By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
So we’re halfway through this 10 part season and I’m not a happy bunny.
After such a strong start we are still in the ever drawn out Randa family crisis, Cate’s survivor guilt and May hate the world. While May’s character gets a twist in th end of the episode, I’m asking myself were the writers given ten episodes and told to fill them out or is there an actual plan to this season?
As I said, it was a great start but last week we wandered about snow and ice bitching and surviving impossible odds and this week we wander about devastated San Francisco with the siblings finding common ground and Cate’s survivor guilt once again. While it is fascinating to see the aftermath of the Godzilla attack I want to explore that,, not see Cate gurning again. The whole concept of the Red Zone is great where Cate’s mother and her want to be boyfriend James recover people’s possessions and where looters are shot on sight. But why not rebuild rather seal it off? What does Monarch know we don’t? It is however a nice reminder that these Titans leave physical and emotional damage their wake that is not easy to come back from.
According to an imprisoned Shaw, Monarch know nothing and have gotten it all wrong. He is their captive and is unafraid of the Director’s threats. Shaw knows more than they do including w he isn’t much older than he is. Monarch think they know what the Titans are all about but Shaw holds the superior ground. While May and the Randa siblings are sent on their way, they fly back to San Francisco to the Red Zone and where Cate troubled relationship with her mother goes to some way explain her behaviour. Between survivor’s guilt and her mother revealing she pushed Cate to go to Tokyo becasue she suspected but hadn’t got the balls to go see for herself if her suspicions were correct and her husband was leading a double life.
This is a perfect example of what the writers should have done from the start. Cate and her mother find common ground and resolve their issues by the end of the episode. The Red Zone contains their father’s office where they find a major clue to the Titans and where he might be or at least, where he went. Now it’s global so can we now leave all the emotional drama behind and get busy with story.
If you create a series based on giant monsters then they need to be as equal in focus to the story as the human characters. If these upcoming episodes do not match the scale of the movies or bring the audience what they expect bar fleeting moments of monster then the wrong people are writing and producing this show and need to go back to the drawing board.
Thus far the ship is sinking so if they pull it round for the final episodes and make it to a second season, we need a complete rethink of story structure and plot resolution. Character angst should be part of a character not their be all for several episodes. The horror series From did this brilliantly in their first season but dragged a major plot point and development for far too long reducing the impact in their second season.
I’m tired of the wandering we need to be running.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 
Completely agree; the last two episodes have been, frankly, boring and a big let down from the first few. We need to get moving and the best parts of the season so far have been the early flashback scenes with a young Shaw & Co. To have viewing losing interest half way though isn’t good and if episode 6 doesn’t pick up the pace then that’s it for me and I’m out.
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