Tubular Television: Eternal Law & The Almighty Johnsons
Eternal Law Synopsis: Mrs Sheringham is tortured by memories of Billy. Zack and Hannah defend a young female solder in a court martial, and Zack watches while Hannah gets closer to Major John Parker.
Review: This weeks episode of Eternal Law brings a new spin the the Angel Of Mons, which as you’ll know is a famous legend in which a group of angels protected members of the British armed forces who were retreating from the Germans in Mons.
However that reference is only a small part of the episode, which is only revealed when Zack tells Tom why he has issues with defending a woman who is being court marshaled for self inflicting injury in order to allegedly escape being posted in Afghanistan.
Essentially it is another character building episode for Tom for all the characters and the fun back story about Zack made it worth the watch.
We also learn a little more about Mrs Sheringham who meets her brother in law for the first time since she lost her husband and her vulnerability after thinking she had sighted her Hubby in the street leads to a brief moment in which fallen angel Richard tries to lure her to his side of the fence.
The angel of Mons element to the episode is that Zac who was serving with this group of solders made his true self visible to them, which is something he was punished for by having to defend people from being court marshaled. A no win scenario because he never won a single case.
There’s quite a bit of back and forth in this episode between the various characters and thankfully Hannah has found herself a new boyfriend, which I am relieved about because hopefully it will put an end to the Zack loves Hannah thread only he cannot tell her or let her know about their past relationship stuff, which really has slowed much of the series down.
Overall this was a fairly confident episode and like last weeks one of the better episodes.
The final scene with Zack and Tom atop the Church in which Tom expresses how cool Zack is for being a rebel and the Angel of Mons is both funny and a little scary. For some reason Zack whenever he laughs with those wings looks rather sinister.
Score 3.5/5
The Almighty Johnson’s Synopsis: Axle who has just turned 21 gets the shock of his life both figuratively and literally when it is revealed to him by his brothers that the family are all reincarnated norse gods.
Review: I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first heard about this show. I mean lets be honest. It’s not many shows from New Zealand that make it to English television, much less the UK version of Syfy Channel and this is probably due to the fact that Australian soaps, mini series combined with imports from the US and our own produced television tend to dominate.
What is The Almighty Johnsons? That’s a very good question because after having subjected myself to it twice already am not entirely sure.
Obviously the premise is about four brothers who are the reincarnation of Norse Gods. This opening episode centres on Axle the youngest who has just turned 21 and is to learn which Norse God he is the reincarnation of.
When Axles brother’s Mike (Ullr, the god of the hunt and master of all games) Ty (Höðr, god of the cold and dark) and Anders, Vodka magnate and smooth talker by day and the reincarnation of Bragi, the god of poetry. Take Axle to the woods to perform the ancient ritual with their granddad 92-going-on-31 granddad Olaf, the god of rebirth and the families oracle they learn after much deliberation and over the top dragged out expedition that Axle is the Reincarnation of Odin the king of all Norse Gods, which is very much the set up.
From here on in after the big reveal is done the episode tends to drag. We soon learn that Odin’s return represents a quest to find his true love and thus reclaim their place in Valhalla. No pressure then. That said the brothers doe have a group of women working against them, two of which attempt to see Axle off, but ultimately fail, but live to fight another day.
The episode ends after Axle survives one of these attacks in which an an arrow gets lodged between his ribs making it look like her has two hearts, which confirms him as the real reincarnation of Odin, which is bad news for his brothers because if they fail on the quest and Odin dies they’ll all die with him.
My issue with this show was the pacing. It dragged. Sadly the plot was fairly thin once the premise was revealed. I mean you’ve just found out you’re the reincarnation of a norse god. Does that really mean you go party. That’s what Axle does. Their are a few moments of promise but by and large this was a mess.
The acting was hit and miss for me and the characters lack, well character. They don’t exactly leap out from the screen and make you want to support them.
We can only hope that this show gets better as the week’s progress, but for a pilot this has to be one of the worst introductions to a show I’ve ever seen.
Score 1.5/5
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