Episode 1.3: Born to the Purple
This is the episode that almost killed me. I don't like Londo, and I don't care about Centauri politics, and I can't grant any gravitas to a plotline about an alien species that is primarily defined by goofy hair, bad Russian accents, and bizarre overacting. Londo and his toadie, Vir Cotto, are playing every scene like it's vaudeville, like I'm SUPPOSED to not take them seriously, and yet it's a story about a guy in love with a stripper and a bunch of fraught espionage and betrayal. It's a weird tonal mishmash that I only watched about 2/3 of before giving up, turning it off, and wondering if maybe this show wasn't for me after all.
The good news is, I was at PensaCon at the time, watching this in my hotel room on the urging of some of my friends in the booth we were working, so I was able to go back the next day, whine about it, and be reassured by everyone that, yes, the early episodes were shaky, but stick with it and it gets better. Most people online, in fact, have been telling me that the entirety of season 1 (with one or two exceptions) is a mess, and the show doesn't get amazing until season 2, but that I can't skip season 1 because it's too loaded with clues about the future, and vital set-up for the long-form story. I don't know which parts of BORN TO THE PURPLE will come back to haunt us in the future, but maybe the stripper Londo "fell in love" with? Or maybe the spy who kept the stripper as an indentured servant? G'Kar gets a new aide in this one, but she doesn't do anything unmissable in this episode.
Not that it matters, because I'm not going to skip any episodes anyway. Give me your worst, Babylon 5, I'm in this for the long haul.
This is kind of a short post because I literally don't have anything nice to say about this episode. Ivanova had an emotional conversation with her father, and that wasn't terrible, so I guess that's something. And the Centauri stripper was played by Fabiana Udenio, who looks super familiar, and it turns out she's Alotta Fagina from Austin Powers. So there's that. Notably, this is one of the only episodes in the entire five-year show that was not written by the showrunner, J. Michael Stracynski, so maybe that's why it's so bad?
I want to like Londo. I really do. And as I keep saying, he was GREAT in the pilot movie. I suspect that he's still trying to find his feet in a very tricky role, just like everybody else, but since two of the first three episodes were completely centered on him his mistakes stand out more. We'll give him time, and see where we end up.
The good news is, I was at PensaCon at the time, watching this in my hotel room on the urging of some of my friends in the booth we were working, so I was able to go back the next day, whine about it, and be reassured by everyone that, yes, the early episodes were shaky, but stick with it and it gets better. Most people online, in fact, have been telling me that the entirety of season 1 (with one or two exceptions) is a mess, and the show doesn't get amazing until season 2, but that I can't skip season 1 because it's too loaded with clues about the future, and vital set-up for the long-form story. I don't know which parts of BORN TO THE PURPLE will come back to haunt us in the future, but maybe the stripper Londo "fell in love" with? Or maybe the spy who kept the stripper as an indentured servant? G'Kar gets a new aide in this one, but she doesn't do anything unmissable in this episode.
Not that it matters, because I'm not going to skip any episodes anyway. Give me your worst, Babylon 5, I'm in this for the long haul.
This is kind of a short post because I literally don't have anything nice to say about this episode. Ivanova had an emotional conversation with her father, and that wasn't terrible, so I guess that's something. And the Centauri stripper was played by Fabiana Udenio, who looks super familiar, and it turns out she's Alotta Fagina from Austin Powers. So there's that. Notably, this is one of the only episodes in the entire five-year show that was not written by the showrunner, J. Michael Stracynski, so maybe that's why it's so bad?
I want to like Londo. I really do. And as I keep saying, he was GREAT in the pilot movie. I suspect that he's still trying to find his feet in a very tricky role, just like everybody else, but since two of the first three episodes were completely centered on him his mistakes stand out more. We'll give him time, and see where we end up.
I'm enjoying your take on the series so far, even if (or especially if) they are different from my own.
ReplyDeleteMy own introduction to Babylon 5 was a little bit backwards. I saw the pilot, and thought the show was doomed. Then I accidentally bumped into it again during season 2 (during a Bestor monologue!) and I kept watching... and was hooked. A few episodes later, I went back and found a friend with most of season 1 and 2 on videotape (yeah, those days...) and got caught up. So for me, I was already invested in Londo's character by the time I saw this episode, and it worked.
And yes, I hope it's not too spoilery to say that yes, the setup in this episode gets a major payoff later.
Another thing that's interesting. In the pilot (I think), G'Kar says that nobody on Babylon 5 is exactly who they seem. In another series, this would be a throwaway line to try and keep the viewer off-guard for a one-shot whodunit. It goes quite a bit deeper than that in B5. and it's interesting to see your take on Londo and the Centauri at this point in the series. Maybe it coulda / shoulda been handled differently, but I think in a sense your take on him this early into the series was how it was intended. I thought of him as more of a buffoon... the comic relief with perhaps hints of some layers. The B5 equivalent of the town drunk.
"Give me your worst, Babylon 5, I'm in this for the long haul." - There is at least one episode coming (somewhere in season 3) that is FAR, FAR worse. Straczynski (just had to Google that. No wonder he goes my JMS) offered to personally drive door-to-door and apologize for it.
ReplyDeleteTKO is my least favorite. Seasons 3 and 4 are excellent since all the setup is starting to pay off.
ReplyDeleteI kind of liked this episode even on first viewing. But as I said in the last post. These episodes get so much better when you rewatch them after seeing the entire series.
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