Swamp Thing: Worlds Apart
June 9, 2019 7:20 PM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe

Abby and Matt follow one of her patients into the swamp, where Abby encounters Swamp Thing; Alec struggles to understand his metamorphosis into the monstrous, plant-based creature, Swamp Thing. (IMDB synopsis)
posted by sardonyx (3 comments total)
 
I've got lots of mixed feelings about this episode.

First, Abby has once again thrown disease prevention procedures out the window as she's hugging Patient 1/Suzie after finding her in the swamp and in the company of Swamp Thing. This is so frustrating for a character that really should know better.

Apparently Suzie now has the ability to read Alec's mind/feel his emotional state/something through her link to the Green. Okay, I guess this makes for a quick and easy short hand to drive home narrative plot points and advance the action, but I'm not really a fan of this approach. Will the other patients experience the same side-effect? Also, did she control the tree branches to aid in her escape or did they call to her?

While I have no objections to casting white comic book characters with Black or Latino actors or actors who identify as people of colour/racialized minorities, I don't think that casting a black actor in the role of Madame Xanadu was the right way to go, given how much of a cliche they have turned the character and her role into. Now she's wizened blind seer who is helping the rich (probably evil) white lady with her problems and tapping into the mystic realm to gauge the balance of good and evil. Nope. I do not like this approach to the character at all.

Apparently I was wrong about the dog. He's not living with Abby. Now, he's with Dan (Blue Devil) Cassidy. Of all of the characters in the DC universe, I can't really understand why they decided to bring Blue Devil into the show although I'll admit I pretty much have zero familiarity with the character (that is, outside of the general knowledge stuff that a DC reader would pick up). If they wanted an odd hero, I think Animal Man would have been a better choice, that way we could have had both the Red and the Green represented.

This episode we also got Jason (Floronic Man) Woodrue. It seems like in a number of ways, they're flipping Alec's and Jason's roles/origins. Sunderland fired Jason, not Alec. Alec was the one who conducted research alongside his wife, not Jason. I'm not sure if there are plot reasons for the backstory swap or not.

It appears that everybody is in love with Abby. Of course. Again, how cliched. I'm betting Sunderland's feelings about her are less than fatherly. Matt, of course, had a crush on her that she didn't know about (and that line about the girl always being aware of a crush was the stupidest line I've heard in a TV show in a long, long time), and Alec thinks she's all kinds of swell, as Abby finds out through video. I have no idea why Matt and Abby just couldn't have been friends or even casual acquaintances. This whole unrequited love thing is really unnecessary, unless writers are trying a misdirect to trick the audience into thinking Abby and Alec aren't meant to be together.

I think my comments make me sound like I disliked the episode, but I really didn't. I just wish writers could be smarter and avoid such obvious old tropes.

Also, if anybody else wants to take over posting this, that's more than fine with me. I don't mind doing it, but I rarely get to watch shows as they air. I'm usually a day or two or three behind, so the posts won't be going up on time if they're left in my hands.
posted by sardonyx at 8:03 PM on June 9, 2019 [2 favorites]


I liked it better than the pilot, but there is this weird thing going on where there's a million characters and a ton of subplots without any really clear storyline, or at least none of any great urgency. I find Blue Devil's lifestyle strangely enviable. That's all I got.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:39 PM on June 10, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm way behind, but still following along. Don't really have new observations either, but I'm interested in the comparisons/comic stuff you offered, sardonyx. Also, I agree re: the plot weaknesses I noticed as a non-comic reader. (Abby's lax protocol, everyone being in love with her and the very unfortunate Madame Xanadu stuff.)
posted by mordax at 11:06 PM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


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