Written by Gregg Araki & Karley Sciortino
Directed by Gregg Araki
Ulysses: "It's not like I'm brave or anything, it's more reckless stupidity. An adrenaline fix. Throwing myself into the void to see what happens."
I seem to be on a roll recently when it comes to sniffing out the more quirkier of shows to watch and review for this site and with all the episodes for this one released but still airing every Sunday for Starz, this ten part series might be one of the weirdest things I've watched yet.
Set in present day LA, our main protagonist of the piece is a pansexual, weed smoking hedonist named Ulysses Zane (Avan Jogia) who when he isn't screwing married men, lusting after his straight male roommate Ford Halstead (Beau Mirchoff) and copping off with the mysterious Gabriel (Tyler Posey) through a handjob session in public at night, has other weird shit going on with him.
Yup, it seems that Ulysses being a double Scorpio has been having some rather colourful dreams about a dark alley and a man calling for help. His best friend and bored camera girl Carly Carlson (Kelli Berglund) is uninterested in Ulysses's dreams and even think he needs to lay off getting stoned before bedtime, only for the ending of the episode (and a certain climax with Gabriel) to give some reasonable weight to Ulysses's so called premonitions.
I guess I should've expected the last scene with an alien raping that poor homeless man we met halfway through the episode and Ulysses's reaction at the end did highlight that this will not be a show that should be taken too seriously. Mostly it seems to be a pretty twenty something millenials mostly doing stupid stuff while a bigger plot involving aliens will also simmer a little in the background.
Keeping with the alien plot, this seems to be the way to naturally give Ford's commitment phobic girlfriend, Severine Bordeaux (Roxane Mesquida) a bit more of an interesting role in the series as it progresses along. She's revealed to be working for some top secret company and certainly knows something up if her brief scene with her co-workers is anything to go by.
As for our main guy - I like Ulysses. He's hot and slightly idiotic and reckless but I think Avan Jogia is a decent actor who pulls the role off pretty well. Right now, I have no idea why he's being singled out for seeing aliens but I bet it entails more than him being a double Scorpio for starters. As for Gabriel - the obvious question must be asked: is he an alien too? He did make a lot of pointed remarks about fate and then there was that universe collapsing climax scene as well for good measure. I guess time will tell on this one.
- No real opening credits as such but the end credits were nicely colourful as has the promotional material for the show.
- Ford fell into the category of struggling screenwriter who got bamboozled by a porn producer. He does seem to be the straight guy written to be lusted after gay men in this series. He also didn't seem that keen on an open relationship as well.
- Standout music: Years & Years Sanctify.
- Chronology: I'm assuming this is meant to be set in 2019, what with Ulysses and Carly's mostly scathing commentary on acting, social media, young versus older people, dating, etc.
This Is The Beginning Of The End is a fun opening episode. The show clearly isn't meant to be taken seriously and it's commentary while hardly original or insightful does at least make for a few decent zingers as well. The best compliment I can give the show is that it looks rather colourful and if you want something that's pretty daft but entertaining, this could be something to watch.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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