I’m cutting right to the chase — FOX has an opportunity to completely change the game (or blow the hatch) based on how they ended the two episodes tonight. How Ilsa handles her “first kill” could make or break Human Target. Since we probably won’t get our way with her just leaving the business in the capable hands of Chance and Winston, they could at least throw us a bone and give us the spunky Ilsa from several episodes ago, one with some grit and perhaps some understanding about why the men think the end justifies the means.
FOX made a good call by bringing back Maria (not a one of you can say you didn’t love the shoot-out in the bar). It reminded us all of the awesomeness of season one’s “Salvage and Reclamation” but managed to weave in Ilsa as a stand-in in the second episode. And reminding us of Chance’s fear of spiders brought back the Indiana Jones snakes comparison … so much fun. You had to love that Ilsa had no fear of the spider and just flicked it at Chance.
The revenge of Hector Lopez was also a pretty awesome plotline to follow, and it was interesting to see Chance on the other end of a manhunt.
The best part — Chance is batshit crazy again and there’s nothing but good there. Seeing him so tame at the beginning of season two was such a buzzkill. I knew when Chance opened the plane’s hatch so they couldn’t go back to San Francisco that we were onto something great. In fact, the show has upped the firepower across the board (giving Winston his beloved rocket launcher … with Hebrew directions) and has our crack team of thugs (as Ilsa put it) actually hitting their intended targets once again, but without it being gratuitous violence.
A few other gems:
I admit it’s a different show, but it’s possible I’m starting to fall for it. Lots of guns, lots of action, lots of my trio and crazy Chance (if not superhuman….) — that can’t be too bad, right?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jan 06, 2011 @ 08:16 EST5EDT
I’m terribly disappointed in the new, unrealistic and slapstick character the show is becoming. Majority of last night’s episode had totally not real events that just would not have happened under normal situations, by professionals in the same circumstances. The petty arguments, or not knowing how to shoot a missile launcher that has been part of their arsenal from the being, or leaving the missile launcher behind, or having a thug, unhurt, show up in the apartment of Ilsa, in a very short time, with a bracelet that fell down a cliff, or Chance and Winston acting stupid and unprofessional. The series started off with great episodes, but has deteriorated rapidly bad acting and adding unnecessary comedy that really isn’t funny, only makes them out to be stupid. Sorry, I may stop watching the show if it doesn’t improve.
best part of both eps…Ilsa get the shit kicked out of her. worse part of both eps. Ilsa not getting killed…..
we need to ladies to just die or go away….
Quoting…
“Majority of last night’s episode had totally not real events that just would not have happened under normal situations, by professionals in the same circumstances.”
Seems to me one of the first episodes I saw last season had Chance popping a parachute out of the back of an out-of-control highspeed rail train to get off of it before it crashed. Yep! that certainly seemed like a real event!
This show is over-the-top acton/adventure, not a by the book procedural. Check your brain at the beginning and just enjoy.
*POST AUTHOR*
I thought of saying the same thing to Geza — the best part is that the show is unrealistic and it always has been. In fact, the beginning of the second season was the most realistic and it’s so nice to see crazy, superhuman Chance back.
Perhaps Geza’s use of English isn’t the best here, but I thought his/her main complaint was that realistically, for Human Target‘s world, skilled and seasoned professionals such as Chance, Winston, and Guerrero would not make those sort of stupid and unprofessional mistakes. The lack of realism has been present from the beginning so that Chance could be superhuman and pull off those incredibly unlikely or impossible moves to win against overwhelming odds, but it also had an internal consistency within its own universe so that you could enjoy it without having to turn off your brain, as long as you were on board with the initial premise. If that has changed so that things happen one way one week and another the next at the whim of the writer, or a thug indeed retrieved a bracelet thrown from a cliff than teleported into Ilsa’s place, I would consider that a valid reason for complaint.
I read that Ames stripped down again this week. As a male, I would normally find that a reason to watch, but it seems so tonally wrong for what this show used to be that I fear I would feel insulted and pandered to, rather than titillated. Plus, I thought they added the two female characters to increase female viewers, not drive them away. Apparently Mark Valley has not been shirtless or oiled up enough this season to balance the scales. They could certainly take a page from The Middleman with regard to equal-opportunity eye candy.
Debbie, I’m torn. After catching the embarrassing preview for the Christmas episode during another FOX show, I almost deleted Human Target completely. Now, after reading this review, I’m back to undecided once more, especially since Winston and Guerrero remembered that they used to have a relationship. Remember The Phantom Edit of The Phantom Menace that removed Jar Jar Binks? If someone could do the same with Ilsa and Ames, perhaps I could enjoy that version.
Oh, and glad to hear that Tony Hale played a serious character for once. When I wrote those lines before, I was only quoting Matt Miller, so it was his misrepresentation, not mine.
I’m a little concerned that running two episodes last night and next week is burning them off for a hiatus or outright cancellation.
Don’t worry (yet) — they’re burning them off to make way for American Idol.
I don’t understand why FOX has scheduled three episodes to follow American Idol, though. It seems a waste of a massive lead-in that they could have used for premiering The Chicago Code early, or rerunning the first six episodes of Raising Hope, a show which repeats well, and has a real chance of succeeding next season.
At least we got a good first season. Perhaps it is better to think of HT as having already been cancelled, a la Firefly or Terriers?
I loved last night’s eps! I haven’t really enjoyed the women so far this season, but I think after this week there is a good chance for Ilsa at least to evolve into a character I could enjoy. Last night felt more like season 1, as far as the overall tone of the show.
I am hopeful that the rest of the season will get better from here, but even if those women stay annoying, I will stick with it, because Chance, Winston and Guerrero are my favorite group of wackos on tv.