Countdown Thoughts, Part 2
Kudos to Jensen Ackles and the whole Countdown cast for a fantastic first season. The actors made the characters nuanced and dimensional. We came to care about all of them and their problems at work and at home.
At the same time, the team saved the world (or at least L.A.) from a nuclear strike, and then came back together for another challenging case with a murderous psycho. Lots of action, high stakes, and plenty of plot twists kept me interested and looking forward to the next episode.
Thirteen episodes seems short for a season, but I know that’s the trend. I understand the logic in ending the big main case before the end of the season so that fans clamor for a renewal. I would feel better if the show had already been picked up for Season Two before leaving us hanging. Since the next season isn’t already booked, even if it gets green lit there’s no telling how long the delay will be, during which viewers lose urgency and the connection to the story and characters fades.
I’ve read the articles interviewing Jensen and the showrunner on their hopes for a second season, and it sounds very good—here’s hoping that they get the chance.
A few other observations, for what it’s worth:
The dichotomy between how brilliant, focused and tightly controlled Shepherd is and her loose cannon sister, Molly, is fascinating. There’s got to be a compelling family dynamics backstory to explain how two sisters learned to overcompensate in such very different ways. I hope Molly gets a chance to turn things around. There’s a lot of pain beneath the wild child exterior, just like with Shepherd, still waters run deep.
They have done a great job in making Todd easy to hate. (Never hurt the dog!) I’m certainly hoping that Oliveras doesn’t get killed, and trying to envision how Season Two might play out even with a near-fatal injury. (Who am I kidding? We know how it will play. Meachum will go vengeful Dean Winchester on Todd’s ass, straight outta hell. Which leaves the rest of the team playing catch-up.)
Eric Dane has done a great job as Blythe, being the center that holds the team together. We know the actor is facing health challenges, and I didn’t think he looked well toward the end of the season. Blythe also challenges Meachum to consider being a team leader, blowing apart his self-deprecating excuses, and setting up a way for the team to go on if Blythe doesn’t return.
Jensen does a great job playing bad ass characters who have a lot of self-doubt beneath the machismo, both in Meachum and in Dean Winchester, and we see that again here. Meachum has come a long way from being resigned to his fate at the beginning of the season to getting treatment and considering options for a future he had been uncertain he would ever see. Jensen brings tremendous vulnerability to the role, something he is very good at.
Which brings me to my only real negative—the will they/won’t they drama between Oliveras and Meachum. I will admit, the ‘can’t make up my mind/can’t commit’ romantic tension trope along with love triangles are my two least favorite plot devices. I’m past the point in my life where I have patience for that, especially for two people in a dangerous profession for whom every day at work could be their last.
They’ve already cheated fate with Meachum’s successful surgery. He’s willing to be all in, even though he played that off as less serious for self-defense in the confrontation in the final episode (watch his face as he walks away—his expression says it all). Meachum was spot-on about the doctor being a nice, safe guy but someone who could never understand Oliveras’s life and challenges the way Meachum could. The chemistry is definitely there. Kudos to Jensen for the way he does such a brilliant job with body language and facial expressions.
So what is Oliveras afraid of? We don’t have enough backstory to know, which makes it seem contrived. Maybe the doctor is also safe because she isn’t as attracted to him as she is to Meachum, making the stakes lower emotionally (as well as professionally) if it doesn’t work out. The showrunner mentioned something about Oliveras knowing Meachum’s ex-fiancé, but I had totally missed that watching the show so it didn’t register as a reason for her to be cautious. Which means I’m starting to wonder if she’s really that good of a fit for Meachum if she doesn’t have the backbone to make a choice. He deserves better—and I hope she survives and gets her head straight.
I enjoyed Countdown, even though as I admitted before, I’m really in it for Jensen. He seems to be enjoying the role, so I hope that we get a second season and a chance to wrap up loose ends. Fingers crossed!
Bestselling author Gail Z. Martin writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy, and near-future post-apocalyptic adventure for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, Falstaff Press and SOL Publishing, with more than 40 books published. As Morgan Brice, she writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance for Darkwind Press, with five current series in print. All of her modern-day series as Gail and Morgan are full of ghosts, monsters and things that go bump in the night – settings where Sam and Dean could show up and feel right at home!
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