Look I know it's never easy to accept the death of a character you enjoy but I personally wish shows killed off more characters, when a character death is done right, it can be an extremely effective and powerful device. But since the episode didn't give any time or space to let this arc play out, it all just came across as unconvincing and like a cheap novelty, played more for shock value than to serve the show as a whole. As it stood his hail of bullets death came off more ridiculous and laughable rather than the bittersweet and logical end to an unsung hero that I think the show was trying to go for.
Evan and Vincent also get their first, proper, confrontation this week as well but I found that just as weak. Beauty and The Beast has had some impressive action scenes and great showcases of Vincent's power, so the ease of his escape in the tunnels, the ease of his capture on the subway train and his struggles with that door all felt very underwhelming, contrived, contradictory and at times ridiculous. Considering these are professional writers, you think they'd know how to plot and pace believable conflict and tension but apparently not.This is sadly an inconsistency with the show in general though with pretty much the whole cast having a varying degree of abilities and power depending on the writer and episode. I mean you remember how in the early episodes Cat was basically a NYPD Ninja? I miss that shit. She was pretty damn pathetic in this episode, lacking her internal and external strength from previous episodes, no matter what shit Vincent spews.
Muirfield once again prove themselves to be one of the worst set of villains currently on our small screens. Despite having SWAT teams, none of them are stationed outside of the complex to guard it, they just assumed their electric fence and voice recognition locks (both with extremely exploitable weaknesses and get arounds) were enough apparently. Hell, none of them were stationed inside either, my local Tesco has more staff than Muirfield's base does, it's almost like they don't care what happens to their important documents and research. I just love that they were surprised when they got broken into. Muirfield only serve one purpose, to drain the tension out of any scene they are in.Visually Muirfield had some interesting things going on (well minus the fact that their base looked like the inside of an Apple Store). One sequence, a highlight, involves Evan walking through an empty lab where what I can assume are artificially grown monster limbs, writhing and wired up in Frankenstein's monster fashion. It was much more dark and twisted than I would have expected from this show which is what made it such a pleasant surprise.
In short, Heart of Darkness is filled with wonderful moments but is woefully overstuffed and utterly undermines itself in the process. Beauty and The Beast is a jumbled, awkwardly paced and plotted show that rarely feels like it knows where it is going or what it is doing and I really feel sorry that Evan got the full brunt of the weak writing. Throughout the series he has been probably the best character, the show gave him a lot of opportunities to do some really very interesting stuff, just sadly the show ultimately never gave him the chance to act upon them. And now he never will. In the quiet moments where characters simply get to sit and chat, Beauty and The Beast shines, but as soon as the camera pans out at the wider narrative around them, the whole thing is frankly, a mess.Pros;
- The scenes in the lab were sweet.
- The cast have solid chemistry.
- RIP Evan, this show is gonna suck so much more without you.
Cons;
- Awful pacing and plotting.
- Evan's death was unnecessary and poorly constructed.
- Pretty much every action scene involving Vincent played out in an unconvincing fashion.
- Muirfield are beyond shit.
- Cat was pretty crap this week.
Think About It!
-Locke
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