Review: Alphas Season 1 Finale, Original Sin
Nix September 27, 2011
Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
It’s official: the Syfy channel’s “Alphas” is my new favorite show on TV after last night’s stellar Season 1 finale, which blew the lid on the show’s universe with a trip to the U.S. Senate.
A fantastic, chaotic battle between Alphas and Government shooters in a warehouse caps off the episode, which also introduced two major new characters — Lee Rosen’s estranged daughter and a new Big Bad who should prove to have staying power. Literally. The guy is like an immortal, apparently.
What I’ve always appreciated about Zak Penn’s “Alphas” is that it has zero interest in the status quo. Penn seems to be running the show like he has a limited amount of time to tell his story, so each episode moves the storyline along at a pretty satisfactory clip. There were a couple of filler episodes here and there in the show’s 11-episode first season, but for the most part there are always major progress for the characters and the overreaching “Alphas among us” storyline throughout.
“Original Sin” caps off a great first season that saw the show’s main group go from reluctant Government agents to embracing their official capacity (respect the badge!) to questioning Uncle Sam’s motives to finally break free. When the show originally started, I really expected “Alphas” to go the path of the “X-Files”, with one or two major episodes per season that moved the show’s mythology forward, surrounded by a bunch of filler “Alphas of the week”-type storylines.
Great work by David Strathairn as always. I gotta admit, I didn’t think I could take a whole season of his twitchy, wheezy style of acting, but he’s really grown on me. Likewise with Ryan Cartwright’s Gary, who I initially didn’t like, but quickly grew to love really fast. Gary is pure awesome. In the future I’d like to see Azita Ghanizada’s Rachel get more to do than just be the team’s one-woman CSI lab. Also, thanks to the writers for the progress in Nina and Cameron’s relationship, eschewing that will-they/won’t-they nonsense. Now it’s more of “can they make it work”, which I think is much more interesting.
All in all, a great Season 1. With the world of Alphas now established, I’m looking forward to seeing what the show’s writers come up with for Season 2 in 2012. But please, guys, don’t start getting too crazy with the powers (re: the new Big Bad’s immorality). That’s what killed “Heroes” — you don’t want to go down that road.
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Bill T.
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/cboulanger Chris Boulanger
