 2x10: "The Dying Of The Light"


Written by Lucy Watkins
Directed by Justin Molotnikov

Medea (to Pasiphae, re Jason): “He also knows that he is touched by the gods. He is drawn to us, I have seen it with my own eyes”

Just as this show got cancelled and after two plodding episodes, it finally feels like Atlantis is stepping up a gear here. Last week saw Medusa sacrifice herself, Ariadne get rescued and Jason learnt that Pasiphae is his mother. This week dealt with all of those things mostly head on with decent results to be honest.

I'm not gonna lie about Jason's 'darkness' though. This plot in some ways does expose Jack Donnelly's limitations as an actor as half the time in this episode, it felt more like Jason having a sulky teenage strop rather than a hero on the brink of having his morality compromised and heart blackened heart. Despite one scene where he kills an innocent soldier, he just spends a good portion of the episode being a pain in the arse to both Ariadne and Hercules, the latter of whom wanted to throttle him at times.

Of course, we did get to the last scene of the episode where Jason and Medea met up, snogged and seemed to forge a connection and to be honest, it was probably the best part of the episode. Alone in this episode, I realised yet again that Jason and Ariadne are better characters away from each other than together. In fact, Ariadne's interactions alone with Pythagoras and Hercules were more interesting to watch than her scenes with Jason.

Speaking of Pythagoras - I loved that he got some more screen time with Icarus this week (even if the latter was forced to betray him to save his father from execution) and I also liked that he managed to get Aeson back into the mix as well. It's just too bad (possibly) that Jason succumbed to Medea before being reunited with his father though.

- Pasiphae went into literal Darth Vader mode in this episode with that little trick she did on her right hand man. I am sensing a power struggle with her and Medea as well.
- Is it too much to really hope that Pythagoras and Icarus do have a romantic past/present/future? They really do seem to be more than friends here.
- Controversial or not but I actually prefer this Oracle compared to the last one. Not sure why though.
- Jason's current storyline is similar to Emma's in Once Upon A Time when you think about it.

Definitely as good as last week and one of the better episodes we've had with this show. If we had more episodes of "The Dying Of The Light" I really do think this show might have gotten a third series at the very least. Still a good episode though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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