Written by Richard McBrien
Directed by Lawrence Gough
Pasiphae: “Are you suggesting I turn a blind eye to blasphemy because it was committed by my own son?”
Well, I know someone who won't be winning mother of the year anytime soon. Yes, Pasiphae seemed a little too content in this episode to allow her son to possibly die for a crime that she was responsible for and one that everyone knows she's responsible for and yet this episode ventured into the nonsensical by prolonging the inevitable.
Within the forty five minutes of this episode we had Jason sentenced to death, Ariadne looking like she didn't give a toss that her beloved was about to be roasted inside a bull and Hercules manning an easily botched attempt to rescue his friend as well. Only for Ariadne to have a semi-clever escape plan up her sleeve with Delmos's help, which then blew up in her face.
Watching this episode again was like watching a slightly less interesting version of the first season finale. No matter how hard it tried to ratchet up the tension, it just didn't come across so well. Ariadne was almost showing her smarts in this episode and then she allowed her deceitful council to get the better of her with Pasiphae usurping her at the end of the episode.
As for the rest of the episode - a lot of running about the place but the bright spots were both the still savagely underused Pythagoras and a mournful Medusa. The latter really does seem to have come to the grim conclusion that happiness will never come her and Hercules's way. Unfortunately she's right on that one.
- The episode aired later than scheduled on BBC1 due to football.
- Pasiphae and Medea are holding the Oracle's successor, Cassandra captive. That's why Melas betrayed Ariadne. At least he's showing some turmoil over it.
- Hercules's staged fight with that guy in the tavern actually did surprise me. I wish the show just did that more often.
- Did I just spot Icarus in the trailer for next week's episode?
Another fairly lifeless episode for me. I noticed that a lot of reviews for the second half of this series seem more favourable but although there were bits I liked in "The Madness Of Hercules", it still doesn't feel like the show is moving forward enough to really get going.
Rating: 6 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment