Tag: scifi channel

  • ‘Charlie Jade’ recap: ‘Ouroboros’

    Charlie told me once, everybody breaks. But he never did. Not once. – Karl Lubinsky

    And so the story of Charlie Jade, a story one half-hour in the future, comes to a close. A bittersweet ending for sure – there was a lot of story left to tell – but a satisfying end to twenty hours of mystery and intrigue. But before we get started breaking it down, I’m going to suggest you go back and watch it again. Trust me when I tell you: even if you think you followed the episode, you didn’t. In fact, if you think you got it the first time through, you *really* didn’t. Go watch again. I’ll wait.

    There you go. Now, you should be ready for this discussion. At least I hope it all made more sense the second time through. If not, you may want to try out the episode commentary at Charliejade.net. In particular, did you notice at the halfway mark that time was bent back on itself? Every moment with Charlie takes place after he’s entered linkspace, trying to remember what it is he is supposed to do. Scenes without Charlie occur before that, in the reference frame of the other players.

    Let’s dig in.

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  • ‘Charlie Jade’ recap: “Flesh”

    Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. – Matthew 26:41

    It’s all over, right? Charlie’s come back to Jasmine – and just as quickly realized he belongs in Beta – 01’s out of jail, and Essa’s in shackles. Everything is right with the verses. So why, I must ask, is that countdown clock still running? The Vexcor link countdown clock that 01 now controls.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Bedtime Story”

    Forget it, Jade. It’s Cape City.

    Remember what Charlie does for a living? In case it’s been so long that it’s slipped your mind, this week’s episode should refresh your memory.

    Back in his own bed and his own universe, lying beside Jasmine, Charlie finds himself unable to sleep. He’s anxious and confused and guilty, wondering what to do to save Beta. The water doesn’t even taste right to him, but spirits do the trick. Both in his glass, and haunting his memory. Blues comes to him in the night and tells Charlie he can go back to being the man he was, but Charlie’s not so sure. So he tells her a story.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Spin”

    Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. – Nehemiah 9:2

    Remember when we thought 01 Boxer was the epitome of evil?

    Sure, 01 is a crazy bastard and has killed more than his share of people, but if we’ve learned one thing over the last two months it is this: 01 kills to save the multiverse. He kills to save billions. He kills to protect a way of life and peace and harmony with nature.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “The Shortening of the Way”

    How do you sneeze? You just let yourself. Maybe your head hurts because you don’t like seeing the invisible people. Like, it doesn’t ‘hurt to breathe, but f you hold your breath you’re going to get a headache and then you just have to breathe anyway. So just let it happen. – Jedi Jody

    W00t! That’s right m’nerds. Charlie Jade can travel. Just like his brother in arms, 01 Boxer, you just add water and he and his sea monkeys go all fizzy and take off to parts unknown.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Things Unseen”

    “You know how once in awhile you’re stuck in traffic and all of a sudden you remember a dream you’d forgotten, but for a moment you aren’t quite sure if it was a dream at all?” – Blues Paddock

    In this slower moving, contemplative episode, it might not seem much really happened. After the fireworks of the last three weeks, this week is something of a pause, an interstitial between what we know and what’s coming. With a smooth, jazz-inflected soundtrack and many quiet moments between Charlie and Blues and between Sew Sew and Jasmine, this is the perfect chance to catch your breath and catch up.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “The Enemy of my Enemy”

    But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. – Exodus 23:22

    After last week’s S&M lovefest between Charlie and 01, it was time to bring together Charlie and Reena. Here we are in episode 14, and the only interaction these two have had is a few seconds during the link explosion and one foot chase through Cape Town way back in episode 2, “Sand”. Reena’s been off on her own, being poked, prodded, shocked, beaten, and abused by everyone in Betaverse, but she’s been doing it on her own. Tonight, a first attempt is made to bring her into the fold.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Through a Mirror Darkly”

    Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. – 1 Corinthians 13:12

    Alright. So last week was a bit of a feint. 01 didn’t give Charlie 12 reasons not to kill him. But he gave him one. One, excellent reason summed up by Karl: “01 Boxer, that sick bastard, has done more to hurt Vexcor than either one of us.”

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  • EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Charlie Jade’s Michael Filipowich

    01boxer01

    Sometimes cool stuff happens when you’re not even looking for it. Like how Mike and Jason were looking for writers to expand the roster here on Pop Critics just a couple weeks before one of my favorite shows was premiering. And how even though Sci Fi saw fit to bury Charlie Jade after two episodes, we’ve managed to keep a nice little group of fans coming back each week to talk about the show.

    A couple weeks back, Mike forwarded me an email he’d gotten from someone who’d worked on the show and wanted to thank us for taking an interest in it: Michael Filipowich.

    We weren’t actively looking for another interview, but if we had been, he would have been top of my list. His take on 01 Boxer is…well…crazy. But after exchanging a series of emails with him, I’ll tell you this is about the most carefully crafted, well-planned crazy I’ve seen in a long time. He knew exactly what 01 was doing, why he was doing it, and what his endgame was. He took a character who had initially been written as a one-dimensional psycho and fleshed him out into the crazy, funny, scary dimension hopper we know and love.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Choosing Sides”

    Well I may have killed a few people, I may have even enjoyed it. But you want to walk away from 10 billion people. And they’re all going to die without your help. Which one of us is a psychopath? – 01 Boxer

    Remember a few weeks ago when Charlie and 01 got a minute or two together on screen and it sparkled? What do you think about an entire act of the two together?

    I had a chance to interview Michael Filipowich a couple weeks back; we’ll be posting that Wednesday morning. In that interview I found out just how lucky we all are the writing chores changed hands. The first guys…well, here’s Filipowich:

    They were always worried about putting Jeff and I together…I swear they said this – “we don’t want to blow our load too early.”

    Yikes. Fortunately, tonight we got an episode designed to bring them together.

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