swordznsorcery (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
swordznsorcery) wrote2007-02-06 12:31 am
swordznsorcery) wrote2007-02-06 12:31 am
Entry tags:
Manimal #3
Yep, folks - I've been watching Manimal again. Tonight's episode is "Night Of The Scorpion", and it's rather a good one. Mind you, only two "proper" episodes in, and I'm already sick to the back teeth of that blasted voiceover at the beginning. It's awful! Mr Deepest Voice In Television, proclaiming a lot of twaddle about who Jonathon is. Thing is, on paper it sounds good. "A man with the darkest of pasts." You could make so much of that. Probably would today. Which leads part of me to wish that somebody would remake it, and part of me to scream and hide at the very suggestion. There's so much scope for more depth in this show, particularly with the wilder side of Jonathon's nature. More of that in later episodes, though - you might see what I mean then.
So, back to this episode. A man is being interrogated on a ship, obviously dosed up with some sort of truth serum. Eventually he slips into a coma without telling his interrogators what they want to know, and they attempt to cover things up by encouraging their "fabulously deadly" spider to bite him. Except it's a red-kneed tarantula. But never mind. The boat docks in New York; our friendly neighbourhood police force gets called in to investigate the death; and it's proclaimed to be Death By Spider - although as Jonathon points out, spiders don't usually leave rope burns on people's wrists. Well, not unless they're really really big spiders, anyway. Dead Bloke's daughter turns up, and of course has a cryptic message from her father in tow, which everybody and their minions want. It appears to lead to two million dollars, hidden somewhere in the Bahamas, so Jonathon takes Ty and the girl off there to investigate. They're immediately greeted by Doug McClure, who suggests that the girl's father - his business partner - was an embezzler, and that this must be the source of the money. Jonathon isn't convinced, but then Jonathon has Super Instincts, so it's not a good idea to lie near him. He and his companions retrieve the money, only to discover that there are Russian agents after it, and that everybody is also after a list that they were expecting to find with the money.
It's around this point that it turns out that Dead Bloke and Doug McClure are CIA agents, and that pretty much everybody is doublecrossing pretty much everybody else. The list identifies Soviet agents working for the CIA, which leads me to wonder why the Russians are after it. They should already know who's working for them. Yes, I know - they probably just want to destroy it. But I tend to be less forgiving when the plot starts to turn down the old eighties "The Russians Are The Bad Guys" route. Anyway, cue a rash of kidnapping attempts. Jonathon liberates Doug McClure's macaw and takes its place, in one of the most original eavesdropping scenes ever, but the Russians snatch Dead Bloke's daughter, and whisk her away to inject her with truth serum - so Jonathon, in one of his less intelligent moments, decides to test his suspicions about who can and can't be trusted by effectively sticking his head in Doug McClure's mouth. Thus proving that you can be both a genius and a bit of a pillock. Though a charming pillock in this case, admittedly.
That's when we get to the odd bit. See, Jonathon always does this. He gets tied up, so he turns into a panther. Now, I'm not knocking it. It's a great method of escape. It's certainly unique. What I don't get is how it works. If you're tied up with your hands behind you, and you turn into a panther, surely you're just going to turn into a somewhat uncomfortable panther, with tied paws? Still, we are talking about a show where the lead character regularly rips his way out of his clothing to change into an animal, and then turns back into a fully-dressed human again, without so much as a crinkle in his shirt. So best not think too hard about all of the details. He escapes, anyway. And he does his animal magnetism thing to make an elephant push the enemy headquarters into the sea, which again wins him points for originality. Needless to say, Brooke thinks that the elephant is him. Although, for future reference, Brooke? Shouting "It's Jonathon!" and hugging an elephant, when there are people around, is not usually a good plan.
So, yeah. Good episode, although not one to analyse too much. Lovely panther shots too, as usual. Whoever films that cat certainly knows their business. Beautiful shadow work, especially when it's prowling about, and spying on people. Ty needs more to do, though. He's so much more interesting than Brooke, and standing about in the background, reacting to things, is beneath him. I appreciate that I'm twenty-six years too late to be saying it, but lose Brooke. Gimme Ty instead!
It's transformation time again!
Now he's human...
... and now he's all sort of lumpy and bumpy and pulsating.
Truly original earwigging.
Just don't ask how he opened and closed the cage door. ;)
So, back to this episode. A man is being interrogated on a ship, obviously dosed up with some sort of truth serum. Eventually he slips into a coma without telling his interrogators what they want to know, and they attempt to cover things up by encouraging their "fabulously deadly" spider to bite him. Except it's a red-kneed tarantula. But never mind. The boat docks in New York; our friendly neighbourhood police force gets called in to investigate the death; and it's proclaimed to be Death By Spider - although as Jonathon points out, spiders don't usually leave rope burns on people's wrists. Well, not unless they're really really big spiders, anyway. Dead Bloke's daughter turns up, and of course has a cryptic message from her father in tow, which everybody and their minions want. It appears to lead to two million dollars, hidden somewhere in the Bahamas, so Jonathon takes Ty and the girl off there to investigate. They're immediately greeted by Doug McClure, who suggests that the girl's father - his business partner - was an embezzler, and that this must be the source of the money. Jonathon isn't convinced, but then Jonathon has Super Instincts, so it's not a good idea to lie near him. He and his companions retrieve the money, only to discover that there are Russian agents after it, and that everybody is also after a list that they were expecting to find with the money.
It's around this point that it turns out that Dead Bloke and Doug McClure are CIA agents, and that pretty much everybody is doublecrossing pretty much everybody else. The list identifies Soviet agents working for the CIA, which leads me to wonder why the Russians are after it. They should already know who's working for them. Yes, I know - they probably just want to destroy it. But I tend to be less forgiving when the plot starts to turn down the old eighties "The Russians Are The Bad Guys" route. Anyway, cue a rash of kidnapping attempts. Jonathon liberates Doug McClure's macaw and takes its place, in one of the most original eavesdropping scenes ever, but the Russians snatch Dead Bloke's daughter, and whisk her away to inject her with truth serum - so Jonathon, in one of his less intelligent moments, decides to test his suspicions about who can and can't be trusted by effectively sticking his head in Doug McClure's mouth. Thus proving that you can be both a genius and a bit of a pillock. Though a charming pillock in this case, admittedly.
That's when we get to the odd bit. See, Jonathon always does this. He gets tied up, so he turns into a panther. Now, I'm not knocking it. It's a great method of escape. It's certainly unique. What I don't get is how it works. If you're tied up with your hands behind you, and you turn into a panther, surely you're just going to turn into a somewhat uncomfortable panther, with tied paws? Still, we are talking about a show where the lead character regularly rips his way out of his clothing to change into an animal, and then turns back into a fully-dressed human again, without so much as a crinkle in his shirt. So best not think too hard about all of the details. He escapes, anyway. And he does his animal magnetism thing to make an elephant push the enemy headquarters into the sea, which again wins him points for originality. Needless to say, Brooke thinks that the elephant is him. Although, for future reference, Brooke? Shouting "It's Jonathon!" and hugging an elephant, when there are people around, is not usually a good plan.
So, yeah. Good episode, although not one to analyse too much. Lovely panther shots too, as usual. Whoever films that cat certainly knows their business. Beautiful shadow work, especially when it's prowling about, and spying on people. Ty needs more to do, though. He's so much more interesting than Brooke, and standing about in the background, reacting to things, is beneath him. I appreciate that I'm twenty-six years too late to be saying it, but lose Brooke. Gimme Ty instead!
It's transformation time again!
Now he's human...
... and now he's all sort of lumpy and bumpy and pulsating.
Truly original earwigging.
Just don't ask how he opened and closed the cage door. ;)