Thursday, July 26, 2012

What I’m Watching: Alphas (Season Premiere)




Alphas: Season 2, Episode 1 “Wake Up Call” (B+)

Things aren’t going well at the start of the second season premiere of this terrific Syfy hit from last summer. Dr. Rosen in a psych ward, Rachel unable to leave her room, Nina using her abilities for evil, and Gary being incarcerated at Binghamton all pointed to a rather miserable future, but this opening hour managed to change all that and present a whole new problem. It was evident with the simply robbery pulled off by the trio of Alphas that the team has a whole new brand of enemy, and now that a horde of Binghamton inmates have escaped and are working together, they’re going to have their hands full. Dani’s involvement with Stanton may also pose a problem, but it’s the cool, determined leadership of Stanton that’s going to do the most damage since he’s calculating and specific in what he wants to achieve, if that coordinated train explosion and derailment is any indication of what’s to come this season. This premiere emphasized what’s best about this show, which is that all the characters, especially the guests, get to have intriguing powers and psyches, and the faked torture scene on the video cameras was probably the coolest instance of that in this episode. Cameron making the shot was pretty great as well, and it’s nice to see Dr. Rosen back in his mentorship role. Coaching Gary back to normal was an endearing scene, and I enjoyed seeing his disturbed reaction to everyone wanting to give him a hug.

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