My Review of Wizards Vs. Aliens 2x04: "The Curse Of Crowe"

Written by Gareth Roberts
Directed by Mark Everest

Ursula: "I'm waiting."
Randall: "What for?"
Ursula: "For the greatest power in the universe."

Every week it does seem like this show does play with the most familiar of tropes and while it often doesn't always do anything too radical with them, they still manage to be a lot of fun. This week, we had to have a story where Tom and Benny's friendship was erased and they were barely on speaking terms. All because Gemma Raven wanted to save her mother from being fed to the Nekross.

I do like that without Tom and Benny's friendship and the use of Ursula's bloodline, there was some near danger that threatened the Crowe bloodline and while the story did resolve itself nearly at the last minute, this was a nice exploration of Tom and Benny. They might be very different people (not just the magic vs. science stuff) but clearly this story highlighted the importance of their friendship.

Back in the first series, I doubt we would've had the likes of Quinn or Katie trying to get Benny and Tom to patch things up and both Ursula and Michael also seemed to know the importance of their friendship as did the Nekross as well (which is why they agreed to let Gemma cast that spell in the first place).

Speaking of Gemma - I thought she was a pretty decent character. She might have done a bad thing but it was for a reason. As much as I am enjoying some of these guest wizard characters from time to time, I am starting to wonder if we'll ever see any corrupt ones on the show. Surely, it has to happen at some point, right?

- Why did Gemma and Madeline just use their magic to teleport out of the ship when the defenses were down?
- Are we ever going to get some continuity on Chloe? It does seem like an important plot strand that's being ignored now.
- Both Benny's mother and Ursula seemed to have similarities to Benny. I also found Ursula being briefly a Neverwas fairly effective.
- So, Jathro is in cahoots with Kooth from the opening story then? Whatever they're planning, I wish they'd just get on with it.

Nice story and overall, a good examination of Benny and Tom's friendship. This series has certainly been stronger than it's first run and the next story certainly looks like it could be the show's best one yet.

Rating: 7 out of 10