Shattered ep 7 review
Ratings:
Pilot: 5/10
Harry Has a Wife: 7/10
Don't Wanna Die: 9/10 (to give me a lil space upwards)
Sound of a Strap: 8/10
Tears Bring Harry: 7/10
Where’s the Line: 6/10
Everyone's a Hostage to Somebody: 9/10
Yeah, not a funny ep, despite the banner, but this camera setup just made me giggle. As did kid!Ben in general ;) (or was it Harry?) More laters. [ETA: Now convinced it's Harry - as souncanadian said, they need to wear name tags!)
I'm running out of positive things to say without repeating myself, but this ep is currently Jell-O wrestling with Don't Wanna Die over which one's my favorite so far.
I love non-linear storytelling, so that already made it a winner in my books. But I really have to take my (at the mo imaginary) hat off to the writers of this show. If you look at the basic building blocks of this ep - hostage situation, guy gets shot and needs to be operated on on a table without anesthetics, etc... - it's really one big pile of overdone clichés. Yet the ep never felt lame or like it was repeating similar shows/films. Throwing in the innocent guy and bitch!mom was genius, as was giving us a lot of not-Sam (and Harry?) and playing with the basic format yet again. Seriously, Shattered writers: mad props!
Highlights:
- kid!Ben!!! (or Harry?)
I wub him! The scene in the morgue was hilarious! So inappropriate when he poked the body, but hilarious!
Same for the later scene when kid!Ben (or... oh, you know) tries to diffuse the situation by stating the totally obvious. "What are you doing? You're in the middle of a police station. Dude, dude, dude. You are nuts! There's a lot of nervous cops around here with guns." No shit! That and Callum's facial expressions and movements in this - GOLD!
Duuuuude!
- all the scenes with Ben and Doc, of course. Especially when the abuse came up towards the end. And the sigh at the very end. I miss Ella.
*sigh*
But man, they can do a show with Markinson and Callum alone, they are stellar when they're in a scene together! I know I say this every single time, but it cannot be said often enough.
Gimme 13 eps of THIS!
- also, Amy and the Doc. That took guts to admit that she felt relieved when Nick was shot and might die. Yup, like my characters realistic, as in: not 100% good or moral or however else you wanna call it. That's life.
- Nick and Amy continuity. Now I think he won't do something bad. And the ep made me like Nick and the coroner, yay! (And Nick? Ouch! Hope the booze was good...)
- Ben with a gun is sex on two legs. Bloody Ben doubly so.
You lookin' at me?
- LOL at Hall and his ripped 400$ (Canadian) jacket. But cool way to get him to be outside. Also lotsa nice continuity with him and Terry - rock, paper, scissors, Terry not wanting to go with the hot Sheriff to not get another divorce (*snort*).
- Ivan!!! Seriously, they read my last review - I wondered why him and kid!Ben don't show up more often. But like Sam, Ivan gets what he wants. While looking smug.
Biatch!
- shoot me, but I did a little fistpump when asshole!mom got shot and asshole!hubby arrested. Not right, yet it is. Ambiguity, luv it.
- more ambiguity
*sob*
Not so good:
- no boxers! Kidding, this was close to perfect TV!
Observations:
- kid!Ben is older than I thought. And less... tragic than I expected. Unless it was Harry. Oh, this is driving me nuts. [souncanadian convinced me, it was Harry]
- Super's still an asshole. Agree with Hall.
- I swear I heard the baddie say "cunts". He did, didn't he? Heh!
- Ben's alters love the word "dude". Which made me wonder if it wasn't kid!Ben, but Harry.. and I'm still not 100% sure it wasn't Harry. But then I don't think Harry would come out when the coroner talked about the victim having been tied to a chair with leather straps and abused, which seems more like a kid!Ben trigger. (Unless - inappropriate thought of the day - Harry was reminded of his Lew Ashby!memorial sex... Nawwwww.) Thoughts?
- I love how Ben's alters are manifestations of his id. This lets the writers have Ben do things a "usual" lead in a show wouldn't - calling a guy with a bomb strapped around him a "Pussy" to get him to blow himself up, getting crapweasel!mom shot in this ep - generally doing morally ambiguous things. This makes Ben darker - and me like!
- Ben really is utterly and totally alone (*huggles Ben*)
- Doc has to suspect what is going on with Ben after this. I now vote Doc to find out first and not Amy. Oh, watch me sitting on that fence.
- Ben was abused as a kid, that is without question now (scene with Doc, scene at the beginning talking about the kid being abused and Ben saying "Soneone has power over you, they have that power", plus fucko!mom and previous eps like the fake rape victim and Ben's comments about suppressing something being dangerous, etc, etc). But he seemed like he KNOWS. I had thought that tidbit would be discovered by Ben as the season progresses.
Also, love the title again as it ties into this - "hostage to somebody" not "somebody's hostage".
Questions:
- in the same vein as above - this ep made me wonder if it wasn't Ivan who called bomb!guy a "Pussy" and not Sam as I thought before. Same MO, same result, and Sam doesn't really say much... opinions?
- kid!Ben (or you-know-who) took a bottle of pills from the morgue. What happened to those?
- do the alters have selective memory or do they just react differently. Like, sometimes they know what is going on and have info from previous moments - such as Ivan in this knowing exactly what is going on with douchebag!mom or Sam in other eps like Sound of a Strap when he interrogates the guy. Yet at the same time, kid!Ben (or... zzzzzzz) calls the others cops, but doesn't himself, nor does he draw the gun. Harry in the hotel room also didn't know that Amy would burst out of the closet. Hmmm...
- why wasn't this a crossover with Flashpoint? Imagine THAT!
Seriously, I think this was the best ep so far.
Pilot: 5/10
Harry Has a Wife: 7/10
Don't Wanna Die: 9/10 (to give me a lil space upwards)
Sound of a Strap: 8/10
Tears Bring Harry: 7/10
Where’s the Line: 6/10
Everyone's a Hostage to Somebody: 9/10
Yeah, not a funny ep, despite the banner, but this camera setup just made me giggle. As did kid!Ben in general ;) (or was it Harry?) More laters. [ETA: Now convinced it's Harry - as souncanadian said, they need to wear name tags!)
I'm running out of positive things to say without repeating myself, but this ep is currently Jell-O wrestling with Don't Wanna Die over which one's my favorite so far.
I love non-linear storytelling, so that already made it a winner in my books. But I really have to take my (at the mo imaginary) hat off to the writers of this show. If you look at the basic building blocks of this ep - hostage situation, guy gets shot and needs to be operated on on a table without anesthetics, etc... - it's really one big pile of overdone clichés. Yet the ep never felt lame or like it was repeating similar shows/films. Throwing in the innocent guy and bitch!mom was genius, as was giving us a lot of not-Sam (and Harry?) and playing with the basic format yet again. Seriously, Shattered writers: mad props!
Highlights:
- kid!Ben!!! (or Harry?)
I wub him! The scene in the morgue was hilarious! So inappropriate when he poked the body, but hilarious!
Same for the later scene when kid!Ben (or... oh, you know) tries to diffuse the situation by stating the totally obvious. "What are you doing? You're in the middle of a police station. Dude, dude, dude. You are nuts! There's a lot of nervous cops around here with guns." No shit! That and Callum's facial expressions and movements in this - GOLD!
Duuuuude!
- all the scenes with Ben and Doc, of course. Especially when the abuse came up towards the end. And the sigh at the very end. I miss Ella.
*sigh*
But man, they can do a show with Markinson and Callum alone, they are stellar when they're in a scene together! I know I say this every single time, but it cannot be said often enough.
Gimme 13 eps of THIS!
- also, Amy and the Doc. That took guts to admit that she felt relieved when Nick was shot and might die. Yup, like my characters realistic, as in: not 100% good or moral or however else you wanna call it. That's life.
- Nick and Amy continuity. Now I think he won't do something bad. And the ep made me like Nick and the coroner, yay! (And Nick? Ouch! Hope the booze was good...)
- Ben with a gun is sex on two legs. Bloody Ben doubly so.
You lookin' at me?
- LOL at Hall and his ripped 400$ (Canadian) jacket. But cool way to get him to be outside. Also lotsa nice continuity with him and Terry - rock, paper, scissors, Terry not wanting to go with the hot Sheriff to not get another divorce (*snort*).
- Ivan!!! Seriously, they read my last review - I wondered why him and kid!Ben don't show up more often. But like Sam, Ivan gets what he wants. While looking smug.
Biatch!
- shoot me, but I did a little fistpump when asshole!mom got shot and asshole!hubby arrested. Not right, yet it is. Ambiguity, luv it.
- more ambiguity
*sob*
Not so good:
- no boxers! Kidding, this was close to perfect TV!
Observations:
- kid!Ben is older than I thought. And less... tragic than I expected. Unless it was Harry. Oh, this is driving me nuts. [souncanadian convinced me, it was Harry]
- Super's still an asshole. Agree with Hall.
- I swear I heard the baddie say "cunts". He did, didn't he? Heh!
- Ben's alters love the word "dude". Which made me wonder if it wasn't kid!Ben, but Harry.. and I'm still not 100% sure it wasn't Harry. But then I don't think Harry would come out when the coroner talked about the victim having been tied to a chair with leather straps and abused, which seems more like a kid!Ben trigger. (Unless - inappropriate thought of the day - Harry was reminded of his Lew Ashby!memorial sex... Nawwwww.) Thoughts?
- I love how Ben's alters are manifestations of his id. This lets the writers have Ben do things a "usual" lead in a show wouldn't - calling a guy with a bomb strapped around him a "Pussy" to get him to blow himself up, getting crapweasel!mom shot in this ep - generally doing morally ambiguous things. This makes Ben darker - and me like!
- Ben really is utterly and totally alone (*huggles Ben*)
- Doc has to suspect what is going on with Ben after this. I now vote Doc to find out first and not Amy. Oh, watch me sitting on that fence.
- Ben was abused as a kid, that is without question now (scene with Doc, scene at the beginning talking about the kid being abused and Ben saying "Soneone has power over you, they have that power", plus fucko!mom and previous eps like the fake rape victim and Ben's comments about suppressing something being dangerous, etc, etc). But he seemed like he KNOWS. I had thought that tidbit would be discovered by Ben as the season progresses.
Also, love the title again as it ties into this - "hostage to somebody" not "somebody's hostage".
Questions:
- in the same vein as above - this ep made me wonder if it wasn't Ivan who called bomb!guy a "Pussy" and not Sam as I thought before. Same MO, same result, and Sam doesn't really say much... opinions?
- kid!Ben (or you-know-who) took a bottle of pills from the morgue. What happened to those?
- do the alters have selective memory or do they just react differently. Like, sometimes they know what is going on and have info from previous moments - such as Ivan in this knowing exactly what is going on with douchebag!mom or Sam in other eps like Sound of a Strap when he interrogates the guy. Yet at the same time, kid!Ben (or... zzzzzzz) calls the others cops, but doesn't himself, nor does he draw the gun. Harry in the hotel room also didn't know that Amy would burst out of the closet. Hmmm...
- why wasn't this a crossover with Flashpoint? Imagine THAT!
Seriously, I think this was the best ep so far.