| BLASSREITER, Episode 4: Encirclement |
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| Sunday, 11 May 2008 | |
 BLASSREITER continues to go off on little tangents that may or may not be related - if there's one thing this series is good at, it's making sure you have a hard time following it. XAT continue their search for Joseph, believing him to have a key role in events, while evidence mounts that the Amalgam "infection" is spreading...With the city locked down with a Level 1 curfew, Joseph finds himself stuck outside and unable to get away from XAT's search - he's going to have to keep a low profile until things quieten down. Amanda is leading the search teams, leaving her brother Malek at home, but while she thinks he's handling himself well, the bullying he's been enduring at school is beginning to get on top of him. Meanwhile, Jil begins to show signs of becoming an Amalgam after being attacked by Matthew, giving Amanda an idea as to how the 'infection' is spreading, while other Amalgams soon make their presence felt inside the curfew zone... Things to note: the Amalgam "infection" seems to be carried in the bloodstream, although finding evidence of that isn't easy. Not all Amalgams are bad - Joseph is evidence of that - and despite initial appearances, it seems that people can keep their sense of identity even after they've been infected. Malek is still having a hard time with the school bullies, which is related to his origins (the same nation that "demoniacs" are meant to have come from). All very interesting, and all just begging to be pulled together into a story that makes some sort of sense - except that GONZO, keeping to their style-over-substance reputation, are simply failing to do anything useful with the material they have on offer.   I had heard before the series started airing that it was going to be a stinker - there wasn't much hope around the message boards I read that BLASSREITER would be good. But the initial promo clips I'd seen did show some promise, and I had also been hoping that the Nitro+ connection would mean that, even if it was terrible, it would be terrible in the Demonbane mould ("so bad it's good"). No such luck, though, and I'm having a hard time working up the enthusiasm to keep giving the series one more episode to prove itself. Five is a nice round number, though, so we'll be back next week for another dose of masochism to see what BLASSREITER serves up then. Until then - I can't really advise you to rush out and watch this installment.  |
