Written by Patrick Ness
Directed by Ed Bazalgette
Ram (to Tanya): "When did you know it was the right time to start talking?"
The difficult second episode. After the opening one that set up the entire premise of the show and quickly linked itself to the Doctor Who universe, this was an episode that wanted to show people it could also stand on it's own two feet without a Time Lord stepping in to save the day. More importantly, it also gave Ram some decent focus too.
Things for Ram since Rachel's death and losing his leg/gaining a new one haven't been especially great. He's losing it on the football field to the derision of his mean spirited but hot Coach Dawson (Ben Peel) and he's also unable to talk to his father about things. He is however able to talk to Tanya while at the same putting up some distance between himself, Charlie and April.
Then there's also the fact that a scaly and scary dragon is looming around Coal Hill and is eating people up. In the first half of this episode, Ram witnessed both another coach and a cleaning lady (whom he bummed a smoke off) getting brutally killed before Charlie, April and Tanya also later witnessed the same thing happen to Mr Armitage while Quill used a robotic inspector for sacrifice too.
I liked the dragon idea and I even liked how it was Ram who effectively saved the day, even though it was his total nihilism and hopelessness resulted in the murder of the coach. Now the coach was a horrible character who seemed to have no problem in keeping the male dragon in line by threatening the female dragon's safety but he was kind of hot though. The CGI for the dragon was pretty decent though.
As for Ram, he's a bit of a dick but not a totally unlikeable one though. I like the rapport both him and Tanya have and he did seem to start to accept Charlie and April towards the end of this one. The scenes with his father were surprisingly effective too. Fady Elsayed definitely is a solid performer, even if the football stuff did slightly bore me.
As for the rest of the episode, the subplot with Quill and the robotic Inspector (Jamie Reid Quarrell) was certainly amusing. Quill should be thankful he wasn't a real school inspector, otherwise she'd never be allowed to teach in any school ever again. As for who the Governors are, well, I guess that's something to look forward to later on in the series.
- Matteusz appeared briefly in one scene during this episode. The Inspector also played Colony Sarff/Veil/Cloister Wrath last year on Doctor Who.
- Charlie's got some pretty cool drawing skills if this episode is anything to go by.
- If you think this episode feels familiar, watch the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, Go Fish. You get added Wentworth Miller too. I'm just saying is all.
- Chronology: Not long from where For Tonight We Might Die left off.
The Coach With The Dragon Tattoo had it's moments of gore, it's moments of frank discussion regarding grief and certainly saw the team slowly come together to beat the dragon. The episode wasn't amazing and I do think the show is lacking a little something but it was a solid enough second episode for the show.
Rating: 6 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment