Monsters of Television

“I can operate a motor vehicle. I am perfectly capable of operating a JJ.”

The team-ups continue.

Jim and Steph spend their anniversary tracking down a super-powered arsonist while JJ and Daphne have to get out of a few sticky situations reminiscent of the shenanigans the Seaver kids used to get into. The important thing to take away from this, once again, is teamwork. Dynamic Duo plus Dynamic Duo equals Fantastic Four. Steph’s involvement in this episode’s crime fighting is a significant move in that direction.

So Jim (and apparently his clothing as well) is flame retardant. Good thing since this week’s villain is a fire starter. The obvious bad guy (whom I shall henceforth refer to as “Pyro” for many obvious reasons) who started the fire looks a little…off when first we meet him. Kind of reminded me of the guy from the Fringe episode “The Plateau”.

Steph finally got a piece of the action this week. She reached a new understanding for part of why Jim does what he does: the adrenaline rush. Steph is no Flash, but she managed to hold her won against Pyro. Even still, there were some problems with the fight. A nerdy science rant follows:

I know I’m arguing over physics in a super hero show but still. Doesn’t matter how fast Steph is, it’s the proximity to the heat that would do her in. No mater how well she Matrix dodges Pyro’s attacks, she’d still get burned. Also, when Pyro goes flame on, why don’t his clothes burn off? Are his clothes made of the same material as the Fantastic Four’s and therefore capable of taking on the characteristics of his powers? End nerd rant.

Digression aside, it was great to Steph fight. As I said before (both in this and previous reviews) it’s all building toward a climactic good vs. evil battle. Hopefully Steph will gain some more speed based powers to aid in the fray.

Of course Evil Camden is the one who gave Pyro his powers. We still don’t know what his Evil Camden plans are, but we know that he’s created some sort of serum that gives people (Watcher, Pyro, probably others) their powers. Recently fired (oh god, fire jokes) Francis seems privy to this information now as well.

JJ and Daphne used their powers for less heroic means. JJ held a poker game at his house for the school bullies so he could genius them out of their money and buy a new computer. That’s what I’m talking about, a teenager using his powers for teenage means. One of JJ’s hooligan guests breaks a marble sculpture Jim made for Steph and so JJ and have to break into their school, bribe the night guard using JJ’s poker winnings, and repair the sculpture all before mom and dad get home! Yikes!

The synergy of family drama (tomfoolery) and superhero action was once again fantastic (a word I’m beginning to loath. Save me, Thesaurus Man!). Hopefully the numbers increase the show saw last night will continue.

Interesting meta tidbit: It’s always fun to see how the real life situations of actors (firings, pregnancies, etc) affect a show. Last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Autumn Reeser announced she’s pregnant. How will this affect the show? Will they hide her growing belly? Will they incorporate her pregnancy into the show? I’m hoping for the latter. Maybe watcher will give her his super sperm and she’ll be carrying an evil super baby. Or something like that. It’s a superhero property, that shit happens all the time.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

• God. The level of “fire” related jokes in this episode is awful. Like Fantastic Four levels of awful.

• This whole episode is just about how badass Jim is. Fire? Don’t care. Repelled! Marble? Fuck you. I mold you with my bare hands.

• That hostess was a bitch.