Manhattan 2.01
Oct. 15th, 2015 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe show about fictional physicists in an all too real historical surrounding is back.
To start with the most minor: given that the young actress who plays Callie also plays Eli Gold's daughter on The Good Wife and had a far larger role in s6 before I quit watching, I'm not suprised the character was just written out. It works with the story, too: Liza would try to ensure her daughter at least is far, far away from the camp if she herself can't leave (due to the secrets she now knows).
Otoh while he doesn't show up and "where's Frank?" is the unanswered question of the hour, the episode does ensure us Frank the character isn't gone for good, due to the framing flash forward structure in which the last scene name drops Frank as still alive and trying to get on the Los Alamos test site. I'm not sure how I feel about this revelation - both the content and that it was made; I think, storytelling wise, I'd have preferred not to know. Also Frank made a major sacrifice at the end of last season, there should be consequences if it's more than a storytelling MacGuffin. There ARE consequences in the main time line, but the flash forward reveal that Frank is alive and, if not well, at least apparantly free enough to wander where he's forbidden to go 15 months later takes a bit away from that. And the fact that Charlie is in a leading position still in the flash forward means the question whether or not he'll be able to fill said position in the present is moot.
Otoh the flash foward, showing "the gadget", aka the first atomic bomb, makes for a powerful visual, and steps up the game, so to speak. And the caption reading "X days before Hiroshima" brings up something else; Charlie in his big pep speech to the team near the end of the episode still frames everything in a "us versus the Nazis in the race for the bomb" kind of way and talks about dropping the bomb over Berlin, but of course the tv audience is aware that it will be dropped - they will be dropped - over another country altogether, which doesn't even have a nuclear project.
(BTW, irreverent aside re: Charlie reading "Mein Kampf" early in the episode: poor Charlie. Aside from the vile content, it's also dreadfully written, going by the excerpts I've read. )
Since Akley is dead and Frank in parts unknown for now, the show sets up a new dynamic by introducing new military man Colonel Darrow, whose introduction scene involves what must be an intentional mislead, surely, as he asks Paul to kneel down in front of him after making sure all the windows into his office are shuttered... and then demands not a blow job but Paul asking for forgiveness for wanting to leave Los Alamos because Helen "didn't want to go to the prom" with him. (Does Paul the Englishman know what an US prom is, I wonder? He wasn't subjected to countless High School movies, after all.) Seriously though, Darrow brings on the intimidation without bluster but with experience. (And methinks Paul wanted off site badly enough to actually proceed with a blow job, had Darrow asked for one.)
One of my favourite scenes was the one between Helen and Abby, with Abby asking Helen how to find an abortionist. I do hope Abby realised from Charlie's less than enlightening "I had to find out from the angel of death" later that it wasn't Helen who told Charlie about the pregnancy, because I want more scenes between the two of them, and if Abby thinks Helen betrayed her, than that was that. Anyway, trust Manhattan to take a "wife meets mistress" scenario and spin it off into another direction altogether. As Abby says, there's no one in the camp whom she can ask instead, and I think it made Abby real for Helen instead of the "trophy wife" cliché she took her to be.
The two soldiers finally adress Liza as "Dr. Winters" - something she wanted people to do all through last season - when telling her she'll have to move to smaller quarters (but isn't allowed to leave camp). Go figure. Liza having won the trust of community at last last season, I do hope she will become the voice of the camp's civilian population, and in a way that makes Darrow regret he ever insisted she couldn't leave.
The scene between Liza and her daughter's boyfriend gave the written out Callie and the mother-daughter relationship another layer by letting Liza reveal her daughter is afraid of having inherited Liza's condition. This scene, too, makes me hope there will be more between these two characters, despite the fact he's just betrayed her due to orders.
Meeks had been the team member least fleshed out last season, so the season 1 finale reveal he, in fact, is the mole security has been looking for in vain was fitting, but now we need to know more of him, and it seems we will, given the many scenes he's in this season. Since he appears to be standing in for real life physicist Klaus Fuchs, I'm assuming he's working with the Soviets, not the Nazis, though of course Schiff!Inquisitor whose name turns out to be Fisher has to ask. And never hears the answer, because Meeks' handler shows up in time to strangle him. That was a brutally effective scene, showing Meeks (and the audience) that spying doesn't just consist on scribbling code on paper. Figures that we find out Fisher's name and some of his backstory and that he finally discovers the true mole in the episode where he's killed off, but it was time for the character to go; he was too tied to the s1 dynamic. Meeks' part in the flash forward was to me the most interesting thing about it because of its ambiguity - is he, 15 months later, self loathing and wanting to die, or does he want to sabotage the gadget, or is he simply a scientist needing to know whether it works and willing to sacrifice if necessary himself to find out?
In conclusion: a good season opener. I look foward to more.
To start with the most minor: given that the young actress who plays Callie also plays Eli Gold's daughter on The Good Wife and had a far larger role in s6 before I quit watching, I'm not suprised the character was just written out. It works with the story, too: Liza would try to ensure her daughter at least is far, far away from the camp if she herself can't leave (due to the secrets she now knows).
Otoh while he doesn't show up and "where's Frank?" is the unanswered question of the hour, the episode does ensure us Frank the character isn't gone for good, due to the framing flash forward structure in which the last scene name drops Frank as still alive and trying to get on the Los Alamos test site. I'm not sure how I feel about this revelation - both the content and that it was made; I think, storytelling wise, I'd have preferred not to know. Also Frank made a major sacrifice at the end of last season, there should be consequences if it's more than a storytelling MacGuffin. There ARE consequences in the main time line, but the flash forward reveal that Frank is alive and, if not well, at least apparantly free enough to wander where he's forbidden to go 15 months later takes a bit away from that. And the fact that Charlie is in a leading position still in the flash forward means the question whether or not he'll be able to fill said position in the present is moot.
Otoh the flash foward, showing "the gadget", aka the first atomic bomb, makes for a powerful visual, and steps up the game, so to speak. And the caption reading "X days before Hiroshima" brings up something else; Charlie in his big pep speech to the team near the end of the episode still frames everything in a "us versus the Nazis in the race for the bomb" kind of way and talks about dropping the bomb over Berlin, but of course the tv audience is aware that it will be dropped - they will be dropped - over another country altogether, which doesn't even have a nuclear project.
(BTW, irreverent aside re: Charlie reading "Mein Kampf" early in the episode: poor Charlie. Aside from the vile content, it's also dreadfully written, going by the excerpts I've read. )
Since Akley is dead and Frank in parts unknown for now, the show sets up a new dynamic by introducing new military man Colonel Darrow, whose introduction scene involves what must be an intentional mislead, surely, as he asks Paul to kneel down in front of him after making sure all the windows into his office are shuttered... and then demands not a blow job but Paul asking for forgiveness for wanting to leave Los Alamos because Helen "didn't want to go to the prom" with him. (Does Paul the Englishman know what an US prom is, I wonder? He wasn't subjected to countless High School movies, after all.) Seriously though, Darrow brings on the intimidation without bluster but with experience. (And methinks Paul wanted off site badly enough to actually proceed with a blow job, had Darrow asked for one.)
One of my favourite scenes was the one between Helen and Abby, with Abby asking Helen how to find an abortionist. I do hope Abby realised from Charlie's less than enlightening "I had to find out from the angel of death" later that it wasn't Helen who told Charlie about the pregnancy, because I want more scenes between the two of them, and if Abby thinks Helen betrayed her, than that was that. Anyway, trust Manhattan to take a "wife meets mistress" scenario and spin it off into another direction altogether. As Abby says, there's no one in the camp whom she can ask instead, and I think it made Abby real for Helen instead of the "trophy wife" cliché she took her to be.
The two soldiers finally adress Liza as "Dr. Winters" - something she wanted people to do all through last season - when telling her she'll have to move to smaller quarters (but isn't allowed to leave camp). Go figure. Liza having won the trust of community at last last season, I do hope she will become the voice of the camp's civilian population, and in a way that makes Darrow regret he ever insisted she couldn't leave.
The scene between Liza and her daughter's boyfriend gave the written out Callie and the mother-daughter relationship another layer by letting Liza reveal her daughter is afraid of having inherited Liza's condition. This scene, too, makes me hope there will be more between these two characters, despite the fact he's just betrayed her due to orders.
Meeks had been the team member least fleshed out last season, so the season 1 finale reveal he, in fact, is the mole security has been looking for in vain was fitting, but now we need to know more of him, and it seems we will, given the many scenes he's in this season. Since he appears to be standing in for real life physicist Klaus Fuchs, I'm assuming he's working with the Soviets, not the Nazis, though of course Schiff!Inquisitor whose name turns out to be Fisher has to ask. And never hears the answer, because Meeks' handler shows up in time to strangle him. That was a brutally effective scene, showing Meeks (and the audience) that spying doesn't just consist on scribbling code on paper. Figures that we find out Fisher's name and some of his backstory and that he finally discovers the true mole in the episode where he's killed off, but it was time for the character to go; he was too tied to the s1 dynamic. Meeks' part in the flash forward was to me the most interesting thing about it because of its ambiguity - is he, 15 months later, self loathing and wanting to die, or does he want to sabotage the gadget, or is he simply a scientist needing to know whether it works and willing to sacrifice if necessary himself to find out?
In conclusion: a good season opener. I look foward to more.
