1.05 Power Hungry

Here’s our short and sweet ‘Good and Bad’ review for episode 1.05 “Power Hungry”.

The Good:

1). Great music – the show is sounding more like LOST now and that’s never a bad thing.

2). Olivia – this was a fairly Olivia centric episode with Peter and Walter seeming to have less screen time than in previous episodes. Whilst we love the Bishop boys, we also love Olivia who is so committed to getting what she wants, but she’s not a hard-ass, she’s got a nice way about her and genuinely wants to help others whilst trying to figure out where she fits in all of the madness around her. We’re slowly becoming invested in her.

3). Walter. He seemed to have less screen time in this episode but there are three scenes in this episode which we just love. The first one is the ‘wool socks’ moment, when he does his shuffle dance only to shock Peter (LOL). Then there was his sheer childish enthusiasm over his pigeon plan coming to fruition, and finally the scene where he almost remembered Astrid’s name. Maybe next week?

4).The clues and eastereggs. I love the way in which each episode has at least one intentionally hidden clue which relates to the next episode. Not only are the characters in show working on ‘the pattern’, but the avid viewers are too. It’s this kind of interactivity and viewer involvement that set’s Abrams shows apart from the rest of TV land.

5). John Scott – it’s good to have him back and I like where they could go with this storyline. His return has also allowed us to see more depth and emotion from Olivia.

6). The Observer – YAY! I want his hat.

7). No Massive Dynamic (apart from a poster) and the episode still has a sense of mystery and mythology.

8). The opening and closing 5 minutes of this episode (and every episode so far) dazzled.

The Bad

1). Most of us here feel that the episodic format held the episode back from being what it could have been. Whilst we really rate this episode, it’s clear that a more serialized approach would give the show better continuity and more depth.

2).Astrid still feels like a bit of a spare wheel at times, although we like the character as she brings a youthful vibe and optimism to the team, she doesn’t actually do very much does she? Sometimes it feels like what she does do is simply for the sake of giving her something to do. Also, I wasn’t best pleased to see that she had already forgiven Walter for injecting her in the previous episode – which, according to references made in the episode, was only the day before. So in the space of 24 hours, Astrid’s only sign of resentment towards Walter for injecting her, was to snap at him about his beloved pigeons being “rats with wings”. Yeah, that’ll teach him for injecting you! Either she must have a reeeal soft spot for Walter or she’s a bit of a push over. That said, who doesn’t have a soft spot for Walter, and we do like Jasika Nicole.

3).It seems that every episode ends with Olivia chasing someone and Peter sneaking up on someone. Sure she’s an FBI agent and he never does what he’s told, but the writers have to mix the formula up a little bit – and let there be consequences for chasing after people. Remember the season two finale of LOST, when stubborn Jack and company went after “The Others”? They got caught owned and were taken prisoner (Muahaha!) - although not everyone enjoyed the following six episodes, it did open up a whole new direction for the show and reminded us that you don’t go chasing after what you don’t understand and always expect to come out on top!

Overall rating: 8/10 (probably closer to 7.5, but overall this was probably the second best episode so far and we can’t rate it lower than the others). Our main problems relate to the sometimes predictable format and the episodic nature of the show. The show is definitely cooking on gas but we feel that it could be even better with some slight adjustments. Wow, I sound like Jacob Fischer, Eek!

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