Review: Fades 1.6

Sarah walks through the ash.

Fades ended with a considerable bang, and although it left us with a cliffhanger (a time worn way to irritate one's audience) it did bring this series to a dramatic, if not very inovative, conclusion. The majority of the running time was dedicated to Paul trying to discover how to save the world and kill all of the Fades without actually killing them. In the end the solution was nothing more complicated than "magic beam of energy solves everything", and that felt disappointing in a series that otherwise had been incredibly interesting.
     Neil held Mac hostage, having discovered the hideout of John and the more important Reborns. John, still bitter at the death of Natalie, had been sending Reborns out to find and kill Paul, who with the last remaing sane Angelic was trying to restart Ascension in the forest, and failing. When Paul didn't answer Neil's calls, he took his family hostage. Meeting in the centre of town, Neil held Jay at gunpoint and then, when Paul refused to help him, he shot her dead. This irritated me somewhat as the character only had two or so lines in the episode and her death felt a lot less important than by rights it should have done.
     Sarah meanwhile realised that her state as a Reborn meant that she would need to eat, and thus decided to jump on John's bandwagon and help him as Neil and an emotionally crippled Paul went to assassinate him. Because of their bickering, Paul decided to try and defy both his and Sarah's premonitions and attempt to restart Ascension in the place where we began - the point buried underneath the shopping centre. As seen in premontions throughout the series, the attempt created fountains of ash, but instead of John stabbing Paul he found that Sarah stood in his place, allowing Paul to use his wings (nice that they get another reference) to get high enough to restart Ascension and kill all of the Fades - meddling with life and death in the process.

John's time is near.

     This couldn't have come quick enough for Anna (Lily Loveless) and Mac (Daniel Kaluuya) who had been locked up together by Neil and were on the verge of being eaten by Reborns. Despite the mythos, their discussions inside the shipping container formed some of the best scenes of the episode. I think that's because they actually had some brilliant, emotional characterisation, unlike the main plot, which was filled with stuffy prophesising of the most boring sort.
     At the end, Fades still had everything that it had before - great characterisation and really interesting concepts. However, the treatment of Jay as a device rather than a character was misguided, and instead of making the sequence more dramatic it only served to drive the plot towards the conclusion that we've been able to guess for weeks now. Despite this, I have the best of hopes for the series and hope that another six episodes are comissioned in this tight economic climate.

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IN TWO WEEKS: I finish of Season Four of LOST!

Review: Fades 1.5

Aaaand.... CGI!

Fades this week focussed more on action than characters, shifting the characters into their positions for the finale. That wasn't necessarily a problem, however, as we've had four weeks' worth of character development to keep things interesting. The main problems as I saw it were that this final blending of the past months' threads felt rather underwhelming in comparison with the buildup, and the main character seemed ever more and more impotent as time went on.
     As Paul's family recover from his resurrection, the police have converted the school into a crisis centre for missing persons. Unfortunatley for them, the centre is also used as a base by the Reborns, led by Polus (who we're now calling John) and Natalie. Paul and co. visit the facility to look for Anna's boyfriend Steve, and they soon discover the problem. Held hostage by the reborns include Mark, his bit on the side, two of the Angelics against Neil and the Jay, who is rescued by Paul and a belated Neil when Paul discovers that he has a glowy-beam-thing that allows him to kill them. Deciding that the way of death is wrong, he walks away from Neil as the town is called to evacuate, promising both him and John that there is another way to solve this issue. Neil then takes Mac hostage as Paul's only weakness.
     The classical anti-hero was not a dark protagonist but simply an impotent one, and in many ways that is who Paul is. Despite how much the episode made out how special he was, he really did just feel like the pathetic kid in a cardigan. I kept waiting for Fades trademark style to show me one more of his amazing powers, but it didn't arrive until near the end and even then it was brushed aside despite being the only feasible solution. It also didn't help that the climax felt like it came too early - I was almost waiting for the episode to finish, as if there were strands from the finale that had to be fit on the end of this one.

Sarah returns.

     Sarah's storyline took a turn for the macabre, as she slowly transformed into a reborn. While Neil tried to comfort her, she inevitably succumbed to her urge to kill and visited John at the Reborn base, accelerating her development. After the climax she finally became human again and then went to visit Mark, whose psyche I worry for.
      Episode 5 drove the plot along quite nicely but for me at least it wasn't as captivating because of the absense of those little character moments. I really can't sympathise with the protagonist at this point, which is impeding my enjoyment somewhat, but the series is still full of that weel-written charm and delicious cinematic gore that makes it one of the best shows on TV today.

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Review: Fades 1.4

Polus (Joe Dempsie) monologues to Paul.

The beginning of the second half of this painfully short series promised to send the show in a darker direction. Instead of the stready buildup that I expected, the episode instead used the first three episodes as background on characterisation and spent a lot more time on the mythos. It's this style that I think is making the series feel quite off, but that's merely because I'm not really familiar with it. Besides that, this week provided everything I've come to expect from Fades and much, much more.
     The beginning of the episode saw Paul declared braindead, his Fade now active in the hospital. At the same time, the newly human Polus integrated himself back into humanity, learning to speak again (after spending half the episode with gutteral grunts) and then tracking down Paul. After a chase, Polus traps Paul on a roof, and explains how he was one of the first to become a Fade after the "ladder" to the Above was destroyed by the Second World War. In exchange for his freedom, Polus demands that Paul show him the bunker where the Angelics supporting Neil (as two had left his side) were keeping Natalie, who herself was breaking into life. The following assault on the bunker saw two of the Angelics die and Polus found to be immortal. Joe Dempsie is brilliant as the unnervingly alien Polus, from his inital animalistic growls to his monologue cateloguing the plight of the Fades since 1943. I loved how his character initally appears normal and the script relies on Uncanny Value to provide inital characterisation.
     Paul's family, however, continued to mourn his "death", as they prepared to turn off his life-support machine. Daniel Kaluuya was especially brilliant in Mac's intoned longing, truly capturing the nature of their relationship. Even the opening recount by Kaluuya saw that side of his character, which I think was an excellent touch. It's this love for his friend that gets the other Angelics' attention. They discover that Anna is his twin, and the episode climaxes with them using part of her soul to bring Paul back to life in a shower of moths. In a way this made his death feel rather pointless, but in a way it was essential both for the plot to proceed (so we could meet Polus without fear of death) and for the character to develop in the way it has. For a section in the middle of the episode the audience is very much led to believe that Polus is right and the Angelics are the murderers.

Neil (Johnny Harris) is betrayed.

     Mark's storyline was more focussed on Sarah this week, and it led me to wonder about where their tale is heading. Overall, it saw Sarah become frustrated with both the police, for questioning and then releasing her husband, and then with Mark himself who admitted to her that he didn't want to live knowing that she was always there, unable to touch him. To this end she ended the episode by telling a disheartened Neil that he had to fight on, and that she was ready to eat flesh and become like their enemies. I've always been cynical of The Tudors, but it can be said that it went distinctly downhill after Natalie Dormer left. I think this is a much better proof of her acting chops, as she skitted between subtle desperation and despair.
      Fades changes at such a brilliant and exciting pace, and it's so refreshing to see a drama like it on British television. It's really a shock sometimes to see such a brilliant set of scripts, actors and performances put together like Fades, and despite a somewhat slow start I am incredibly intrigued and relieved that the show hasn't undergone a mid-series slump.

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Review: Fades 1.3

"... Ok then."

Halfway through this series, and Fades continues to amaze me. The series continues to mix old horror tropes into new directions with a focus on character that at times feels intrusive. While it was hard to tell at times, this week certainly raised the stakes in the series' mythology, and raised the stakes in the more personal side of the story as well. We were left on a brilliant cliffhanger that left me really wanting next week.
     At home, Paul's relationship with Jay came to the forefront, bonking her for the first time and having the relationship revealed to his sister. As the key feature of their relationship for the first two hours, it felt a little strange when the discovery was cut short when an angry Paul accidentally used his powers to fuse sister Anna's mouth together. Mac became depressed after no one remembered his birthday, until Paul (who's been seeing increasingly more vivid visions of apocalyse, this time with a strange anti-christ figure) remembered and set the record straight. This takes up roughly half of the episode, and Paul only ventures back towards the Angelics when he collapses in Mac's house. In general, I found this side of the storyline to be genuinely human, combining humour and emotional poignancy. I was moved and amused; there's nothing wrong with that.
     Neil, however, was facing a different story. Incredibly wounded from the attack last week, he called upon Angelics from other areas to help him out. They tried to track down the first Fade to escape through, known as Pullus, who we see clips of throughout the episode undergoing a cocoon based transformation. Paul arrived just as Neil began to die of his injuries, and managed to cure every scar and blemish on his body - even his trademark blotted eye is healed. Paul also helps the Angelics to capture Natalie in order to discover the new Fades' limitations, but it's too late - we see at the end of the episode that Pullus has emerged from his cocoon as a human-looking man, the same man seen in Paul's apocalyptic visions. At the same time, Paul is hit by a van and is seen to die, delivering our cliffhanger.

"We were Angelics. I still am."

     Another more touching side to the story was the Mark storyline, which was a lot more involved here. Mark, fresh from last week's revelations, kept badgering Mac's dad about his suspicions surround Neil. On Sarah's request, Neil goes round and tells Mark the truth, translating across Sarah's feelings. This makes his reconsider everything and there's a poignant moment where he has a one-sided conversation with Sarah. Mac's dad is seen to have been promoted beyond his abilities, and is being stressed to find a culprit for the various deaths caused by the Fades. He arrests Mark, who has connections to all of the victims.
     One thing that I thought was impressive this week was the way that the episode raised the stakes everywhere. It wasn't uneven as Being Human oft was in that department, as I'm seeing while reviewing the second series. It also got on with things. Factors that I expected to last the whole series have now been "resolved" in interesting ways, and so it'll be more surprising when we do see how the plot thickens over the second half of the series.
     Other than that, it's business as usual from Fades. With consistantly brilliant performances by all leads, the story has raised the stakes to an even pace, racking up the tension to breaking point. At the same time, 1.3 delivered touching and human developments of our main leads and their relationships, taking the trivial and making it just as good as the supernatural. Maybe it's because I'm the target age range for this channel, or perhaps it's because I've never seen anything like it, but Fades has continued its consistant quality beyond my expectations.

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Review: Fades 1.2

Neil preaches to Paul.

Fades' second episode didn't do anything to really change my opinion of it, and instead delivered much of the same thing. Still holding its balance of gothic horror and quirky comedy (almost what Being Human was aiming for), the show continues to be engaging and entertaining. 
     Paul has a frightening dream showing the corpses of his loved ones as Neil destroys the bodies of his fallen comrades and takes Paul to look for someone to explain his visions. There he meets a little girl from Neil's past called Natalie, who tries to kill him. They meet Eric, one of the earliest Angelics, who's the oldest Fade he knows. Eric recognises Paul as "important", and Neil takes this, coupled with Natalie being able to touch, as a bad omen.
     After they get involved in some school stuff, Neil saves Paul from some Fades and tells him that he has to go underground, abandoning everyone he knows. The Fades are eating humans to convert them into more of themselves. Paul goes home but can't face his family, and so he stays at Mac's house, where his drunken father beats him. To his surprise, Paul is able to heal Mac's injuries.
     The episode climaxes with a party where Neil is attacked by the Fades (but not killed/eated for some reason) and Paul works out after snogging Jay that he can live a double life. In Mark's storyline, he's watched over by Sarah as his grief leads him to attack pupils and sleep with the girl from the first episode.
     Of all the things I admire about Fades, the most important is the show's focus on all of its characterisations. Everyone is fundamentally real and realistically flawed in a way that makes the show more compelling than it would otherwise be. This helps to makes the show stand out against the fantasy-horror predecessors it's trying to emulate and certainly makes me more concerned about what's happening. This of course meant that we didn't learn much more about the mythos of the show, but the character development, mixed in with plenty of humour, is entertaining enough in itself to sustain the series. I really enjoyed the development of Mac's character a lot, and it's a testament to this series that someone who could only serve as comic relief has such a detailed personality. Even the named Fades are somewhat human, despite never even talking, and the least likeable character in the series - Paul's sister who controls the school's cliques - has a few touches of humanity. This approach is generally favourable to Centric stories, I find, because they can often lead to characters being badly written along the sides.

Paul and Jay

     The balance between the comedy and horror is very well managed, and as I mentioned, it seems like the Being Human team learnt their lesson when it comes to Fades. The tone of the series so far is incredibly dark, no doubt encouraged by the hyperbolic advertising campaign. Perhaps for the better, the humour relies more on the characters and less on the dark nature of the series, which means that it hopefully won't become snuffed out as in Being Human.
      At the end of the day there isn't much more to say about this episode other than it reinforced the thoughts I already had. Fades is an engaging piece of entertainment that juggles a brilliant if cliche gothic horror and a fast-paced wit bolstered by outstanding characterisations. I'm really enjoying it and I can't see, based on this episode, that changing very soon.

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P.S. Yes. I know it's called "The Fades". I just think that's an unnecessary definite article, and I'm not gonna change it.

Review: Fades 1.1

BBC Three is good at things like this. Being Human in itself is proof of that, and Fades' cryptic advertising campaign duals with its relatively all-star cast to create something that could be so much better. My impression of the series by the first episode alone? Well, it's impressive - there's a nice mixture of mythology and character work, and it runs on that to create something both emotionally connective and intriguing.
     The premise revolves around a quasi-religious ideology; the Fades are the remnants of people whose souls haven't ascended. Whether one ascends is random, but the Fades often become spiteful because of their eternal limbo. The series begins as our protagonist, Paul (Iain De Caestecker) with his friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya) discovers the Fades for the first time via an incident with a Fade that has broken through into the world of the living, killing Sarah (Natalie Dormer) and half-blinding Neil (Johnny Harris) who serves as our series' Obi-wan. Paul is balancing his life by a thread; he has constant bad dreams which cause him to wet the bed, and he's in a loose Will-they-won't-they situation with the girl of his dreams. When he finds out that the visions he sees are caused by his pre-ordained ability rather than personal delusions, he goes with Neil to discover the truth. Elsewhere, Mark (Miranda's Tom Ellis), Sarah's partner, works at the school as a teacher and is devastated by the news of her death.
      I bring up Mark because it would be easy to overlook his character entirely. The majority of the episode was a pair of double acts between Paul and either Neil or Mac. Kaluuya, fresh from a cancelled Psychoville, puts his comedy bones to good use and provides some much needed comic relief in an episode where the mythology is on the gory side. In fact, all of the characters are instantly watchable and fundamentally human. In fact, the only performance I had trouble with was Dormer, whose lines consist of trailer taglines.

      The episode doesn't really pick up until about ten minutes in, after the very mythology-laden beginning falls away for the character development that I so loved in this episode. Paul is the textbook flawed protagonist; and Neil is the textbook "wise old one". But it still feels fresh despite how worn the format is and the while the concept itself is by no means new - and what ideas are nowadays - it's well executed, in a way that has me wanting more next week.
      The first episode of Fades was near-perfect, with well-written characterisations fused perfectly with gory visuals and interesting mythology to back it up. While it had a slow first few mintutes, when it got going it was an incredibly gripping piece of television that I'll definitely return to next week. The perfect premier.

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