Spiral Review

Spiral Review
Where the hell was this Haven twelve weeks ago? After frittering away the entire season,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], it unloads enough shocking twists to choke an episode of Lost: finally delivering an unabashedly worthwhile hour just in time to turn out the lights on the year. For once,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the director achieves a proper sense of dramatic build-up and the that have plagued the little Maine town of Haven feel like an actual narrative arc instead of a hastily-constructed afterthought.
It begins with the arrival of a paroled prisoner in town,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], who possesses the same immunity to pain as Nathan (Lucas Bryant) and who seems to have a bone to pick with a number of town residents. Audrey (Emily Rose) quickly confronts him, but before he has a chance to spill the beans, he dies in one of those freak earthquakes that seem to arise at the drop of a hat. He leaves a number of unanswered questions behind him most notably Nathan real parentage, but also what exactly happened to the Colorado Kid and how much the good people of Haven have been keeping from Audrey.
Audrey herself has a great big question of her own: whether she actually that woman in the old photograph or not. Has she traveled through time? Does she never age? Why doesn she remember any of it? doesn deign to provide an answer, but it establishes the mystery in such an intriguing way that our lack of facts becomes enticing rather than frustrating. Director Fred Gerber saves the big punchline for the final scene--something to keep us on the edge of our seats until the series returns next summer. (And return it shall; Syfy confirmed a second season several days ago.)
That automatically sets head and shoulders above anything that came before it. Every episode until now seemed to treat the idea of narrative build-up like an amusing prank. Here, we actually experience a sense of progression: one scene moving to the next in a logical fashion, with a growing intensity which Gerber releases at appropriate points to further facilitate our sense of excitement. It a pretty basic storytelling trope and yet Haven needed to wait until the very end of the line to finally get it right.
In addition,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Gerber proves adept at keeping more than one plot thread in the air at once. On top of Nathan and Audrey issues,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], we return to the question of Duke (Eric Balfour) and the tattooed man who may eventually kill him. This paroled prisoner possesses such a tattoo, but whether he the man or just a man has yet to be seen. Gerber spices that pot nicely with the addition of the new town coroner (Michelle Monteith), who had previously served as a useless appendix of a character. Here,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], she suddenly joins the party and more importantly, she does so in a way that enhances the intrigue rather than flailing around wildly trying to convince us that she belongs.
None of it will replace Lost, of course, or even come within sniffing distance of it. But with the show skidding from one near disaster to another for the bulk of the season, the storytelling acumen here comes as a most welcome surprise. Haven always held a trump card with its female lead, and seeing Rose sink her teeth into worthwhile material justifies the long wait. For the first time, she doesn seem to be operating in a vacuum; there an actual show behind her instead of a few vaguely formed concepts. It all should have happened a lot sooner than now, but better late than never. So comparing every tv show to this show or that show when there is no connection whatsoever is pointless. Especially in a review.
Wish I could delete the spam myself.
DaForce, I'm really glad I stuck with the show after the finale. I've been watching it based on the strength of the characters, but that episode just pulled it all together. Maybe Rob's right, and it was the director who made it happen.
And I agree about Lost. I did enjoy it until the end, because I felt I was watching a genre show, with genre mysteries which had genre explanations. They tossed out a pile of genre lincoln logs and never bothered to construct them into anything cohesive. And showing what happens to characters in "heaven" or wherever is not legitimate series wrap up. Lost is not the compass point genre shows should be following.
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