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Don't take no for an answer [Alphas]
Quetzi
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User, Moderator mod
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User, Moderator mod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr7iGsj-xycSo I just watched the first season of this show in the past couple of days. I've seen snippets of conversation about it around the forums, and I'd like to talk about it some more.
The complete first season is on Netflix, and they seem to drop the new episodes for the second season, which just started a couple of weeks ago, on Hulu and the Syfy site. So you've got no reason not to be watching this (if you live in the glorious United States of America).
What's the show about you ask? It's about some people who have special abilities. Alphas, the show calls them. These abilities, so far, are based primarily on altered brain chemistry- people who have additional senses and levels of control over their brain chemicals. A small group of these people are led by an ace psychologist, Dr. Lee Rosen, who helps them to both deal with their powers and help others like them, as part of a clandestine branch of the Department of Defense. He doesn't have any powers himself, but he's pretty good at figuring out how other people's powers work.
They've got a wealth of problems they have to deal with, in the form of rogue Alphas, both those with control of their powers and those using them wildly and accidentally; Red Flag, a terrorist organization of Alphas trying to advance a somewhat nebulous cause; and the government itself, who doesn't trust this group that they're sponsoring a good half of the time. And, of course, all of their powers seem to come with a distinct downside. They are, after all, still patients.
Here's the basic set of folks we got:
Doctor Lee Rosen. He leads the Alphas in their missions, and negotiates with the government so they aren't all locked up in a secret prison. Predominantly a scientist, rather than anything else, his main goal is to understand and help these people.
Gary Bell. An high functioning autistic who has the ability to see and interact with wireless signals. He functions, essentially, as a walking, talking, socially awkward computer, and has a tendency to be plugged in to every wireless camera signal, cellular phone, and wireless network in the area.
Nina Theroux. An attractive woman with all of the powers of an attractive woman. She can make you do whatever she says. Quite literally. This has caused her a few problems in the past, and she needs to be able to make eye contact to do it.
Bill Harken. Used to be in the FBI, but his voluntary control over his endocrinol system, allowing him to pump himself up to a superstrong, superdurable level, makes him more useful on the Alphas team. Although, to be fair, his power seems to inflict a bit of damage on his body, so sometimes he is better off being a trained member of the FBI.
Rachel Pirzad. Has the ability to heighten her senses, typically at the expense of another. She can perfectly determine all of the ingredients in food, view things at a microscopic level, hear your heartbeat, and smell the cancer growing inside of you. And she has synesthesia, which, you know, makes it cool to look at when she does it on TV. It does make her a bit socially awkward at times though. Oh also she used to be a CIA linguist but whatever that's not important.
Cameron Hicks. He doesn't need that scope. He processes movement faster than anyone else, allowing him to perfectly calculate where everything around him is going to be in half a second from now. So he has perfect aim, and incredibly agility, and all that fun stuff. Except when he's nervous. Then he's awful at it.
That's your first season crew. The second season has added in one more member to the team.
This is Kat. She is a master of tasks. She can pick up anything she sees someone else doing, perfectly. She loses these abilities after a month or so though, on account of constantly learning things. Along with, well, everything else in her memory.
Anyways, this show explores a lot of what I really like about superheroes, the downsides of the superpowers and the ways that the cause serious complications in the world. I know that's not everyone's thing, but I still think the show is worth checking out.
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I didn't really like Rachel's love interest guy, though. He doesn't seem to have much of a personality yet.
I did like the whole thing with Bill having to slow down and basically meditate in order to access his strength without hurting himself.
But, I do want to say something that really annoyed me about the first season. Last couple episode spoilers:
And then they introduce a shapeshifter. Something decidedly outside of brain stuff. And then they introduce an immortal man. Again, pretty outside of brain stuff.
Obviously it wasn't enough to make me stop watching, because honestly it doesn't effect the show much at all. Just a little annoyance of mine.
but yeah, they're less brain powers and more just mutant powers now
It was just something I'd been excited about at first that just isn't there any more
If they hadn't been doing it at all in the beginning I wouldn't even have noticed
and there's a guy in the newest episode who has this interesting power, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think it's a brain power of some kind
Also, with latest stuff, I'm digging what they did with Nina:
Fuckin' rad.
I'm guessing they're going to do something with him at some point
But man
He is the most white bread American handler ever
I figured the twist only about five minutes before the reveal, I thought that was pretty well done too
the scene with Nina and Rosen at the end was pretty great too
Here's a couple of preview clips: