Queen of the Sisiutl

Overview

This post contains reviews for last night's episodes of Primeval: New World and Sinbad as aired on SyFy. There is also a small Housekeeping section below the reviews.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last night's episodes of Sinbad or Primeval: New World, please leave the blog and come back later. My reviews always contain spoilers.

Also, there's some swearing so just be aware of that.

Sinbad - "Queen of The Water Thieves" - Review

Okay so, this episode was essentially the crew getting captured by a savage culture and Sinbad befriending a giant bird and then becoming de facto leader. I wasn't impressed. Yeah, the CG on the bird was pretty awesome, but it was really the only impressive thing about this episode.

I found Razia incredibly boring. While she was supposed to be the bad ass leader of the Water Thieves, she didn't come off that way. I think she seemed spoiled, actually. I also didn't like that she essentially felt she had to lecture Sinbad on being a leader... and then essentially did nothing while her son was being killed. Razia's grip on her "people" was obviously tenuous. Honestly, Sophie Okonedo was more convincing as Liz 10 on Doctor Who than she was as Razia. The apparently lack of society there also bugged me. Yes, they're savages, but they've got a queen and no real line of succession... except who can be the coldest, most heartless asshole ever.

I also honestly don't care about any of the crew. They're all pretty generic. The Cook's parts were slightly funny, but really obvious. I'm also already tired of Lord Akbar and his witch, Taryn. That entire part with Sinbad's family wasn't necessary, in my opinion.

And about the end of the episode... if there's no wind until the bird starts flapping behind the boat, then how is the boat going any further? Birds do not make wind, even giant ones. They're pretty much stranded for a while, unless the bird's going to be flapping behind them forever.

So... I basically thought this was a crap episode. We'll see if next week's episode is any better.

Primeval: New World - "Sisiutl" - Review

I am trying really hard to keep Primeval: New World separated from Primeval in my head, really I am. Again, this was an episode I thought the parent series did better. I get that we had to establish to a new audience that Anomalies could appear underwater. I get that they didn't want to repeat the giant crocodile that Primeval did. I get that a giant snake worked better with local mythology. I just don't think it was very well done.

I think part of my problem with the plot of this was all the jumping around that happened. We had to jump from Evan to Mac to Dylan to Toby to Angelika to Evan and the native dude to Angelika and Lieutenant Leeds back to Evan and the native dude to... you get the idea. I didn't like all the jumping around. It made the story seem choppy, even when it shouldn't have been.

That said... I really, really don't like Angelika. I don't know what her motivation is, but she's generally acting like a bitch to everyone. I didn't appreciate the way she decided to handle things. I'm not happy that she's going to be looking for a way to close the Anomalies. Mind you, I know from Primeval that the Anomalies can be closed, just not permanently. Angelika is looking for a permanent solution to a problem she essentially just found out about and I don't like it. I also didn't like that she went behind Evan's back to talk to Leeds about talking to Evan.

I didn't really have a problem with the snake, for the most part. I thought it was rather ridiculous that it went off after sound even when it could see and smell a tasty snack right in front of its face. Other than that, I thought the snake was a good choice, given the circumstances surrounding it.

I did not like the protest thing. Yes, I understand these things happen all the time. I live in the US. It's like the protest capital of the world. I just didn't like how the protest was used, nor do I care about any of the characters involved with the protest. They could have all been eaten by the snake and it wouldn't have bothered me at all.

But anyway... that's all I've got to say about this episode. Let me know what you thought about it and the episode of Sinbad down in the comments.

Housekeeping

As it's Father's Day today I'm not actually writing this post today. This is me from last night typing all this up. Tomorrow, though, will be the present me reviewing some books I just finished... and then doing Warehouse 13 Initial Reactions later in the evening. I'd delay the reviews, but I kind of want to get them out sooner rather than later.

Love ya, Jessie.