SyFy's Alphas (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

Yep, it was pretty good.
How many episodes are there this season?

 

[Stan]

Yep, it was pretty good.
How many episodes are there this season?

Found a little blip in an article from last fall on "TV by the Numbers" saying 13 episodes were ordered for season 2. They're not always right with their info and this was from last September, but sounds about right for a summer series.

 

[Joe_H]

The characters were more broadly drawn than last season, but that may simply be to reintroduce them to the audience.

I finally got around to watching this, and I still kind of hate that in the rest of the first season, they stepped away from the idea in the pilot that these powers are more limited, so I thought things were just a little bit too exaggerated again, probably more than the first season like you said. Still, it was a pretty good episode.
That being said, I hope that they take the world knowing about these abilities in an interesting direction. I mean, I totally get the government sweeping things under the rug, because that would probably really happen, but a return to the status quo after that excellent finale last year would be disappointing. I suspect those sorts of story will ramp up more as the 'bad' Alphas continue to cause damage though.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode was written by series creator Michael Karnow and felt more like the show I loved from the first season. I'm glad that they haven't entirely rebooted things after how last season ended; they're working with the government again, but Rosen's distrust of the government has only grown since then. I also really like the development of Hick dating Rosen's daughter. The Hicks/Nina pairing seemed perfunctory, just putting the two most attractive people on the cast together. The Hicks/Dani pairing helps split her allegiance, giving her a legitimate foot in both camps.
The only thing that jarred me was Bill's commented about Rosen exposing the Alphas without telling any of them. Clearly Gary knew, since he was the one who made the worldwide broadcast possible, (and maybe it's just my fuzzy memory here) but I thought the rest of the team cooperated as well. It's my recollection that that was a group decision.
Next week introduces the new cast member.

 

[joshEH]

Stanton Parrish is an interesting villain. He's obviously happy to murder innocents, but I actually felt some sympathy for him when he was with his ancient grandchild. I can even understand why he killed her. His endgame isn't clear, but it looks like he wants to engineer a war with "normals," like a certain other mutant arch-villain.
Love the banter in the team, especially when they find out Cameron is banging the professor's daughter:
"Gary, if you mention her again, I'll kill you."
"You can't kill me -- I wake up before you, at 7:42!"
I'm thinking that Nina's going to join Parrish's Brotherhood before the end of the season.
This show is like the anti-Falling Skies.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Stanton Parrish is an interesting villain. He's obviously happy to murder innocents, but I actually felt some sympathy for him when he was with his ancient grandchild. I can even understand why he killed her. His endgame isn't clear, but it looks like he wants to engineer a war with "normals," like a certain other mutant arch-villain.

I like that both Rosen and Parrish are calm intellectuals. The superpowers are definitely secondary to the personalities on this show, which I think is key to its success. I don't think it's that he wants to engineer a war with "normals" so much as he views such a war as inevitable and wants to make sure its waged on favorable terms for the alphas. He has a great deal of respect for Rosen and Rosen's aims. But after a couple hundred years, he just no longer believes they're feasible.

Love the banter in the team, especially when they find out Cameron is banging the professor's daughter:
"Gary, if you mention her again, I'll kill you."
"You can't kill me -- I wake up before you, at 7:42!"

Ryan Cartwright just absolutely kills it, week in and week out. Gary is such a fully conceived and executed character that I had no idea that he was British, and was half-surprised when I saw him not talking in Gary-mode. David Strathairn gets a lot of the headline attention, and deservedly so, but Cartwright is right in that same league every single episode.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I was more worried than most about Bruce Miller talking over Ira Steven Behr, because I thought Behr was really onto something interesting and special but delicate. But the episodes tonight and last week were both excellent. The biggest thing I was worried about was losing the tone of the show, because most of his past shows have been broader in tone and his tenure on "Everwood" only covered the seasons that disappointed.
But the script for tonight's show was particularly terrific, and it came from Eric Tuchman, one of Miller's hires from his "Eureka" staff. Ostensibly it was about a fight club for Alphas, a conceit every cheap science fiction show has used for an episode at some point. But the fighting was simply a framework for character work, and they introduced the new addition to the team in a really interesting way. She brings a different energy to the show, one that wasn't Penn and Karnow's pilot and one that wasn't in Behr's first season. But she's not so far off that it interferes with the overall tone of the show. And she holds true to core law of this universe, which is that there are downsides to every Alpha ability. There's reasons we didn't evolve in these directions as a species. Kat brain reallocates its storage, which makes her very talented but leaves far less space than the average person for long-term memories. It takes a heck of a performer to take on such a horrific state of being with such resigned acceptance. She told Bill his ability won't harm him because it's a part of him. I would bet she adopted the same attitude for herself first; this thing is a part of her, and there's no use for her to mourn the person she was a month ago.
And the scene at the diner was a total Professor X/Magneto chess game. I liked the reveal that Parrish'd fought on the American side in every major war we've fought since the Civil War. It means he doesn't speak of war theoretically. He's been in the thick of it and seen what it does. He's achingly aware of the horrors that will result from the path he's taking. But he's see lots of horrors, and finds the horrors he's bringing into being to be more tolerable than the horrors that would result if he did nothing.

 

[Garrett Adams]

Speaking of Parrish's war references I think he ended with the streets of Berlin. Either that was a bad reference or he was fighting for the Red Army.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Speaking of Parrish's war references I think he ended with the streets of Berlin. Either that was a bad reference or he was fighting for the Red Army.

Someone on another site pointed that out as well. But it's possible that he was an advance scout sent before Eisenhower gave up on the race to Berlin. Of course, given his thoughts on the inevitable rise of the Übermensch to dominion over the "normal" humans, perhaps he was fighting against the Red Army with a red band around his arm. He doesn't come across as a racist, but he does seem like the kind of guy eugenics and forced sterilizations through mass murder would appeal to.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Man! The first season hinted the Nina went down a pretty dark path before she met Rosen, but that stuff with her dad in the flashbacks was just unbelievably dark. The little girl who played young Nina did a fantastic job. Nina's always been a metaphor for an addict, and they did a good job of mapping the "bottoming out" experience of an addict to her superpower.
The chick who plays Kat is right up there with David Strathairn and Ryan Cartwright among the best actors on the show. Auditory and olefactory sensations are supposedly much more potent at triggering memories than visual stimulus, and that scene at the end with Kat listening to Rosen's records and being flooded with all of these emotions from memories she doesn't have any more was a stellar bit of acting and a really interesting bit of writing.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Agree Adam. Fantastic episode and I become a tad verklempt with the final scene with Nina and Strathairn while Kat listened to Yes creating new memories.
Best episode of the season. Looking forward to the first Garycentric episode.
Also liked that they did not have Nina joining Stanton Parish's group which is where it seemed she was headed. That may still happen but for now it appears she will stay with the team.

 

[joshEH]

Good episode last night. The attempt at horror fell flat at times, but Gary and Rosen's plot-points more than made up for it.
It was nice to see Anna again, and it was really nice to see that Gary is still struggling with Anna's fate. The real interesting thing was, unlike all the other Alphas, Gary's visions of Anna didn't lead him down a potentially-deadly path. She acted like his friend, which she was in real life. And in the end, it caused him to send out the very first "Anna Lives!" message. It was a great way to give Gary the catharsis, or whatever the equivalent would be for him, that he simply wasn't able to obtain on his own, due to his own bluntness and literalness.
Rosen working with Nina was great to see, mostly because the two actors have such good chemistry. I like how they are showing how many layers Nina's ability has, and I imagine more of this is coming down the road with the other characters.
And all of this tying back into Stanton Parish's master plan at the very end -- the interesting revelation will be in exactly how all the shipped-out hospital equipment fits into it.
(Although, does anyone else find it distracting that the opening title-sequence was shown 12 minutes into the episode? It kinda hurts the flow.)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Good episode last night. The attempt at horror fell flat at times, but Gary and Rosen's plot-points more than made up for it.

This was the first episode that fell flat to me, probably because I've seen the "ghosts that aren't really ghosts" trope too many times on low-budget sci-fi. That being said, as you mentioned there definitely were redeeming aspects to the episode.

It was nice to see Anna again, and it was really nice to see that Gary is still struggling with Anna's fate. The real interesting thing was, unlike all the other Alphas, Gary's visions of Anna didn't lead him down a potentially-deadly path. She acted like his friend, which she was in real life. And in the end, it caused him to send out the very first "Anna Lives!" message. It was a great way to give Gary the catharsis, or whatever the equivalent would be for him, that he simply wasn't able to obtain on his own, due to his own bluntness and literalness.

I liked the payoff, and I liked seeing "Anna" again, but this was actually one of the problem areas with the episode for me. There was no consistency to the transmitted hallucinations. Every other episode, you could feel a certain logic underlying the events of the episode. This episode the hallucinations took whatever forms the plot demanded of them, and that undermined the reality of the episode in a big way for me.
That being said, Gary turning revolutionary to honor Anna's memory was both a nice twist and something that felt organic to what we've seen up until now. Anything the muddies the waters and makes thing more complex and human is a good thing in my book.

Rosen working with Nina was great to see, mostly because the two actors have such good chemistry. I like how they are showing how many layers Nina's ability has, and I imagine more of this is coming down the road with the other characters.

Definitely. I also like that Rachel didn't forgive Nina right away. There needed to be some fall out from what happened in the previous episode, and I'm glad there was.

And all of this tying back into Stanton Parish's master plan at the very end -- the interesting revelation will be in exactly how all the shipped-out hospital equipment fits into it.
(Although, does anyone else find it distracting that the opening title-sequence was shown 12 minutes into the episode? It kinda hurts the flow.)

The strobe light device -- at least that model -- triggers alpha abilities. Stanton Parish knows that the biggest advantage the "normals" have is sheer numbers, and he's trying to even the odds by creating as many alphas as possible. We know that this isn't his only effort to induce alpha abilities in "normals", the speedster was also a product of Parish's efforts.
The commercial staggering on Syfy is really weird. The show goes nearly 15 minutes without a commercial, and then the remainder of the acts are nearly as short as the commercial breaks to make up for it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One thing this show does well is trends. Most shows have peaks and valleys. In this show, everything builds organically on what has come before. As Parish is calm, patient, methodical, slowly manipulating things his way, Rosen becomes more and more isolated, freezing more and more people out. You know the moment is going to come where Rosen bottoms out and Parish is seemingly ascendant. You just don't know when, or how, or why -- and what happens after.
In a strange way, Skylar's probably Summer Glau's most "normal" character. After a mentally unbalanced genius, a schizophrenic with mind control, and a robotic killing machine from the future -- a single mom with MacGuyver-esque abilities seems downright run-of-the-mill.
So Rachel's basically Superman now, without the strength, speed or flight. The way the show visualizes her enhanced superhearing is pretty cool.
Loved Gary retuning his ability to pick up the signals emitted by nature.

 

[Walter Kittel]

In a strange way, Skylar's probably Summer Glau's most "normal" character.

Well, there was her Crystal character on The Unit, but I get what you are saying. I liked the fact that the character, despite her abilities was portrayed as still working through the intricacies of raising a daughter. Rosen's assistance and the tone of his scenes with Zoe reinforced the theme that (while not an Alpha himself) he has an abiding paternal interest in his team and Alphas in general.
Good observation about Rosen becoming isolated - certainly the last scene with Bill points in that direction. Assuming that Bill does discover that Rosen's daughter, Danielle, is the leak what will that do to her relationships with her father and Cameron? I am guessing that this may be a season finale plot development.
I am really enjoying this season and I believe part of that is the actors becoming more comfortable with their characters in the sophomore season. Interesting developments with the powers of the Alphas being enhanced and Gary's modification to his ability. This should give the writers a little more flexibility in future episodes / seasons.
- Walter.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Summer Glau did not look good in that episode. Teetering towards anorexia.
Loved Gary communing with nature and getting a cabin.

 

[Joe_H]

There hasn't been much activity on this lately, but I thought tonight's episode was excellent. Up there with the best this show has done.

 

[Walter Kittel]

The focus on parent / child relationships was well utilized in tonight's episode with the variety of relationships that were explored. Some really nice work from the entire cast in tonight's episode - especially the main storyline highlighting Rosen and Danni. One of the most emotionally resonant episodes in the series' short history.
- Walter.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I agree with both of you guys. They took Rosen to very interesting places, ready to break his own rules, and that was only to the betterment of the show. Strathairn's breakdown in the interrogation room was gripping and heartbreaking, as all of Rosen's psychologist framing failed him, but the scene that was really electrifying to me was Hicks's confrontation with Rosen in the hallway right before. Warren Christie really brought it in a way he's never brought it before, to a place that was pretty terrifying. What made it so effective is that Hicks's incredulity wasn't coming from the place of Dani's boyfriend, it was coming (as you pointed out, Walter) from the place of being a father. Tyler is his #1 and everything. He just couldn't fathom doing such a thing to his son, and he couldn't fathom any father betraying their child in such a way. The father in him was just outraged at another father. They're the only two in the main cast that have that role, and it was nice to see it utilized.
Kat's becoming a really interesting character. Discovering the truth about what had happened to her was just absolutely horrific. Imagine being raped, and then walking back to your rapist -- obliviously -- over and over again. Fantastic performance from Erin Way.
And everything Gary is always gold.

 

[David Weicker]

And everything Gary is always gold.

What really was interesting was one of the 'behind the scenes' where we actually heard Gary talk in his own voice - quite a difference.
And Kat is becoming one of my favorite characters.