Dominion - 'A Bitter Truth'

"Yeah, man; I'm gonna borrow my dad's sun chariot and tear up this town!"

Okay, so it's been a while since I cracked out an episode of Dominion, so just a reminder of where we were: Claire is becoming a moderately inept tyrant with the assistance of Grumpy McTech Bear (real name Gates,) Whele is going mad and locked up on a bogus charge of sleeping with the enemy, Michael has found God, Gabriel is all pissed at the universe, and Alex, Noma and Reisen are negotiation with insaniac secret higher angel Julian.

In New Delphi, Reisen distracts Julian while the others snoop. They find an army of near-catatonic 8-balls in the basement, and when they get caught Julian uses the amphora to coax a weak lower angel into the recently-evicted Pete. He tries to do the same to the others, but Noma boots her would-be possessor and pops her wings, allowing them to overwhelm the guards. She identifies the amphora as an ancient, Angelic WMD and Julian as a dyad, a hybrid of human and angel (as opposed to a lower angel possessing a human, or a higher angel in its own physical form.)

Gabriel and Michael hook up on the ridge above New Delphi and get maudlin over the news that Uriel was killed in the bombing of the Eyrie. They argue their philosophical differences and who exactly God's last message was meant for, but agree that they want Alex out of New Delphi and figure on using Gabriel's remaining armies to get him.

"This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

In Vega, Claire consults with Grumpy and they get sealed in when a Higher Angel attacks. They escape, but Claire uses the attack to persuade Grumpy to come out of hiding and be a more active supporter of her cause. Meanwhile rebel leader Zoe kidnaps Whele, planning to broadcast his murder as a rallying call, but he persuades her first that he can get her a broadcast centre, and then that his access codes will still get them into secure areas. All of this is really just an opportunity for him to talk and thus persuade Zoe to buy into his doublethink, and by the time he shoots the taunting halluicination of his son in the heart, she's pretty much ready to sign up to the rebranded Team Whele.

For all that I've neglected it, Dominion continues to be better than it has any right to be, mostly on the strength of its acting. Even Alex isn't completely annoying this season.

Dominion - 'The Narrow Gate'

Symbolism!

In the town of Mallory, Michael learns that Serious Leader Lady - I don't know if it's just that I'm not good at remembering these characters' names or if the show just doesn't mention them much - is not just the confessor of the town; she's their scapegoat. Having heard all of their confessions - apart from Harper, who was murdered for keeping Michael's wings a secret - she is to sacrifice herself and so take the sins of Mallory to the grave and keeping the protective fire burning. After a bit of soul-searching - some very sexy soul-searching, apparently - Michael volunteers to take her place, having recovered his faith thanks to Serious Leader Lady's grace and goodness.

This is contrasted with a flashback to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, depicted as an angelic military campaign in which Michael and higher angel Axe-Crazy McPsychoael set out to bring fire and the sword against Gabriel's recommendation of using the amphorae, a weapon of mass destruction which unleashes darkness and insanity. Michael chides Gabriel for never getting his hands dirty; Gabriel chides Michael for never getting his hands clean. During the battle, Gabriel is forced to kill a fleeing Sodomite or Gomorran with his own sword, but Michael casts Axe-Crazy McPsychoael out of his body for being way too into the slaughter, and asks Gabriel to do the same to him having recognised his own fall from grace. Gabriel refuses, and Michael swears off slaughter.

Alex descends into the underworld, or at least the asylum-pit of crazy eight balls under New Delphi to retrieve the copper disc key that was stolen from Julian. He retrieves the key and also finds General Alan Dale (retired) who was condemned for shooting a Delphian eight ball. During the fight he evicts another lower angel, but the host is killed before they can escape. Alex demands the promised alliance between New Delphi and Alan Dale's release as part of that, so that's all good, except that it turns out Julian is Axe-Crazy McPsychoael's new host and he's keeping one of the amphorae in the basement.

Meanwhile, Gabriel prepares for war by sending one of his higher angels to assassinate Claire, and in Vega Claire tries to crack down on the nascent rebellion with the aid of new character Grumpy McTech Bear, but only uncovers sympathisers in her own guard.

So much symbolism.

In Mallory, Michael takes on the burden of the town's sins - which pass to him from Serious Leader Lady as an oddly pretty ball of light - then stabs himself. Being an archangel, he basically just naps through his touching funeral then busts out of the grave, tells Manly Suspicious Pants that he's swearing off murder again but will make an exception if he finds him being anything but lovely, and flies away.

'The Narrow Gate' gets seriously in on the flashback game and does a lot to build up the relationship between the archangels, as well as providing background for Axe-Crazy McPsychoael, former Michael groupie and dark mirror of his mentor's flaws. It's another strong episode, but without Alan Dale, Evil Giles or even Evelyn in evidence this week, Claire can't carry Vega alone; she's just not interesting enough, and her switch from virtuous schoolmistress to ruthless political kneecap shooter means she isn't even very sympathetic. I guess Grumpy McTech Bear is intended to help out there, and looks promising if he can hold up in his own right.

Dominion - 'Mouth of the Damned'

"I like Buster Keaton movies. Eccentric!"

Alex and Noma discover that New Delphi is inhabited by a mixture of humans and eight balls apparently living in peace. Julian, eccentric and trade-obsessed leader of the city - well, bunker; apparently the budget won't stretch to more than one actual city - is angry that Alex shot one of the possessed and demands the life of one of his party in recompense, although he is persuaded to delay when Gabriel attacks the city. During the defence it becomes apparent that New Delphi is armed with a substantial quality of the same angel-killing metal that Michael and Gabriel's swords are made from. After Gabriel retreats, Julian agrees to ally with Vega if Alex can retrieve a certain key from a nest of mad possessed.

In Vega, a V1 named Zoe attempts to assassinate Clare as the head of the oppressive, caste-driven government. Evelyn coaxes an eight ball into working for her, with the promise of returning images and artefacts of the woman whose body the angel possessed, with the implication that she had learned how to manipulate lower angels from Uriel. She sends the angel to make an incriminating sex tape with Whele - well, it never gets to actual sex, but that's the theme of the thing - which Clare uses to force him out of power, then Evelyn kills the eight ball.

Finally, Michael learns that one of the conditions under which the town is protected is that each year all of the townsfolk confess their sins to Serious Leader Lady (the series is still very bad at using people's names.) A woman who saw him washing blood off his wings stumbles back into town, having run away to avoid confession. She admits to adultery, but Michael persuades her that God wants her to keep quiet about the wings. Since secrets are sins - apparently, because obviously there had to be something messed up about this place - this leaves the town in peril, so her married lover - Manly Suspicious Pants - straight up murders her.

Once more, Dominion's overarching theme seems to be that, actually, maybe Gabriel is right and God has gone away because people are just that shitty. I quite like the city of eight balls, however; it's very different and now we have three distinct survivor settlements, or four if Helena counts when we haven't seen it. Sadly, Gabriel has just been angry so far, and we've not seen much of the fun and snarky psychopath who enlivened Season 1 with his affable monstrosity, although chirpy wheeler-dealer Julian takes up some of the slack.

Dominion - 'Heirs of Salvation'

Where did all the cow angels go?

In a small village, a group of human survivors watch in terror as the unmistakable silhouette of the Archangel Michael (sans wings) kills lots of people with swords.

Cutting back in time a short way, we see Michael wandering the desert in the aftermath of his massacre in the Vega labs. Meanwhile, Alex is in Gabriel's eyrie, having promised the Word of God in exchange for Vega's safety, but the tattoos aren't talking. Just as Gabe is losing his rag, the humans drop a massive dirty bomb on the eyrie, which fails to really kill anyone of note. Alex escapes with higher angel bestie Noma while Gabriel plots vengeance and determines that all he needs of Alex is his skin.

In Vega, Clare - now Lady of the City - celebrates the strike, but the emergence of living angels hints that retribution is coming. David Whele and his cronies, angered that Clare has given some of their living space to the workers, has those floors fired to whip up anger against her, while Clare and Helena (who may still be fronting as Pseudosapphic Diplomat, I wasn't clear on this one) plot a counterattack. Whele is also talking to his son, despite abandoning him in the desert, and it eventually transpires that this is a figment of his imagination.

Alex and Noma head for New Delphi (the former Philadelphia?) Alexa wants to persuade them to send their army to aid him in defending Vega, but Noma - apparently unaware of Michael's heel turn - is mindful of warnings he gave her about going to New Delphi and sends him a message by wing telegraph (apparently higher angels talk long distance by flapping.) They fall foul of a mob of eight balls. Alex evicts one and his tattoos go funny; this time, the host survives, with no memories of the war. Noma remarks that this makes Alex uniquely dangerous, but as they approach New Delphi they find a crucified higher angel and they are captured with electric nets.

Out in the desert, Michael finds a small town where a bonfire is kept burning. The people there hail from many faiths, but believe that the Father speaks to them and protects the village as long as the flames burn. Although unable to hear his Father, Michael is clearly effected, and when rain puts the fir out and the surrounding eight balls attack, he steps up to help defend the village, revealing the cold open to have been him killing eight balls. Then the sun comes out and the bonfire reignites, causing all of the nearby eight balls to catch fire and flee.

Season 1 of Dominion was a silly treat. Season 2 is just as mad, but with I fancy a touch of quality that the first lacked. Whether it will lose some of its charm from a more professional approach remains to be seen, but 'Heirs of Salvation' isn't a bad start.

Dominion - Those Closest to You

Get me to the chapel of dubious denomination on time!

Dominion's first season (and there is set to be another) finale is all go.

We open with Alex getting Michael kicked out of Vega for hiding higher angels, but it's all part of an elaborate plot. also part of a plot is the wedding of Claire and William. Alex confronts Gabriel and first kills and then miraculously heals Noma. Claire becomes unexpectedly kickass as she takes over her father's role as leader of the city, and follows up her success by outing William as the Acolyte leader.

Okay, so Pseudosapphic Diplomat needs a new
handle on every level.

Meanwhile Pseudosapphic Diplomat is revealed to actually be Evelyn, the leader of the city of Helena, and not Evelyn's wife after all, and the lover of Uriel. Gabriel surrenders to Vegan custody, only to be sprung by his Acolytes in order to confront Michael with Sexy Lady Senator's experiments on dead or captive angels, triggering a bit of a regression to Michael's old murderous ways.

We end the series with William cast out into the desert, Alan Dale on his way to retirement in New Delphi, Claire pregnant with Alex's child and ruling Vega with the aid of Evil Giles, and Alex himself climbing the cliffs to Gabriel's funktastic crib in the mountains.

Dominion is not a great series, but it's been fun. I'm interested enough to come back for the next series, but I'm disappointed to see that they've gone with another 13 episodes given that the first season's great flaw is that it has seemed very rushed. Choices which could have formed the basis of whole episodes have been made within minutes and the dramatic tension has been lacking as a result. The series really needs to learn to take its time and savour moments like Alex's acceptance of his destiny, and to build up concepts like Sexy Lady Senator's experimentation before they are revealed in universe as plot points.

Dominion - 'Ouroboros'

"I remember when I had the cool outfits. No, wait..."

Gabriel possesses one of the pacifist higher angels living in Vega in order to root out the other refugees and get close enough to Alex to make him doubt Michael. Alex and Sexy Soldier Friend get it on, but Alex is in for a shock. Meanwhile, Evil Giles is getting schooled by his wussy son.

This is the big mythology episode, running up to the finale next week. The disguised Gabriel tells Alex the story of the 'Flood', Heaven's last genocidal charge against mankind, survived only by those in Noah's bunker. I find I rather like the idea of Russell Crowe's Noah as a crazed survivalist demagogue.

Less successful is the David and William Whele subplot. William's deconstruction of his father has the potential to be a powerful and compelling moment, but like a lot of the major psychological break moments in the series - the senator who takes Alan Dale and Evil Giles hostage; Alex's acceptance of his destiny - there just hasn't been enough time for it. The lion Evil Giles is forced to kill simply hasn't been adequately established as the root of his masculinity and self-identity. I think it's been in about once.

As I say, this is probably Dominion's greatest flaw, its tendency to inform where it ought to show.

Dominion - 'Something Borrowed' and 'Black Eyes Blue'

And they both suddenly thought: "What am I wearing?"

Michael is training Alex to fight higher angels, while Alex struggles to overcome his grief and guilt over Bixby's death. Meanwhile William and Claire struggle to balance their public and private personas, with some of William's Gabrielite Acolytes finding his continued activity as Principe of the human church treacherous. The formerly weak Lord Alan Dale gets his groove back, forcing Evil Giles onto the back foot, before his 8-ball lover goes on the run, threatening to bring him down for good.

There's a lot of character development across these two episodes. Alex has a revelation (pretty much that he won't save anyone by being a whiny slacker) and William takes a stand. Sexy Lady Senator ends her relationship with Michael due to Evil Giles' blackmail and the fact that Michael just accepts it is a scales falling moment. Alan Dale and Evil Giles both get some much needed backstory and their battle gets more even and Pseudosapphic Diplomat gets to do some actual diplomacy, but it's Claire who does best.

"Lydia, oh Lydia..."

Evil Giles' assurance in 'Something Borrowed' that she showed strength during the events of 'The Flood' comes across as mere applesauce, but the capture and attempted exorcism (I'm sorry; eviction) of her possessed mother bring out some real backbone. By the end of 'Black Eyes Blue' she's basically positioned herself as the only significant figure in Vega's government and established a hard edge that means I can't refer to her as Impossibly Virtuous Love Interest anymore. Uriel is also established as an art lover, and manages to stake out a proper characterisation, so overall this is a good week for female representation in Dominion.

In fact, these are a pretty good couple of episodes overall. There are still developments that feel a little rushed, but the pilot season only has 8 episodes, so perhaps that is inevitable. As it stands, I will be watching a second season if it comes; let's hope that the last two episodes don't screw that up.

Dominion - The Flood

"I just want to know... Where did you get that coat?"

Rushing Michael back to Vega for surgery, Alex is immediately arrested for desertion. And thrown in the clink, choosing solitary confinement rather than a tat revealing strip search, because that's how good this system is.

"What have you got against Vega?" a guard demands whilst kicking Alex in the ribs*. The irony is too delicious.

Meanwhile, a senator takes Alan Dale and Evil Giles hostage, demanding to meet with the Chosen One. This provides a chilling view of the future, as Claire and William step up to assume their fathers' mantles and fail to convince as leaders at all, basically leaving the ball in Sexy Lady Senator's court.

Speaking of Sexy Lady Senator, she gets some dimension, nicking the sword fragment from Michael's wound to analyse (unless that was Pseudosapphic Diplomat; it was dark.) Michael himself is healed with an angel feather and then runs into his sister Uriel, a higher angel apparently intent on playing Michael and Gabriel off against one another. Uriel may or may not have been the one who healed him; I wasn't sure.

"You've fought before, but never like this!" she accuses them, apparently having missed that time in the movie where they basically killed each other.

Oh, and you know how I predicted orphan waif would be sacrificed around Episode 5? Does the end of 4 count?

'The Flood' is an aptly named episode, not for the attempted flooding of the farming towers but for the absolute deluge of character development. Alex goes from total rejection to pretty much full acceptance of the Chosen One role, a development which might have benefited from a whole episode in solitary and perhaps some visions to externalise the internal conflict. It would also have helped not to be sharing screen time with the introduction of Senator Frost (he's been in before, but his importance was not previously made clear) and Uriel.

On the plus side, with pretty much all of the character development out of the way, next week may settle into plot and action mode.

* As a note, I'm not rechecking my quotes, so they may not be spot on and also the guard may actually have been punching or slapping him or something.

Dominion - Broken Places

"I fear in all this moral greyness it may have been forgotten that I am the
baddy around here."

Alex is on the run from his destiny in the most literal sense, while Claire tries to game her own value and William announces the existence of the saviour to his angel-worshipping pain cult. Michael risks his life and Gabriel eats ice cream. There is some progression of Pseudosapphic Diplomat's plot, but I'm not really sure what it was.

Despite my slightly dismissive executive summary, this week's episode of Dominion picks up considerably after 'Godspeed', largely due to the heavyweight presence of Gabriel. Brutal, antagonistic, possibly psychotic, he is still one of the most interesting characters to emerge from the show so far. He slaughters a diner full of humans just to make a point and then savours their ice cream (so evil!) and kills one of his own minions to punish a third party for attacking Michael (it is unclear if this is from genuine fellow feeling, a sense that Michael could be turned, or just because fuck you, no-one kills my brother but me!)

When the good guys are so morally ambiguous and/or dull, it's genuinely refreshing to see some proper supervillainy.

Speaking of dull, Alex continues to annoy, and I think I've worked out what's really wrong with him as a character. It's not just that he is rejecting the call (it's going to happen; hero's journey 101,) but that he's inconsistent. He wants to leave Vega, but he's established as a fairly committed member of the angel-puncher brigade (even going off mission to punch more angels,) which makes his absolute rejection hard to credit. As even Quisling Will notes, he could totes be the saviour somewhere else.

Dominion - Godspeed

The Angels only reveal their wings at moments of heightened emotion and
budget allocation.

Episode 2 of Dominion gives us a little more meat than the pilot, which was pretty much all sauce and setting and no substance; high on action and background, but not much for character.

Alex is fighting his destiny as the saviour, angry at being abandoned by his father to grow up in the lowest echelon of society. It's a pretty stock storyline, but it gives him a lot more substance. Alex still intends to run away from Vega with Claire, but when an undercover angel attacks him in her house, decides to just leg it and remove the risk to her. He's not exactly Raskolnilkov, but it brings him up past being just a whiny git.

Evil Giles and Gabriel meet on a mesa to do the feeding the ducks thing, but no-one else gets a great deal of advancement. Evil Giles continues to manouevre against Alan Dale and the senate, but they conspire to suppress word of Alex's chosenness for the sake of public order. We do get to see the angels at rest, however, apparently hanging out and being debauched in their corporeal forms for shiggles. Pseudosapphic Diplomat poisons her handmaidens with lethal nail polish to create a blackmail opportunity against Evil Giles, securing her release and continuing presence in the main credits.

The strengths of Dominon remain the creepy wall-crawling 'eight balls' and the occasional burst of mad, wing-slapping angelic action. It's weaknesses are still its characters, who are the opposite of a fairy tale prince; ever so sincere, but not charming.

Dominion

Because nothing says pseudo-Renaissance art like
really awkward posing.

Who would want to make a TV series based on Legion, a failed post-apocalyptic action movie starring Paul 'Jarvis' Bettany as the archangel Michael? Syfy; that's who.

Dominion is set in the aftermath of the Angel Wars, with humanity occupying isolated fortress-cities and Gabriel and his legion of 'lower angels' forced into the wilderness. In the city of Vega (formerly Las Vegas), the ambitious senator Whele (Tony Head channeling the same vein of affable, folksy serial killer that James Spader is so successfully tapping in The Blacklist, and oddly with the same accent) is intent on seizing power from the city's military ruler, Lord Riesen (Alan Dale, the other half of the series' stunt casting.) His only other rival is the sexy lady senator who is doing the Archangel Michael.

The city's defence is led by Michael and his Archangel Corps. Riesen's daughter Claire is a ludicrously saintly teacher and philanthropist engaged in an illegal affair - because surrounded by killer possessing angels, humanity has apparently opted for a ruthlessly enforced caste system and strict moral legislation - with Alex; soldier, kneejerk rebel asshat and secretly the chosen one who will save all of humanity (the baby from Legion, 25 years on.) She also becomes plain engaged to Whele's son William (who is doing his damndest to look like Sam Clafin in Snow White and the Huntsman), much to her surprise.

Other characters of note - if either character or note are appropriate; even with the lead characters I had to look up half of their names on Wikipedia (so now I know which of them are secretly angels in disguise) - include a visiting diplomat from the city of Matriarchal Informed Lesbians But Actually Only Having Sex With Men, an orphan waif who is probably going to die or be possessed for pathos around episode five, and a couple of other soldiers who reek of late-season sacrifice. Alex's adopted father turns up briefly to kickstart the plot; like the other returning characters, Michael and Gabriel, he is not played by the same actor as in the movie.

Flying: Arechangel Michael; standing: Pseudosapphic Diplomat, Evil Giles, Sexy Lady Senator, Alan Dale, Rebellious Arsehole Saviour and Archangel Gabriel (I think); seated: Weak Hypotenuse of the Love Triangle and Generically Virtuous Love Interest.

Much like the source film, Dominion manages to be both insultingly simplistic and somewhat confusing, mostly because almost all of the female characters are some variation of tanned white women with long, dark, slightly curled hair and generic soap opera faces, and all appear to be between 25 and 35, despite being of allegedly varied age. By the end of the pilot I had figured out that the lady senator is a redhead in a good light (which, this being a post-apocalyptic setting, is a resource in short supply) and the pseudosapphic diplomat a relatively fair-skinned Anglo-Indian rather than a tanned Caucasian. More generally the pilot throws a lot of plot into the mix, as well as trying to build a world. It's in the latter regard that it does best, and the rather dismal setting of Vega and special effects of flying angels are its main triumphs.

The storm of terrible accents - the main cast are pretty much all Australian or English actors doing American accents, while the supporting roles are locally cast from the available pool of South African talent - is pretty distracting. Even ignoring that, the bulk of the cast - ex-soap hacks to a one - are pretty unexceptional, with the standouts being Head and Dale, who are still ex-soap hacks, but really good ex-soap hacks. The soap pedigree continues with the interpersonal dynamics, which are a typically soap opera melange of sex, love and jealousy. Even Michael gets in on the act, insisting to sexy lady senator that he must not risk having a child... in the wake of what appears to have been a seven girl on one angel cuddle pile. Nice restraint there, Mickey.

Dominion is absolutely not a good show, but if you like angels and swordfights and gunfights and post-apocalyptic clashes against a backdrop of gorgeous (and cheap to film) South African scenery, then it has a certain car-crash magnetism to it.