BLACK LAGOON
Series 2, Episodes 1-3
So, hey,
yeah, I’m back – this time, I bring you Black Lagoon’s second season premiere and following the rest of the arc. Yep, you did read right: another TRIPLE REVIEW. Enjoy.
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| "Triple review, eh? You got a permit for that?" |
For this
time, I’ll keep the story part itself very short.
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| Since this blog wants to stay open for everyone, images of said "flag pole" can sadly not be shown here. Enjoy Chang's cool glasses instead. |
Bar time. A collector of
Balalaika’s meets the new evil in town: two children who apparently have no
ethics in dressing codes. Well, and they have no morals either for they f***ing
split one of them in half and shot the other people in the bar with what you
can’t call your typical gun anymore. Next up, is by far the most cruel scene
the show has ever delivered until now. The two children are “playing” with one body
they took earlier. Talking about a dead flag pole. I mean, come on, hammering
nails into a corpse and then laughing at how he twitches even so he’s dead
while he has a flag put through his head, literally. That is sick. And that is
the perfect word to describe this arc: sick.
That much
for the story part of the season premiere and wow, it was pretty damn sick,
dark and… epic, in its own way. I never have seen such a complete turn-around
in a series’ history. I mean, season one was a complete fun one while season
two comes around like a giant bloodbath being ahead of us viewers. And they’re
not so wrong.
What is
there to say about this episode, then? – I’m still amazed how the series turned
around without any implication beforehand. We’re thrown at with vampire twins,
yeah, that I’m pretty sure no one has suspected, even bigger guns and a dark
atmosphere that is only lit up slightly when Eda, the nun shows off her goods
in the Yellow Flag, which, surprisingly, hasn’t been destroyed for the
countless time by now. (Running gag.)
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| "'Good Fellas'? What's that?" |
The episode
itself delivers what it wants: suspense and epic while sick moments. I
personally did not feel to even look away from the screen for one second which
a show always has to achieve first, so, well done. Roanapur by night got a whole new dimension
with finally letting the viewer in onto the real powers behind the city, the
people around and the brutality of it. Where S01 implicated there was more, S02
really delivers. And f**k, but this episode had me at the edge of my seat,
literally. As they revealed what these sick twisted twins meant by “playing”
(human flag pole and so on) I had to breathe for air because I was simply not
prepared for “Black Lagoon” to take this way. I expected it would be darker, I
expected bigger guns and stuff, but I most certainly wasn’t up for this moment
of pure basterdness. And when they showed the body with all these many nails
sticking out of it and the “innocent” kids in front of it, I was like “WTF”.
True story. This is the most powerful sign that the show did everything to the
detail right. Full score without any complaints here. This was suspense at its
very best.
Apart from
that, the episode wasn’t your typical setup because the Lagoon Company hadn’t
really a part in it which is a welcomed change from the otherwise so often used
background. And it is interesting because this provides the show to put the
spotlight on our favourite “Hotel Moscow” which sadly was lacking in S01 a lot.
Well, at least, we know it was worth it because we didn’t see much of it yet
but it still felt really cool and intriguing to see Balalaika out of her usual
scheme and on the street, hunting down the twins.
Perfect
suspense, perfect atmosphere, perfect sickness – that is the perfect way to sum
up episode 1 of this arc and as far as now, this is a sure 5-star hit. Do not
watch/read on if you’re a pacifist but then again, I don’t know why you would
watch this ass-kicking show in the first place. Next review part coming up
soon now.
EPISODE 2
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| "Welcome. Want to play with us?" |
Continuing right
where we left off, this episode presents everyone still on the manhunt for
those twisted twins. And now for more sickness: both are changing their roles,
including their genders. Sick kids. But what is more striking is that the show
changed its mood as well. It is still not the funny side of “Black Lagoon”, which
is good, but it ain’t as dark as it was apparent in the first episode, it is
now more like “there is no hope”. Learning that the twins were “merchandise” of
a child molesting, trafficking service from Romania, Roanapur is shaking up as
the situation turns heated when the one crime syndicate that is responsible for
hiring those kids is under attack by the very them. Well, no one is gonna miss
them. But still, those kids scare me off to some extend. Or I just hate their
creepy laughing. Probably that. The last act of the episode now is Balalaika’s
move. While she occupied every other bounty hunter in the city elsewhere through
false information, the twins joyfully decide to “keep on killing” because it’s
so fun and this world is all about killing or be killed, according to them. So,
Eda and Revy caught them but Hotel Moscow has other plans which leads us to
the next episode.
So, again,
what is there to say about this episode? – I seriously don’t know how often
again I will have to come across filler episodes you just can’t drop because
you need them but they’re also not the brightest to be screened. Sadly, the
second episode is such a case. It only has one reason for its existence and
that is being made very clear throughout the whole time: it has to fill in for
some development between E01, the beginning, and the next episode which, I’d
say will be the ending. Therefore, this one is not keen on keeping the dark
atmosphere around as E01 was and that sadly really drops the giant plus point
from last episode. The first few minutes of this episode are more than enough
to know everything you need to know for the final act: the twins turn on
everyone except them and they’re more twisted than you thought (gender change,
WTF, seriously? Creepy.). The rest is a little Chang in action but that is
still not enough for it to be truly enjoyable. Well, at least, he is cool with
his sunglasses on and everything but that’s it, for now.
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| Just your everyday-nun. |
Also, the
bounty plot is completely, and I’m talking major failure here, completely
dropped and thrown away like a dead TV into a trashcan. They could have done so
much more here, could have even delivered a plot worthy of movies, like a
suspense-situation where the bounty hunters have to play a deadly
cat-and-mouse-play with the twins or whatever, but what really happened, sorry,
that is not enough. And even the hot looks of one Revy or one Eda can’t save
that play. Foul play.
Even
the characters are kind of left hanging in this episode as, well, you didn’t
need it, not really. But then again, some credit has to go to them because they
had no other real choice here because what the episode delivers despite being
not important is a time window and that they get around pretty good. And that
is the only thing why this episode does not score 1.5 stars but 2.5 stars as it
was, despite all my criticism, kind of enjoyable, at least the first minutes
were.
EPISODE 3
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| "This is the end of the line." |
Balalaika’s
big move. And it seems to be working. Except for Eda being taken hostage by
one of the twins, the boy-turned-girl member of the team. While the now-boy
member confronts Balalaika and is unknowingly about to meet his fate. He joked
around one time too often and Balalaika is pulling out her true lion inside
her, shooting him body-part to body-part. And damn, I’m really thankful for
that because it is really creepy how he and she behave and talk like they were
one. The twins, that is. “Don’t cry, you fool.”
Last big act of this whole arc,
finally including the Lagoon Company: the Lagoons are shipping the sister twin
out. Throw in some “romance” between Rock and the sick kid. Which then turns
back into the boy, especially for Rock. And then back into the sister. And then
she offers Rock sex for his tears which both puts Revy and Rock on the edge. But
luckily, it ends how it had to: Hotel Moscow predicted the Lagoon’s man for the
job, made arrangements and killed her through the man. Right move. Despite her
past which is truly horrifying. And such as, the arc ends with a dramatic sad
and both a satisfying end.
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Now, for
the first time in the series’ history, the ending changes into a more vocal
song and the twin sister walking in the sand instead of Revy, then being
reunited with her brother, probably in death. Kind of pays tribute to how dark
this whole arc actually was.
Surprisingly
as the question may come: what is there to say about the episode and the arc
now that it is over?
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| "Over? This is far from being over." |
First for
the episode itself: It was the final act of a three-part arc and therefore
delivered the final showdown between the twins and Hotel Moscow while also
including the Lagoon Company. After the big disappointment E02 was, E03 is “Black
Lagoon” at its best and yet darkest again. The brother’s (I’m sticking with
this gender in this case) confrontation with Balalaika was both epic and
anticipated. If you have learned one thing from the show in its entire first
season, it is that you don’t make fun of Hotel Moscow for nothing, b*tch. The moment
where she shoots the boy and leaves him there on the ground, right before her
eyes, to blood out on open soil, that was in one way artistically perfect and
it fit perfectly into the story. The special assemblance of the Russian special
force came around a little less fearful as introduced but, oh well, they were
there alright.
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| "So, you naughty boy didn't go to church last Sunday?" |
The episode
also did everything right when they finally included our heroes and let them do
a job that was a pure job and nothing more. Money rules everything, a point the
show makes more than just here and once. (Yeah, social criticism in this show
is not as rare as you might think – in fact this whole episode had a lot of
such moments in it, like the twins’ past, just to name one.) And yet, they also
had justice done when they killed her and boy, what a moment that was. After
hearing her sing like an angel on board the torpedo boat, an even sadder song
kicks in accompanying her final moments, looking out onto the free sea. And
then, the changed ending and the whole Rock-sister-romance, it was perfect. It
was such an episode that leaves you with a wish for more, with a wish that this
would not be the end. But in a good way that you know it is. Everything was
right this time: story, music(!), scenery and speed (the episode didn’t rush
things and felt complete after its run). And as a special plus: we got to see
Rock’s caring side once again which still lets the viewer identify him with him
because he still is that sort-of-other guy we were always introduced to his
character. Good job, 4.5 stars, if I had to decide.
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| "You better give a good rating." |
Overall,
the arc: While the premiere had a lot of “WTF”-moments and delivered what might
just be the most suspense-style episode we’re ever gonna get, E02 let me down
in a big way that is not excusable. Luckily, the final episode delivered again
and made this arc, together with E01, one of the best stories the show had to
offer until now. As dark as that, but as epic as that, was not a single episode
until now. Furthermore, at least in E01 and E03 everything was where it
belonged and the new music in E03 was most welcome. The show delivered a strong arc
with a weak middle act that overall gives hope there is more such good stuff to
come which brings me to its final rating of…
4 stars!
And those
are bloody, dark and epic four stars.
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