Haven 4.11 Review: Connections

Anyone that has yet to watch Friday night’s episode of Haven, entitled ‘Shot in the Dark’, now is your last chance to do so before proceeding ahead into spoiler territory. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Well, for the most part this was a pretty good episode. I surprisingly enjoyed the mildly shaky camera work that seems to kind of work for this series. Also, I was happy to see Kris Lemche pop up in a show I watch – for those of you that don’t know, he played one incarnation of God in the series Joan of Arcadia, which sadly only lasted two seasons. There were definitely a lot of interesting elements to this episode; I just wasn’t a fan of all of them.

The one of which I am speaking of, is the idea that Jennifer is supposed to be the Child of Haven. What is that even supposed to mean? And why a guard symbol on the book? The fact that Audrey couldn’t see it kind of pissed me off. They’re making Jennifer far too significant for my liking and I’m not understanding it at all. If it had been gradual and natural to the story I may not have minded it, but it was just like BAM! Important character alert! Not my cup of tea, and sloppy writing on the showrunners’ part.

This show is certainly posing some intriguing questions. Like who was Audrey originally? And why did the “Rugaru” go after Jennifer and get obliterated when it went to touch her? As an incredibly curious person, I am hoping to get a significant amount of answers during the two-part season finale.

All in all, this was a mostly good episode. I did laugh when Nathan handed Duke his little gun and then Duke said thanks and pulled out his own gun as well. That was great, and quality Duke. I do think I’m holding out hope for Audrey and Duke to be together, cause I personally think they’d fit better now. Also, I was really happy with Bigfoot’s performance this week (yes, I mean Dwight). The man is surprisingly good in small quantities. While I am excited to see how this season ends, Jennifer has still been a disappointment.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

Best Line:

“Jennifer can do that?” – Nathan asks, regarding hacking the cloud network. “As far as I can tell, everyone younger than me can do that.” – Dwight replies.

Okay, my apologies for not posting this yesterday. I did watch this one, but I was kind of exhausted after work and just wanted to play Sims. I’m going to go shower now, but check back soon for my review of Bones. Apparently there was no Dracula this week, so that doesn’t need to be caught up on.

Haven 4.09 Review: Who Are You?

Anyone that has yet to watch Friday night’s episode of Haven, titled ‘William’, then now would be your last chance to do without the threat of spoilers. For this is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

This week’s episode, for the most part, I was really happy with. This is more of the Haven that I’ve grown to love. There was more mythology thrown into this week and more mystery that is part of what this series spouted out from. And by the way it’s been set up, I’m beyond excited for next week, when a wish causes Haven to have never had the Troubles to begin with.

But back to this week’s episode, I was really surprised by Adam Copeland’s performance as Dwight this week, he was actually good. Not much overacting, his big eyes fit perfect in the frenzied scenes, and him being held captive was actually enjoyable to watch. Maybe this guy has a chance at being a good actor after all.

The performance I most loved this week was Colin Ferguson’s go as William. He was beyond convincing as the amnesiac character, and then to turn into this seemingly evil character at the end was just a completely well done one-eighty.  While I love Eric Balfour as Duke week in and week out, as well as Emily Rose’s performance as Audrey, Ferguson took the cake this week, and I expect to see more of this from him as the season – possibly series – progresses. It makes me want to go and actually restart and finish the series Eureka, which maybe I’ll do after I’m done rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in order.

Other things to note about this week’s episode, the one lackey may have been the big brute, but it was his more intellectual, glasses wearing co-lackey that was the creepier of the two. Also, they’re really making Jennifer seem far too important for my liking. Maybe it’s my jealousy rearing its ugly head that she’s taking too much time away from Audrey, but while I am interesting in learning her heritage and what her connection is to the Barn, the fact that she did have a connection to it and is just being introduced to us this season is a problem to me. Look, I wouldn’t have minded her so much if Duke and her had started off more as friends, and then slowly progressed to being in a relationship as he slowly got over Audrey, but the fact that he was still in love with Audrey at the beginning of this season is my problem, because I haven’t been able to see that as easily anymore. It’s like it was just written out.

A few questions about this series going forward, one being who is William really? Has he been in the Barn all this time? Is he in love with who Audrey originally was? What was it that caused her to need to go in the Barn in the first place? Can the Troubles be destroyed? How long have they been around for? Will we ever see the original personality Audrey was? What does the spark between William and Audrey do? What did it cause her to see? How long was she out for her? I am a really curious person, as a creative myself, so I expect most, if not all, of these questions to be answered before this series ends. I can wait for them to be answered eventually, but I do need answers or I’ll go crazy with wonder.

All in all, while this series does have its shortcomings the whole mythology and planning behind it was brilliant. With this episode, I’m actually excited again to watch this series week in and week out. I’m just saddened by the fact there’s only about four episodes left for this season, but I’ll savour them as much as possible.

My rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“I’m the guy here, okay? I’m supposed to be the one who gets close, then pushes you away and freaks out. You’re kind of throwing me off here.” – Duke relates to an infected Jennifer.

“That guy has some serious jealousy issues.” – A seemingly amnesiac William mutters to Audrey, regarding Nathan.

“I can’t believe you actually tased me.” – Duke bewilderingly says to Dwight.

“Somebody really needs to take that thing away from him.” Duke states, concerning Dwight’s handling of the Taser.

All right, that’s me all caught up. Check back in tomorrow for my reviews of Once Upon A Time and Revenge. I’m off to go try and work on my pilot episode, and possibly watch Home Alone afterwards – only forty-five days until Christmas (P.S. I love Christmas)!