Okay. So. Let's see. Hmm. How else can I stall writing this? (Yeah, I know. Story of my life.) I can't stall anymore? Fine. First things first, scores out of ten for each episode:
1.5x01 - Paradigm - James Jordan - 6.0
1.5x02 - Traffic - Jordan - 7.0
1.5x03 - First Sight - Lee A. Chrimes - 7.5
1.5x04 - Through A Glass, Darkly - Dino Leone - 8.0
1.5x05 - House of Kolchak - Chrimes, Chris Haigh, Jordan, Angelo Shrine - 7.5
1.5x06 - Progeny - Jordan - 7.0
1.5x07 - Prodigy - Jordan - 6.5
1.5x08 - The Afflicted - Haigh - 5.0
1.5x09 - Trinity - Alden C. Caele - 7.0
1.5x10 - What Is Lost - Jordan - 6.0
Season 1.5 Average: 6.75
I'm probably one of the more negative reviewers out there (here, I sense showrunner James Jordan is firing up the Gee-Ya-Think-Inator), so on a whole, that isn't a bad final mark. Really.
For all the mythologising of the episode as one of the Greatest VS Scripts Ever In The History Of VS Ever!!1!1!, I was pretty underwhelmed by House of Kolchak. To me, at least, there just didn't appear to be anything too special about it, beyond the episode structure. Sure, the stories were told well, and the structure was a departure from the usual, but... it just doesn't live up to the hype, in my opinion.
JJ and I had a discussion at the show's forum after I reviewed the first episode, in which the basic conclusion was that I'm the sort of guy who's probably not going to enjoy the episodes dealing with the ongoing story arcs as much as the standalone episodes, and... yeah, that seems about right. Four of the five lowest-scoring episodes this season were the four mytharc episodes. The irony, of course, is that the lowest scoring episode of all ten wasn't.
So, why did that episode (The Afflicted) score so low? I think the combination of it being a fairly stock-standard vampire story, and the fact that it was even more abundantly clear than usual that none of our lead characters were actually going to be harmed by Marissa sort of made it drag along. I did sort of like the basic idea of using the AIDS virus in such a disturbing manner, though -- it's the same sort of shock tactics that resulted in the success of the Grim Reaper advertising campaign, and it works. Not as well as that campaign, mind you, but it does decently enough to stop the episode from being a complete shemozzle.
One of the biggest problems this season had, in addition to having to clearly be in keeping with the format of the original cancelled TV series (and, by extension, having to explain and continue the mytharc of a show pretty much nobody watched), is that many of the episodes were treading in territory The X-Files had already cocked a leg over. If it was just a couple of episodes, I'd be more forgiving -- especially given that the shows are interconnected in their development -- but most if not all of the episodes felt like they were regurgitating plot points from somewhere during the run. Looking ahead, the show has really got to move away from The X-Files in its second season in order to stand on its own two feet the way it should.
As a whole, though, it's a decent season with a fair but recoupable amount of wasted potential. Let's hope Season 2 is better.
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