Helix - Single Strand [TV Series]

I usually do no revisit series in the middle of their run, but damn it this time I am compelled too. I have to vent my frustration and anger at this series. I have been following Helix, and I'm not really sure why. No show before has been built more upon the ideal of using every TV Trope in existence... cliche-ville here we come! 

Frozen monkeys were actually kinda creepy and cool!

I'll start with the last scene that was truly good. The Frozen Monkey scene.This happened in either episode one or two, I'm not sure those two were jammed into one showing.

Episode three, titled 274, was kind of a boring episode. It really did not do much for the series, it was slow and really just a set up for future problems.

Oh, before I go any further, let me just say right now that I will be spoiling a lot from Helix. I do not care enough about the story to not spoil things. In fact the last episode pissed me off enough that I want to spoil things. You have been warned.

Let's rate this series so far. Here's my ratings for the first episode: Helix Premiere. It has not gone up... it has gone in the opposite direction. By the end of the season, I'm hoping it has not dropped below a single star.

2 out of 5 stars

I'm evil, I know. I telegraphed that.

Episode three, 274, was an excuse to divide the cast and add in a few more 'characters.' A test to detect infection was developed and implemented. The research station has a giant basement. This is convenient. Surprisingly, they implement the test and then divide the station's personnel into the infected and uninfected groups and exile the infected below with the 'Vectors.'

As an aside, Vectors are the infected who are vomiting black goo into other people to infect them as well...

I'm trapped, and it was a mistake! How unpredictable! Or not.

Wait for it...

The test was a failure, it was unable to determine who was actually infected or not. We know this by the end of episode three, but of course the head CDC guy, Dr. Alan Farragut, will not be informed until the end of episode four, when its all way to late. The cause of this: conveniently timed phone outage.

That is no where near the worst event in this farcical plot that I was witness too.

Hard to tell that the scar is indented, like a cut. Make-up!

At the end of 274, we see that Dr. Sarah Jordan (the young female doctor) has a sketchy background. She has been twitchy and shaky through the whole episode - maybe she's been infected? Maybe she is working for the bad guys and her conscience is acting up?

No.

Hey, wanna go to a rave?

She has cancer. Which of course you'd never tell your boss, because that in no way would compromise you or endanger the mission, nor would the CDC have pre-deployment health checks or requirements before going off on dangerous missions... nothing like that at all, ever...
In this case it appears as if the show is attempting to avoid typical plot contrivances by using another typical plot contrivance. Oh, and she of course dumps her cancer meds down the sink by complete accident when someone pounds on her door. Totally not cliche (sarcasm).

But it does not stop there. In 274 the military guy blew up the satellite dish, cutting the research station off from any outside and, somehow, a significant chunk of internal communication (thus the conveniently dropped phone call). How unexpected! So unexpected that TV Tropes already has episode 274 listed for this... thanks Tv Tropes!

Do not get me started on how often people in this show cover up important information, especially from those who can help. Or act in obscenely selfish ways. I know people are not always selfless, but there comes a point when the utter level of over-the-top self-centered obsession becomes unbelievable too. Really unbeleiveable.

You know what also pissed me off about episode four, Single Strand? A lot.
They kill off the best character in the show. The only person who was not completely stupid. She had her moments where she hid stuff for the military dude. But she does this in order to get more information out of him. It's not completely stupid. She was brash, straight forward, did what she needed to do. A character that one actually came to like in the show. Now it appears that she is really dead and being eaten by rats... but if she comes back, then that is yet another 'damn you to hell show' moment. Either kill off a character and let us bemoan that, but damn you if you kill and resurrect. Damn you. And I know you will.

Well, I lie. I rather like Hatake, the villain. He's Japanese, and blunt. Also, he is 'mutated' or something... the Vectors do not bother him, they do not attack him. He's the big bad-ass of the show, so there is that. Hopefully he will not descend like other characters have.

I have saved the bulk of my rage for this last little gem.
Let us recall Julia, the ex-wife of Alan Farragut, the lady who slept repeatedly with his brother (the Vector). Well she's been exiled in the basement because her test came out positive (even thought, remember, the test does not work). She appears uninfected despite the fact that Alan's brother appeared to infect her previously. That's all mildly irritating. It has nothing on what is waiting ahead.

Julia is being chased by a Vector in the basement, and comes across a lady in a gas mask, several layers of clothes, and a scarf (scarves are good). All well and good. They snap the vectors arm and black goo comes out. Fine. Then they search for food, they find some. Julia thanks the new girl for her knowledge of the facility... that's all well and good.

Right up to the point where the new girl suddenly finds writing scratched into the wall behind something. It's the initials JSW... Julia's initials. It's how she wrote her name when she was age six... complete with flowery flourishes. Thus the most awful reveal in the show to date comes rushing full bore onto the screen and into your face: Surprise! Da-da-dum! She's been here before when she was a child! Cue the dramatic music.

Go right to hell, show.

Dead. Contrived. Evil?