Main cast: Ryan Kwanten (Captain Alex Toomey), Breckin Meyer (Major Ted Lockwood), Maddie Nichols (Lola), Andrew Brodeur (Andrew), Ja’ness Tate (Grace), and Molly Ringwald (Mrs Porter)
Directors: Joe Lynch and Rusty Cundieff
This is the third episode, and there are two more episodes to go in this second season, from what I can see. Alright, I think I can make it through this season while remaining sober. Although, if things continue to stay at this bottom-barrel level or, worse, dig even deeper in the next two episodes, I have better stock up on something strong, just in case.
First segment is The Right Snuff… oh my god, what happened to Breckin Meyer? He looks hot. I mean sure, he’s much older now, and he has lines on his forehead while sporting a middle-aged uncle haircut, but the combination manages to come off as pretty sexy, like that guy in accounts that, for some reason, just makes one want to jump his bones on the photocopy machine.
Anyway, Mr Meyer plays Major Ted Lockwood who, along with Captain Alex Toomey, mans the space station Ocula. Little does he realize that Alex is bitterly envious of him. You see, Ted is considered the brains of this operation, and everyone consults him for advice and compliments him for everything. Ted made his name by inventing the gravity wave that eliminates the whole pesky weightlessness thing during space travel. Hence, every media interview sees everyone asking Ted all sorts of questions while poor Alex stands beside him looking like a third wheel in a party for two. When people do talk to Alex, it’s to ask him about his famous father. Ugh.
Alex’s jealousy comes to a boil when the Ocula makes contact with a race of aliens, and Ted is chosen to be humanity’s first emissary to reach out to these aliens. Well, so Ted is going to get all the glory… again? Alex will see about that!
This one is a pretty decent segment, although it’s more at home in The Twilight Zone due to its heavy-handed morality. There is nothing new or interesting here to give tired old tropes a fresh twist—the story of this show—but at least the garish-colored props give this segment a pretty nice pulp fiction vibe. Also, the two lead actors do a pretty good job here, with Alex coming off as a relatable, if unsympathetic, protagonist drawn to extremes due to his own insecurities and daddy issues.
The next segment Sibling Rivalry, though, rates an “Oh my god!” on the cringe meter. Lots of “Ohmigod!” and “Like…” because the screenwriter Melanie Dale is convinced that this is how every teen talks. The plot is stupid too. Some dumb teenage girl believes that her brother wants to kill her, but it turns out that she is a vampire, so ohmigod, like, like, he totally was, like, like… oh just kill me now. This segment is stupid, but worse, it’s pointless. There is no story line that goes anywhere here, no build up, no horror, no comedy, just lots of horrible cringes to be had from the overuse of dumb blonde lingo in this segment.
The first segment saves this one, but the second segment is so, so terrible that I can’t even consider this episode halfway worth watching because of this. The first segment isn’t that great anyway; it just seems that way because of how much of a disappointment the rest of this show is. Just skip this thing—skip, skip, skip!
