Invisible Man watch/rewatch - 1x01 Pilot

[sholio]

Welcome to the Invisible Man watch/rewatch! If you'd like to join in, Hulu has the entire show for free. There are also a number of full-length episodes on Youtube (search "Invisible Man 2000" or "Invisible Man tv"). You are welcome to join the discussion at any point, whether or not you're watching episodes with us.

Because some people are watching it for the first time, spoilers for future episodes or plot developments (anything in advance of the episode we're discussing) should be hidden. For spoilers, please use your choice of the following:

• rot13 (copy-paste text into the cypher window to code or unencode it)
• LJ spoiler cut: <lj-spoiler>spoiler text</lj-spoiler> -- does not work on DW
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Otherwise, anything's cool except for bashing other people's character/pairing preferences (but I don't think anyone would do that anyway). Critical discussion and squee are equally welcome.

LET'S GO!

Invisible Man 1x01 - Pilot


Not having watched the pilot in a long while, I felt they did a really good job of making it feel like a movie. They mostly avoided that TV-pilot thing where the character introductions/interactions feel forced -- at least, I thought so. We had plenty of time to get to know Darien as the plot unfolded.

And Darien is very charming. Well. Actually adorable.



But he's also a total fuckup, and I'm glad the episode, and the show in general, doesn't pull punches with the extent to which he's messed up his life. He's a good person, he's brave, he's smart, and he throws his freedom away because he can't walk away and leave someone to die. But he's really, really not living up to his potential. Like he says in this episode, he likes being a thief (and one thing I get a kick out of with Darien is that he's not a particular brilliant thief; he's just a run-of-the-mill thief and petty criminal). At the end of the episode, he is very nearly friendless -- the handful of people who care about him are all either dead or thoroughly alienated due to his actions -- and he is, in essence, a slave of the government. Darien's life sucks, and some of it was out of his control, but a lot of it is just down to bad choices on his part.

It's hard for me to talk about this show without talking about White Collar, due to the similarity of the premise: con man/thief ends up working for the government to win his freedom. (Plus I've had my head buried in White Collar for the last three years, so that's where my brain goes.) Darien's version of government work-release, however, is far darker than Neal's. He doesn't have a "Peter" -- someone above him, pulling strings for him, that he likes, who likes him and is at least partly on his side. No one is really on Darien's side. Even his brother hides the true nature of the experiment from him, and doesn't warn him about side effects. His handlers are interested in him mainly for what he can do for them.

And for Darien, there's not a clear-cut way out of his predicament, unlike Neal who just has to tough it out for four years and he'll be free. Darien faces the possibility of being owned by the government for the rest of his life, not to mention entirely dependent upon them for a steady supply of the drug he needs to keep himself sane.

... which brings me to the Quicksilver Madness part of Darien's "condition", which is something I'm not quite sure how I feel about. In general the way the show handles mental illness is .... very, very mixed. On the one hand, there are a number of baddies throughout the episodes I've watched who are explicitly referred to as crazy, and there's Darien's "madness" = evil as a recurring theme. On the other hand, there's a major character who is mentally ill -- I can't remember the exact nature of it, it's either bipolar disorder or some form of psychosis, who is on meds and therapy and it's just kind of there, it's a recurring aspect of his character that, while it impacts his life in negative ways, never, ever results in him becoming deranged or violent. This is actually one of the only shows I can think of with a major character who has a mental illness they take medication to control. (Well, two of them I guess, if you count Darien.) But then you have Darien being constantly one step away from becoming a classic cliche "psycho" cliche and killing people. Like I said, I don't know how I feel about this. I am wide open to people's thoughts on it.

Other things I could really have done without: Darien spying on the couple having sex, and his attempted rape while under the influence of Quicksilver. On the bright side, subsequent episodes (at least those I've watched so far) have mostly done away with Darien's creepy-invisible-stalkerness and his rapiness when affected by Quicksilver. (Mostly. Not entirely. But there's nothing so far, in the episodes I've watched, that is either as unpleasant or as gratuitous as those two scenes.) I really wish they had made other writing choices in the pilot.

I haven't talked about Darien and Kevin yet! How did people react to Kevin's death? I remembered that he'd died, of course, but I didn't remember that there was so much interaction between him and Darien beforehand. Despite being somewhat estranged, they were really fun together, a lot cuter than I remembered, and it was sad to lose him.

And then there's Arnaud:



Who is creepy and awful, but entertaining. ("Little prick!")

There are a ton of little things I really enjoyed in this episode, beyond the bigger-picture stuff which I mainly liked too (aside from the above issues) and am now going to throw at you in no particular order. The (nameless) Agency having no funding and getting shuffled into the Department of Fish & Game! The "wrong" spy getting flustered when he presents his ticket half to Darien for identification and it doesn't match. (In general I absolutely love how this show handles spy stuff -- it's such a fascinating blend of playing it straight and poking tongue-in-cheek fun at the spy genre cliches.) Darien's giddy delight as he explores his new powers. Eddie the Mammoth and his black market organs! Canadian terrorists! Arnaud's rather sweet and sympathetic brother. Casey not being a damsel in distress, but giving medical assistance and helping rescue Darien. Darien's "Don't move or the gland gets it!" and his fakeout with his head getting "blown off".

This:



Fun episode. Fun show. I'm glad to find that I still like it as much as I hoped I would.

Tell me your thoughts!

Also, for the next episode, shall we try two episodes a week to start? I can put up a post for the next one, "Catavari", in the middle of the week on Wednesday or so, and then a post for 1x03 this upcoming weekend. We could also wait and do "Catavari" on the weekend if people would like more time.

Comments

[veleda_k]

I think what I mainly took away from this episode is really just a reaffirmation of what I already knew: Don't let scientists with Swiss accents perform weird medical experiments on you. It's not as bad as a scientist with a German accent, but it's still pretty bad. I did learn that this still applies even if the accent is fake.

It's really an incredibly creepy premise. At first it was less creepy than I expected it to be. After Darien demanded the gland be taken out, no one said that he'd have to go back to prison. On the other hand, was Kevin telling him the truth when he said it was necessary to wait? Arnaud said Keven was lying, but are we really going to trust Arnaud? But Kevin did experiment on Darien without Darien's knowledge. No one's looking particularly trustworthy.

But any idea that this might be less than completely creepy and coercive went out the window at the end. Darien has to work for them or completely lose his mind.

And speaking of that. I almost totally overlooked the quicksilver madness from a perspective of representation of mental illness, because it's so fantastical. I can't think of a single disorder that works any way like that. Which is kind of the problem. It's generic "violent psycho" problem. (Although the fact that it's apparently id driven says some unfortunate things about Darien.) I don't know. At this point I'm not particularly bothered, but we'll see how it goes.

There's a lot of dark humor, though the humor really got going once the spy shenanigans began. (Canadian terrorists!) I wasn't expecting this show to be so funny, so I liked that. Like when Darien points out that Arnaud killed his brother. "So what? I'll kill mine we'll be even." Also Arnaud's soldiers being super serious while carrying fire extinguishers. (Or maybe it was just me who found that funny.) Oh, and definitely the agency getting merged with Fish and Game.

But even though you mentioned it was dark, I still wasn't expecting all that death. Kevin's death genuinely surprised me. And it really does even more to isolate Darien

I do, however, kind of consider it miracle I got to the halfway point of the episode. What freaks me out? Bugs of all kinds. What freaks me out? Needles. What freaks me out? Gore. So, for a show to present spiders, injections, and graphic surgery one right after the other was pretty rough.

I do wish there had been less rape.

Overall I liked it! I'm definitely going to continue. And posting twice a week works for me.

[sholio]

.... oh god. The needles. I hadn't thought to warn people with a needle squick about this show. Because yes, it's ... not good for that. I'm impressed you managed to stick it out! (Needles will continue to be a thing, I'm afraid.)

At first it was less creepy than I expected it to be. After Darien demanded the gland be taken out, no one said that he'd have to go back to prison. On the other hand, was Kevin telling him the truth when he said it was necessary to wait? Arnaud said Keven was lying, but are we really going to trust Arnaud? But Kevin did experiment on Darien without Darien's knowledge. No one's looking particularly trustworthy.

I seem to recall that later episodes imply, or possibly state outright, that he was pardoned in return for undergoing the experiment, so if they had taken the gland out, he would probably have been home free. Probably. Possibly. Given how incredibly shady the government is on this show, though ... possibly not. I could see them revoking it if he didn't cooperate.

But any idea that this might be less than completely creepy and coercive went out the window at the end. Darien has to work for them or completely lose his mind.

Yeah. Darien's situation is awful. On White Collar they semi-joked about the government owning Neal, but the government literally does own Darien, and keeps him dependent on them for regular hits of a drug he can't live without.

Not to derail the discussion too much, but I was not expecting this show to remind me so much of my psychic Neal AU in White Collar. It really, really does, though. Darien's situation is far more analogous to psychic!Neal's than I'd remembered, even right down to the experiment's side effects causing him regular pain/distress.

It's generic "violent psycho" problem.

Yeah, it is. And while it's not something that bothers me personally, I know this could be a dealbreaker for some people, or at least a major downside to the show, and I think that'd be totally fair. (Because I go for what I go for, I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of the concept of an otherwise kind character who is sometimes involuntarily driven to hurt people by circumstances beyond their control. The angst! But I get why people might have problems with it.)

Although the fact that it's apparently id driven says some unfortunate things about Darien.

I thought about this while I was watching the episode, too. I think it's more an accidental case of unfortunate implications than a statement on Darien himself, though, if that makes any sense? I mean, I could be wrong but I don't think the show is trying to imply that Darien is a latent rapist/killer. alessandriana points out in the comment below this one that Darien himself conceptualizes it as something outside himself -- that it feels like something trying to take him over, rather than something that comes from inside him. The scientist characters on the show explain it as unlocked id, but I'm not entirely sure if the way it plays out on the show actually feels that way to me. I don't know, maybe I'm just trying to justify it to myself, but it seems like it's far more akin to Darien temporarily/reversibly turning evil because of the gland, than Darien having latent evil and the gland allowing him to express it.

Like I said, though, maybe that's just me justifying things for a character I like.

And yeah, the show is funny! Actually, looking back on it, I remembered much more of the humor than the darkness, so the sheer amount of darkness in the show came as something of a surprise to me. I remembered it being (mostly) a light spy-parody show. It's really, really not! It definitely has aspects of that, but it can also be Dark with a capital "D", and the overall premise is incredibly dark -- not just the specifics of Darien's situation, but also the sheer amount of amorality that the government, in-universe, is willing to indulge in. (I am certainly not going to say the government wouldn't do things like this, given things like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment IRL, but the show does not tiptoe around the fact that the government is up to some scary creepy shit and really doesn't give a damn ...)

[veleda_k]

I seem to recall that later episodes imply, or possibly state outright, that he was pardoned in return for undergoing the experiment

That was the impression I got. And, while Kevin's behavior was super shady, what with convincing his brother to undergo an experimental medical procedure without informed consent, he did seem to want to do right by Darien, so I figure if he had lived, he would have eventually removed the gland, and that would have been it. Unfortunately, things did not go so smoothly. But, yeah, it seems Darien will be working for the government more for the counter agent, then because he'll go to prison otherwise. (So that's... worse.)

In regards to the whole "unlocked id" thing, it does occur to me that I may be assuming that the show understands Freudian terms better than it actually does.

Is there fic for this show? Because we barely got anything of Kevin before he died, but I'm really intrigued. He obviously cares deeply about his brother, but he was also willing to experiment on him. I just want Kevin's thought process.

[veleda_k]

Oops, I forgot I was going to say more.

I feel like the darkness and amorality of the government is going to both engage me even more but also repel me. Because, I think stories like this feel very true. Being honest about what absolute power does is something I value in a story. But it's always so upsetting!

(I was kind of glad White Collar did what they did in season five, with the FBI refusing to relinquish their hold on Neal. I was pissed of course, and sad for Neal, but it felt right. Perhaps I'm just very cynical.)

[alessandriana]

It's also specifically Arnaud saying that it's id-driven, which makes me think he was just saying that to cover up the fact that he'd created the gland to do specifically that.

The needles! Lord, I don't have an issue with needles in real life, but the horrible way actors pretend to use needles is a definite squick. Straight down! You're going to go completely through his arm like that! *shudder*

Needle squick, beware

[sholio]

I would like to sincerely apologize to all needle-averse people reading this particular comment subthread, but ...

Your comment about driving straight down reminds me of something I've been wondering repeatedly as I'm watching this show: how do they do injections on TV? Technically, I mean. I assume they're not injecting the actors but performing some kind of technological magic instead. Trick needles that collapse into the syringe? But you can see the level of the stuff in the syringe drop.

I'm sure there is technological trickery involved, but the exact nature of the trickery eludes me.

[veleda_k]

That's a good point about Arnaud claiming it's id-driven. Not exactly a trustworthy source.

[sholio]

It's also specifically Arnaud saying that it's id-driven, which makes me think he was just saying that to cover up the fact that he'd created the gland to do specifically that.

I'm pretty sure that [character who hasn't been introduced yet] says so also, and she is a ... well, I was going to say a trustworthy source, but perhaps not entirely -- more so than Arnaud, anyway.

Still, that's a really good point about Arnaud having been instrumental in the design, which means he could quite easily have built in the homicidal-maniac thing as an intentional design choice ... I mean, not just to keep the user under control, but also to make a raving, destructive army for himself. It seems like the sort of thing he might go for. When you're an evil scientist, why stop halfway?

[alessandriana]

I love this episode. I've watched it probably five or six times, and it's just very clever in both writing and cinematography. I'm particularly impressed by the way they manage to convey a ton of character information in very little time: the opening scene with Darien both enjoying being a thief but being unwilling to let someone die because of him; the meeting with Bobby; the scene where they show the progressing relationship between Darien and Casey; the relationship between Darien and Kevin.

When it comes to Darien's "madness" = evil thing, I'm willing to give it a pass, because it's not a mental illness. It's something that was specifically designed for the express purpose of turning the recipient of the gland into a raving homicidal maniac, and from what I remember, the series is always very careful to show that this is something that comes from outside of Darien ("someone knocking to get in"). I think the inclusion of Bobby as someone who does have an actual mental illness was designed as a deliberate counterpoint to that.

Agreed on the rapeyness being unnecessary, but I did appreciate that Darien seemed legitimately horrified that he might have raped someone while under the influence.

I'm always sad about Kevin's death. :( He was a good foil for Darien and I liked the way they genuinely cared about each other, even though they'd gone in such different life directions. (It makes me wonder what they were like as kids-- they must have been fairly close for Kevin to so clearly care about him even after Darien managed to screw up his life so completely.)

A few lines that cracked me up: "It beats hearing it over America Online!"; saying "Aw, crap" is apparently a family trait; "Yeah, but as crocks of blatant manipulation go... it's pretty good." (I kind of adore the Official as a character; he's so refreshingly up front about the fact that he's a manipulative bastard. But because he's good at picking the right manipulations, he gets away with it anyways.)

Also, I didn't pick up on this the first time I saw the show, but... GS-6! Dear lord, even back in 2000 that would have been criminally low, $26,000/yr or thereabouts; that's what an intern might start at. And if Hobbes is lower than that, maybe a GS-4 or so... that's what a high school intern would usually start at. That's not the going rate of someone who risks their life.

I'm fine with two episodes a week, although I may skip Catavari (it's the one that always bounces me out when I try to rewatch the series. Thus, the reason I've seen the first episode five or six times, and the rest of it maybe once.)

[sholio]

I'm particularly impressed by the way they manage to convey a ton of character information in very little time: the opening scene with Darien both enjoying being a thief but being unwilling to let someone die because of him; the meeting with Bobby; the scene where they show the progressing relationship between Darien and Casey; the relationship between Darien and Kevin.

I know! It's a genuinely good episode and I feel like they used their time very well to give us a good feeling for who the characters are, while still keeping the pace moving.


When it comes to Darien's "madness" = evil thing, I'm willing to give it a pass, because it's not a mental illness. It's something that was specifically designed for the express purpose of turning the recipient of the gland into a raving homicidal maniac, and from what I remember, the series is always very careful to show that this is something that comes from outside of Darien ("someone knocking to get in"). I think the inclusion of Bobby as someone who does have an actual mental illness was designed as a deliberate counterpoint to that.

Yeah, I think it doesn't really bother me because a) it's pure plot handwavium, and b) I am such an enormous sucker for that particular trope (good person is forced to do bad things! see also: Bucky) that I am going to be SUPER EASY for any implementation of it. (That said, I can completely understand if people are bothered by it, right up to the point of it being a dealbreaker for enjoying the series; I just didn't really have that reaction personally ...)

I hadn't thought about the way Darien conceptualizes it as coming from outside himself. Personally I think it's more just a case of the writers not really thinking through the implications of the id explanation + Darien's behavior when affected by Quicksilver. I think the general idea, in the show, or at least what we're supposed to be thinking, is that removing someone's conscience and inhibitions will cause them to indulge in socially unacceptable behavior because they just don't care. Which is a reasonable theory, but Quicksilver-mad Darien is just so gleeful about it. And it's so unlike him normally. Spoiler for "Tiresius": In Tiresius he'd rather shoot himself than accidentally kill someone under the influence of Quicksilver. And in general, he's absolutely horrified by, and consumed with guilt about, the things that he does when he's out of control in that particular way; it really does feel like it's not him. The thing is, I'm not sure the writers thought it through to that extent (I'm fairly sure it really is supposed to be the instinct-driven human hindbrain with the brakes off) but it's actually more consistent with what we see in the show to think that it is actually more the gland directly influencing his behavior, and the science types are either mistaken or lying about what's causing it ...

I'm always sad about Kevin's death. :( He was a good foil for Darien and I liked the way they genuinely cared about each other, even though they'd gone in such different life directions. (It makes me wonder what they were like as kids-- they must have been fairly close for Kevin to so clearly care about him even after Darien managed to screw up his life so completely.)

Knowing that Kevin died, I wasn't expecting to like him as much as I did, or to get so much enjoyment out of Darien and Kevin's interactions. They really do seem to care about each other a lot. Which makes his death all the more heartbreaking, of course ...

"It beats hearing it over America Online!"

Oh man, I keep getting hit with "wait, this was almost 15 years ago" technology-shock. The clunky cell phones! The lack of ubiquitous Internet/smart phones generally. The cars!

I may skip Catavari (it's the one that always bounces me out when I try to rewatch the series. Thus, the reason I've seen the first episode five or six times, and the rest of it maybe once.)

I didn't actually find Catavari THAT bad ... it's not great, but it didn't stand out as being significantly worse than the rest for me. (Tiresius was the one that seemed like the worst of the early season one episodes to me ...)

[highlander_ii]

Oh man, I keep getting hit with "wait, this was almost 15 years ago" technology-shock. The clunky cell phones! The lack of ubiquitous Internet/smart phones generally. The cars!

I get this too. Like when Darien tells someone to '*69 reality' and I thought 'does anyone even *use* *69 anymore?' followed by 'will anyone watching this who was born in the '90's even *know* what that is?'


re: Catevari - my 2nd-least fave ep. I tend to skip that one and Insensate.

[sholio]

"Yeah, but as crocks of blatant manipulation go... it's pretty good." (I kind of adore the Official as a character; he's so refreshingly up front about the fact that he's a manipulative bastard. But because he's good at picking the right manipulations, he gets away with it anyways.)

Oh, forgot I'd meant to comment on this part -- yes! I love how aboveboard and unapologetic he is about being a manipulative, Machiavellian asshole. He not only doesn't try to hide it, he revels in it. And he's good at it.

[veleda_k]

I'm not sure if I'm going to enjoy the official, or if I'll spend all my time seething at him. It could go either way!

[veleda_k]

You should know that I'm rewatching the episode right now. Kevin's dying. ;_;

[sholio]

Kevin, nooooooooo ;____;

[veleda_k]

HE'S NOT DEAD. HE'S ON A FARM. A SCIENCE FARM. WHERE HE CAN PLAY WITH ALL THE OTHER SCIENTISTS.

[madripoor_rose]

1: Anyone else getting Steve Rogers & Dr. Erskine vibes from the whole scene where Kevin first says the intent is a group of quicksilvered soldiers, Darien wants it out, and Kevin says he doesn't trust anyone else with it?

2: The quicksilver FX really hold up fairly well, considering the advances we've made in CGI. And really clever to tie invisibility in to the fight or flight response.

3: The assault on the compound is just brutal and beautifully cinematic. Arneau in slow motion, labcoat in the wind, with the black-clad mercs behind him....

[sholio]

1. Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that! Although it's sort of a standard sci-fi trope, the genetically engineered army ...

2. I agree about the f/x. There are certain episodes that are somewhat wince-inducing in other areas (it sometimes appears that they spent ALL their money on the quicksilvering and didn't have anything left for anything else) but the invisibility doesn't really look dated at all.

Regarding the emotional/fight-or-flight connection of the gland ... I wish they'd done more with that after this episode. It doesn't entirely go away, but it looked like it was going to be a lot more of a thing than it apparently is.

3. Yes! I really loved that entire sequence. It was really gorgeously done, especially given the fact that the show probably didn't have much budget to spend on big action scenes.

[highlander_ii]

2. pretty sure they *did* spend the entire budget (or most of it) on the QS f/x... the actors frequently wore their own clothes as wardrobe.... at least, that's what I've been told by the 'hardcore' I-Man fans I'm friends with. =)

[madripoor_rose]

Not just the genetically engineered army, but the 'you're the only one I trust with it' line....because he knows at heart his brother is a decent guy.

[ellenmillion]

(Heeeeyyy, I remembered my Dreamwidth login! It looked like all the cool kids were over here.)

I enjoyed this with caveats. First, it was a rollicking ride - there were never any truly dull moments; it was paced like an action movie. I thought it was a very brave combination of gritty and silly - it would have been REALLY easy to fall on their faces with it, but they didn't. Possibly because the lead actor was charismatic enough to pull it off? I'm not sure? The humor all felt somewhat likely. (Except that I thought they took the sexual assault charge a little too far in the opening - I mean, REALLY, he didn't explain the heart attack and CPR, and there was NO medical way to prove it?)

I loved the mistaken agent, and the cameo of the Invisible Man movie poster, and the Fish and Game cover-story... it's refreshing to have the secret government agency underfunded. The Canadian terrorists were cute, but a little over the top.

The girlfriend came with some refreshing twists, and I think the whole episode left some good potential for future plots.

(Full disclosure: first time watcher, only episode I've seen so far!)

[sholio]

Yeah, the blend of gritty/dark and funny is really unusual! I think this is why the darkness of the show came as a genuine surprise to me, because I remembered it being funny and a sort of satirical spy parody, but I had completely forgotten how extremely dark it can go -- it's such a startling tonal blend. I agree that there are times when the comedy gets to be a little too much and shoots over into total implausibility, though; it's just a little TOO much of a mental shift to make. That kind of slapstick, over-the-top comedy might work better in a show that was more blatantly comedy, but can't quite hold up in a show that otherwise seems to be shooting for serious narrative plausibility.

Actually, the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head that does a similar dance between utterly ridiculous and completely serious is ... cartoons. Especially anime.

Anyway, I'm glad you are enjoying it so far, and I hope the rest of it will continue to hold up for your enjoyment!

[highlander_ii]

One of the things I really like about this show is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Sometimes it rolls a *little* too far into almost breaking the 4th wall levels of ridonk-ulousness. But only sometimes. =)

[sgatazmy]

Apparently all the discussion is on this journal so I'm moving over here for the rewatch. Not much to add from what I already said except to say, hi, I'm over here now. :)

[sholio]

Hi! I certainly don't want for the LJ people to be left out either (apparently this is where all the chatty people turned up XD) but I'm glad you're here! :)