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The Pretender 205: Nip and Tuck
Greg is away again (at his aunt's funeral and seeing family) and, being fed up with him never getting round to watching The Pretender, I decided to watch it alone. I'll see another one tonight. :-) I'm also going to watch them on rainy days, but we haven't had one of those for a while.
This was from French TV--Le Cameleon with quite different credits--but luckily it wasn't dubbed. I wonder if the series was extra popular in Europe because of Patrick Bauchau.
The pretend was similar to other medical ones with its obscene and deliberate malpractice, and like the very first one, Jarod only gets justice for the victim. I thought he (Dr Clay!) or Eubanks might have been able to fix the girl's eyelid though; does one facial nerve extend that far? Life for Tricia won't be easy, but at least Jarod convinced her that it's well worth living out there. His own joie de vivre is so infectious.
Favourite lines:
"Is the Pope catholic?"
"I believe it is mandatory."
I love Jarod and his deep innocence of popular culture. Also the way he gleefully tells Brant that he's just pretending to be a surgeon.
A thought: always using his first name must make him easier to track, and for any authorities investigating fraudulent identities to connect different pretends, but I liked how we saw just how important his name is to him in the flashbacks.
Life at the Center was the more interesting story, with Broots being stalked. It's intriguing that he noticed it happening whereas Sydney and Parker didn't; I'd have thought Parker would be more vigilant. I have to say that Pamela Gidley does a good British accent, and I just realised that she's the cyborg from Cherry 2000.
I wasn't at all surprised that it's Kyle doing the stalking. I knew he wasn't dead in that explosion; he's a Pretender too, after all, and probably wasn't that badly hurt, so he could easily have got away, as I thought at the time. Mind you, I also wouldn't have been surprised that there been a third faction at the Centre, or someone else outside who knows what they do.
So Angelo is now an empath, able to extract stored emotions from objects? OK, we're definitely in SF territory here. Parker should really cut the guy some slack; he's very useful.
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Yay!
(By the way, since you're getting back into it now, and since I'm thinking about it, I feel I ought to mention that 2x08, when you get to it, deals with some pretty upsetting subject matter -- a bit more than usual for this show, I mean. IMHO it's a really good episode, and not unmitigatedly bleak, but you may want to watch it when you're feeling... emotionally robust. Maybe. :))
This was from French TV--Le Cameleon with quite different credits
That sounds like an appropriate title! So, what were the French credits like?
I thought he (Dr Clay!) or Eubanks might have been able to fix the girl's eyelid though; does one facial nerve extend that far?
I think they probably do, but my knowledge of anatomy is sketchy, and the science and medicine on this show are probably better not examined too closely, anyway. :)
In dramatic terms, I did like the fact that he couldn't fix it, sad as it was. I like that Jarod's not somebody who can sweep in and magically fix everything for the people he helps. It makes him and what he does feel much more real.
but at least Jarod convinced her that it's well worth living out there. His own joie de vivre is so infectious.
I really did love that. As I think I said in my own post on this ep, that stuff could so easily have seemed incredibly corny and trite, but as is so often the case, the acting just sells it. It made me feel like going outside and living a little. :)
A thought: always using his first name must make him easier to track, and for any authorities investigating fraudulent identities to connect different pretends, but I liked how we saw just how important his name is to him in the flashbacks.
Logically, it seems like a really stupid thing for him to do, yeah, but in character terms it makes so much sense. That's the once piece of his identity that he has to cling on to, you know? He isn't going to give that up.
Mind you, I also wouldn't have been surprised that there been a third faction at the Centre, or someone else outside who knows what they do.
I'm never surprised at any murky, conspiracy-laden plot twist that happens in the B-stories. But, yeah, it was really not difficult to predict Kyle's return. They really weren't even trying to make us believe he was really dead, what with that blatant "but we couldn't find a body!" thing. :)
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The credits just showed Jarod and Parker and Sydney, but the shots were more action-oriented. I'd have to watch again. All the captions (Le Centre etc) were in French too. :-)
I liked that he can't fic everything; in fact he often doesn't. Either he's too late or it's just not fixable, as in the first ep with the paralysed boy. He gave her encouragement though (the instilling of courage).
I added a comment about Angelo I meant to put there before. He's really taking us further into SF-realms.
I should now go and read your and Red's posts. :-)
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Oh, you should definitely watch it. There's nothing graphically awful; it just deals with some particularly difficult subject matter. Like I said, it's a good episode, though, and very important in character terms. I just didn't want you to go into it on one of those occasions when you're feeling blue and looking for escapism, because it's so not the ep for that.
The credits just showed Jarod and Parker and Sydney, but the shots were more action-oriented.
Interesting. The clips in the original really aren't very action-oriented at all, are they?
I added a comment about Angelo I meant to put there before. He's really taking us further into SF-realms.
Yeah, they quickly gave up on trying to pretend Angelo was anything other than psychic. Which I think was a good call, as the show already sort of felt to me like it was... How did I put it a while back? One step father into the realm of fantasy than our world. :)
I should now go and read your and Red's posts. :-)
Yay! I should go back and see what it was I actually said. :)
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OH ANGELO. Heh. :)
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(Also, it has underpants jokes.) ;)
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