Krypton Episode 2: “House of El” Plot Summary:
The follow-up episode to the Krypton series premiere, written by David S. Goyer and Damian Kindler while being directed by Ciaran Donnelly, sees Seg-El struggling to determine his place in Kandor and whether or not he should believe the mysterious man from Earth, Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos), when told that Brainiac, the ultra-intelligent evil being created on Krypton, would be time-traveling back through the galaxy to destroy the planet in order to prevent Seg’s grandson, Kal-El (Superman), from ever existing.
One of the best parts of this episode is the plot structure. Seg-El and Lyta Zod have mirroring subplots that explore their character growth and development while still steadily advancing the plot. This is a show that is definitely not afraid of pulling any punches and is consistently swinging for the fences. The uptempo pace to the episode worked very well – much better than the premiere – which comes at an excellent time since the show is only scheduled to have 10 episodes for its opening season.
The real winners of this episode, however, are the women. Although Cameron Cuffe has done a tremendous job portraying Seg-El so far, the two best characters on the show are Lyta Zod (Georgina Campbell) and Nyssa-Vex (Wallis Day). All three of those lead characters are written and acted very well, but Day is the clear standout. Her masterful acting chops, consisting of a swift, commanding presence and a surprisingly emotional resonance, truly steal the show. She instantly makes every scene she is in twice as good as any other scene and I hope her role expands as the season progresses.
As for Lyta, her continued dynamic with her mother, Alura (Ann Ogbomo), is quite possibly be the best family dynamic on the show – for a show that is about Superman’s ancestors and their family.
Having said that, some of the other performances still failed to land successfully. I wish Aaron Pierre, portraying Dev-Em (ally and friend to Lyta), would have better material to work with since he has so much potential to play an important part in the show. His facial expression does not change once for the entire episode no matter what he is saying, which comes off as wooden. Adam Strange still feels too out-of-place, ironically, and more like a real-life Geoff Johns in Kandor. Johns is a great DC writer and I appreciate his work wholeheartedly, but I am still not sold on the character in the show. It was great to see Val-El (Ian McElhinney) return, but it was a very brief return. He will clearly play a part of the story going forward, but the more of him we get, the better the show will be (and thank goodness for the Phantom Zone moment).
Sometimes the dialogue can also feel too predictable and on-the-nose. My biggest issue, though, is with the costume design. It stood out like a sore thumb in this episode – specifically the wrestling suit worn by Quex-UI (Gordon Alexander) for a battle scene in an arena. I understand the intent, but it simply did not work.
A few of the characters have unique and fascinating apparel, while the majority of the other characters give the viewer the impression that this world is not so futuristic and, in fact, more simplistic and old-school in nature. It comes off as low-budget television in the same vein that hurt Smallville during its run. It is not a major weakness that will ruin Krypton, but it is a bit of a letdown.
As for the episode as a whole, “House of El” is definitely an improvement over the premiere. The cliffhanger ending will make viewers wish they were binge-watching the series instead of having to wait another week to find out what happens.
I am very intrigued and excited to see the villain, Brainiac, for the first time ever in live-action. I think it will be fairly obvious as to how Brainiac will appear (as should anyone that has been watching the show). The most interesting part will be seeing how the Kryptonian characters react to him and if Seg can save his family legacy in the process. As for right now, Krypton is building positive momentum that should be exciting to watch for fans of Superman, DC Comics, and science fiction.
Rating: 8 / 10
-Daryn Kirscht
Comments are closed.