![]() ![]() The death of Dani worked really well, despite the fact that it felt like we'd just met her, and only really spent the episode "Falling" getting to know her softer side. It seemed easy enough to tether them into the main arc, since Parish seemed to be all about labs and secret tech, but nothing ever came of it. The same goes for "Life After Death," which also had an Alphas experiment sub-plot that never fully got unraveled. The episode "Alpha Dogs," where Kat helped Bill get his groove back, could have been better if they'd come up with a better explanation for the secret lab at the end. And he didn't even have an episode like "Bill and Gary's Excellent Adventure" to show more of his humorous side although I did like his reaction to being so remotely outdoors in "Alphaville." Instead of partnering Bill up with Gary again, the writers introduced the Taskmaster-ish Kat, who came with her own ability-related drawback as well: her memory, which is a flaw in Kat's design that's still yet to be resolved. Ryan Cartwright's performance remains as strong and poignant as usual, but it was a little harder to get "close" to Gary this year. He screamed, he complained, he barked at strangers in the office and then, by the end of the season, had to deal with his mother getting into a near-fatal car crash. Gary was a little out of sorts this season, given the death of Anna and his unusual manner of grieving. Rachel unfortunately didn't have much to do powers-wise this year, but she did find a love interest and awkwardly set out to try and overcome her ability-related issues with intimacy. Sure, there were a few moments where it seemed like she was just hanging around the offices with a cup of coffee, waiting to get into Rachel's business, but she also had many more moments to shine, even disapproving of some of Rosen's harsh, hardened ideals in the last few episodes. Not every member of the Alphas team is battle-ready, or easily written into a conflict scenario, but Season 2 saw Nina become far more than just the woman who liked Cameron. An oak who cherished those around him despite the fact that, in his 170 something years on the planet, he'd completely given up on humanity.Īzita Ghanizada on IGN’s Channel Surfing Podcast Season 2 started out somewhat typically, but it was the Nina-centric episode, "When Push Comes to Shove," that really let me know things were clicking in the writers room. Because let's face it, it's hard to call someone a straight-up monster when they barely ever raise their voice and never free fall into fits of madness or rage. With Rosen scrambling to discover Parish's ultimate plan, Season 2 felt like it had more of a recognizable through line, leading the team to thwart Parish's plans not just once, but three times actually, if you count his ploy to try and use Jason's hive mind powers in "Gods and Monsters." Parish was no scene stealer, often sentimental and quiet to a fault, but his demeanor played well off of Rosen's ever-increasing obsession. Well, thanks in part to Parish's photic stimulator device too. Season 2 still had the team working through their issues and weaknesses (Bill's heart, Nina's self-destructiveness, Rachel's oversensitivity), but the writers had them overcome these hindrances, making most of them even stronger in the process. Rosen reveal the existence of Alphas to the world at the end of Season 1. Alphas solved these two problems by A: not making their characters overly-powerful (while also tying their abilities, as best they can, to biology), and B: having Dr. ![]() Also, Heroes spent four seasons with our heroes not acting like heroes at all forever policing and bickering among their own in a world that didn't even know they existed at all. One of the problems that Heroes faced after, and even toward the end of, Season 1, was that they had a handful of characters that were so powerful that they couldn't write for them anymore without plummeting into logistical nightmares. Alphas' closest parallel is X-Men (creator Zak Penn co-wrote X-Men: The Last Stand and gets story credit on X2 and The Avengers), but many folks often bring up NBC's Heroes, since it's a notable recent TV series featuring out of costume super-humans. Season 2 had a few low moments, but for the most part it revved things up with some large scale, master villain-style schemes from somber, Civil War-era villain, Stanton Parish. Sometimes hindered by its basic cable TV budget, Alphas makes up for its occasional fudging by giving us characters that we care about and emotional situations that resonate. Lee Rosen, Alphas has always been a good show, if uneven at times. ![]() Confidential, Good Night and Good Luck) as team leader Dr. Anchored by the incredible David Strathairn (L.A. ![]()
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