The Collector 1x01-1x03

[oyceter]

Morgan Pym (a rather unfortunate name, as I was watching this while eating tasty raspberry Pim's and will now forever associate the two and really he is not even remotely like a tasty raspberry Pim's) --

I will start over, now that I have gotten that insanely long parenthetical out of the way.

Morgan Pym used to be a monk way back when (aka, 600+ years ago). Then he made a deal with the devil, and now, he helps collect souls for the devil. I'm not quite sure why he gets to be the collector instead of being one of the damned, but I assume that'll be explained eventually.

Lately, he's gotten a little bored with what he does and wants to try saving people. He's got 48 hours to get someone who's sold their soul to the devil to repent; otherwise, they go to hell.

Current themes/long-running plotlines seem to be: Morgan's Tragic Romantic Past, Morgan's drug addict hooker friend-maybe-romantic-interest, a reporter who may end up exposing Morgan, and assorted save-the-person-of-the-week A plots.

Um, so far, I am not too impressed. Part of this is because of the cheesy voiceover that introduces every episode and the overacted devil, part of it is because I have no idea why the devil would be giving Morgan hints on how to save people, and part of it is because the three MotW Sold-Souls-otW are very boring. We have: one sold soul for fame, one for the attempt to do good which of course horrifically backfires. And then I watched the third episode and nearly threw something at my TV.

It concerns a vapid model (the vapidity isn't even funny, it's just a bad writer's idea of what a vapid model should be like) and her gaining weight back and indulging in all sorts of anorexic behavior. And in the end, what is the lesson? No, it is not that society propagates images of thinness, or that the ideal of beauty is off. It is that fast food is bad for you!

ARRRGH!

Um, does this get better?

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

My episode guide (http://yhlee.livejournal.com/731123.html#cutid5) (no spoilers). I really dislike 1.3. Tell you what, though, if you don't like 1.10, 1.12, or 2.2, there's really no point in you continuing. (Although 2.2 has some of the most spectacularly intricate plotting I've seen in a TV episode.)

[oyceter]

Ok, phew! I was watching episode 3 and.... ZOIHTR$_)*(@L#KNMDSLIJ!!!!!!!

RAWR!

I think I will try 1x10 and see what I think; the stand-alones aren't holding much interest currently because they seem so straightforward and non-surprising, so the intricate plotting is nice to look forward to.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

2x02 love! :-D

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I'll be able to read this and comment when I've actually watched the eps I have....

[oyceter]

Thankfully, episode 4 was ten times better than episode 3, which nearly made me throw something at the TV screen!

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Like you, I thought the first two episodes were pretty boring, and the "Supermodel" episode nearly made me give up on the show for good, when I was watching the original run of it on TV. Then I just peeked at the show from time to time, to see if it had gotten better, and by the time of "The Roboticist" I found it worthwhile again, and the last few episodes of S1 really grabbed me for good. I rewatched the "Supermodel" episode again recently and liked it a lot more in retrospect, although the weight-yoyo for comic effect is still extremely cruel, and the showrunners did a lot of foreshadowing and subtle character-building of the regulars even when the A-plot of the soul-of-the-week wasn't so good. This applies to later seasons as well. They were often better at long-term planning than short-term structuring.

And they do explain why Morgan gets special treatment.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

(I'll add that "The Old Man" made me cringe too much to watch it, initially, though.)

[oyceter]

Argh, the supermodel one still irritates me! As does the acting. But the long-term arcs are interesting, especially what they're doing with Gabe.