Have you ever really anticipated reading a new book, seeing a TV show or watching a movie only to have it not live up to your expectations. As a writer, it’s really frustrating when a good story concept doesn’t achieve it’s potential. I felt that way recently after watching the British TV show Hex. Evidently when it first aired, it was billed at the British Buffy, and I can see the influences. But while I enjoyed some of the characters and watched both seasons (it was canceled after the second), it never had the spark and genius of Buffy. And I really wanted it to, at least to come close.
Azazel, Cassie and Thelma from Hex
The Hex storyline is that Azazeal (played by Michael Fassbender, who is Stelios in the movie 300) is the leader of the Nephilim, the fallen angels who have been around since the beginning of time. He’s been trying for 500 years to have a son with a mortal woman, and he’s found his latest lady in Cassie Hughes, a pretty blonde who goes to a boarding school in the English countryside. Okay, so we’ve got our Angel and Buffy characters there — young little blonde who attracts the been-around-for-hundreds-of-years bad boy from the dark side, someone who should be her natural enemy. Only she can’t resist him. But I believed Buffy fell for Angel. Heck, I fell for Angel. But I never believed Cassie felt anything other than some lust for Azazeal. The “relationship” happened too fast, and it didn’t have those touches like the guy who is technically evil wanting to be good and love the girl. When Azazeal says he cares for Cassie, I don’t believe him because the writers didn’t make me believe him.
Willow, Oz, Giles, Cordelia, Xander, Buffy, Spike, Angel and Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Like on Buffy, there’s a cast of secondary characters on Hex. Roxanne is the snobby rich girl who gets what she wants but who eventually turns into a good person (Cordelia, anyone?). There’s Leon, the kind of goofy guy who eventually grows into his own as a hero (shades of Xander) even though he’s never going to be as strong as the girl he admires (Ella Dee) because she was born to serve a greater purpose and has superpowers. And never fear, there’s a character who’ll remind you of Willow, even though Thelma isn’t a witch (that’s actually Cassie, though we see little of this). Thelma is killed early on by Azazeal, but she’s still around as a ghost who like the fact that she can eat all the junk she wants out of the snack machine and not gain wait. Thelma is the best character because she’s really funny. Oh, and while Willow eventually discovered she was a lesbian, Thelma is from the very beginning of the series.
Honestly, the story concept was intriguing, and the characters would have made for an interesting story progression. I don’t fault the actors for the show not living up to the potential it had. I lay that blame at the writers’ feet. They didn’t seem to dig deeply or fully flesh out the characters so that they were three-dimensional and we cared about them. They made some decisions that had me scratching my head. For instance, Cassie was supposed to be the lead, but she dies something like 6 or 7 episodes in, never to be seen again. Azazeal, the male lead, says adios partway into season 2 based on the reason that powers higher than him have said he must vacate his and Cassie’s son’s life. We shift in season 2 to focus on the battle between Ella Dee, the last of the Chosen Ones (shades of Buffy again) and Malachi, the child of Azazeal and Cassie (who grew up in a very short amount of time) who is supposed to bring about the End of Days. Even though there’s a sweet love story between Ella and Leon, Ella feels some temptation toward Malachi because he’s dangerous and forbidden because she’s sworn to kill him and is in some respects like her (Buffy and Spike, per chance?).
All this said, I was interested enough in the show to watch until the end. I wanted to know what would happen next and if the writing would get better as it did after the first season of Buffy. It did get better, though not enough to save the show. Had it gone on to a third season, I would have continued watching just because I was curious how the story would end and the fact that Thelma was really funny. But it could have been better had it lived up to its potential.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Maybe the writers didn’t expect the serie to last so they crammed too much too soon, instead of allowing the bigger storyline to develop.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Possibly, but it seems odd that they’d go into a series with that fatalistic attitude, especially when they were hoping to capture the Buffy audience. Oh, well, who knows.