Main cast: Michael B Jordan (Terence), Michelle C Bonilla (The Commander), and Brian T Delaney (The Pilot)
Director: Alex Beaty
Life Hutch not only has Michael B Jordan in the lead, it is also based on a short story by Harlan Ellison. That’s some pretty good pedigree there, so it will be hard for the people involved in this episode to mess things up.
Right?
Okay, this one boasts some impressive space caper visuals that will make any fan of those space-age shooter games like Gears of War and Halo drool. They put Mr Jordan’s actual face over the character, and my, he is so fine to look at. If I could recreate his face in the Mass Effect character customization options, I may actually be compelled to play through the whole trilogy again!
Mr Jordan is Terence, a space fighter pilot whose ship crashes onto a desolate moon. Running low on oxygen and not in the best shape, he fortunately stumbles upon a shelter. Instead of safety, however, he comes across a super scary-strong maintenance robot that is somehow reprogrammed to viciously destroy anything that moves in the place.
Sure, this means Terence has to stay still most of the time. Nonetheless, this is a gripping, claustrophobic, and scary situation for him to be in. Plus, the sight of his injuries is not for the squeamish. The episode would have been a solid watch, if the folks behind this episode didn’t mess things up.
You see, they think it’d be a great idea to over-explain how Terence ends up on that moon, so this episode is interspersed with momentum-killing flashback scenes that only serve to pad out the episode unnecessarily. Any build up the episode has each time it goes into flashback central.
Honestly, the flashbacks are not necessary. Terence’s past is not relevant, his present situation is the source of the scares and the chills here.
If they’d focused on the character’s present situation, this episode would have been easily the most solid, terrifying one in this season. By padding this episode instead with so many extraneous suspense-dampening flashbacks, these people prevent me from fully getting engaged in the poor guy’s circumstance; the episode never feels as desperate and spine-chilling as it should have been.
Shame. Still, this episode is mighty nice to look at, and it does have some potential, so I guess I can be generous and give this one three oogies.
