Recap: 12/04/07

Episodes

• ReGenesis 1.01 & 1.02 “Baby Bomb”: The NorBAC team must intercept the Patient Zero of a camel-pox epidemic before the virus hits Toronto. David and his daughter encounter a fifteen-year-old boy who claims to be a clone.
• Young Dracula 1.08: Vlad’s maternal grandparents (and therefore the Count’s former in-laws) visit. Zoltan falls into the hands of the Van Helsings.
• Charlie Jade 1.07 “Diamonds”: Charlie investigates the theft of the diamond ring he pawned two or three episodes back. Reena’s captors have a task for her. 01 attempts to diversify Vex-Cor’s interests, much to the chagrin of Julius Galt.

Remarks

• An impressively strong start for ReGenesis. On paper, this belongs squarely in the “science-oriented police procedural” category (CSI, Numbers…and for a more obvious sci-fi comparison, Torchwood) but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this before. The acting is tight, the writing is tighter, and the script is intelligent in a way that never seems condescending (a common flaw with the CSI franchise). The science seems fairly accurate (my uncle is a molecular biologist; I might have to run this by him sometime) without being boring. Since Tuesday I’ve also watched 1.03 on my own, and I’m also amazed at the way the writers play for keeps. (Without giving anything away, I’m particularly thinking the scenes between David, Caroline and Daisy towards the end of 1.02 and the final scene of 1.03.) We’ll have to see if they can keep it up…
• I haven’t found the last few episodes of Young Drac as funny as the earlier episodes. Maybe they hit a midseason slump (it could be that the gags couldn’t sustain themselves over thirteen episodes) or maybe I’m just a bit tired of the running gags. Plus, we need a bit less Robin action and a bit more Ingrid action. In fact, I’m hoping she hypnotizes Jonathan into doing something really, really stupid soon. Still, there’s a lot here to recommend, and I’m amused to bits over the flashback scenes. You see, it turns out the Draculas had British accents even before the “angry peasant mob” drove them out of Transylvania…
• As much as I’ve complained about Charlie Jade’s slowness, I often find that my favorite episodes are the ones that are the most self-contained. 1.07 doesn’t hit the ball out of the park like 1.06 did, but telling a more-or-less complete mini-story with no cliffhanger definitely makes things more watchable. Reena’s storyline is finally going somewhere. And 01 Boxer pulls another mindfuck on Julie, which is always welcome. In fact, I think 01, his girlfriend and Julie need their own spinoff (we’ll call it 01 Boxer: Mind Fucker). That being said, in future episodes, I want more Karl. That guy makes the show worth watching.