There’s just something about this series that just screams, “No budget! We have NO budget!” The thing is, the show has CGI, and special effects and matte paintings and people in strange costumes and everything. I guess this ep looked cheap because so much of it was spent at the wedding of the brother of Flash’s black sidekick, Tonto. Er, Nick. It was like, “Could we bring cameras to your wedding and shoot a few rolls of film? It’d REALLY help with our budget.”
And how about those slightly larger than Earth size dragonflies of Mongo with their very slow-acting poison that gave you hours and hours of euphoria before it killed you? Why, if we had dangerous creatures like that on Earth, we’d … milk 'em like they was cows!
At least we got to meet a tribe of Amazons on Mongo. Real ball-busting Amazons, too. I was glad to see the writers weren’t above recognizing the series’ cheesy origins and that they were willing to REALLY go with the cliche there. I just think they should have gone with the ORIGINAL cliche about Amazons that was around when the series was invented. You know, “You are a man? Really? Oh, I am sorry, I do not believe this. There are legends of men among us from the dawn of time, but in the modern era we have come to recognize that no creature could long survive with its dangly bits so exposed. If you are a man, just show us these dangly bits of yours so that we may believe you? What? You cannot? It is wrong? Sure it is. Admit it, you are one of us, and very confused.”
So, anyway, this episode, although it didn’t advance the plot much, it did develop Nick’s character a lot, something that, while not desperately needed, did keep expenses down. And isn’t that what it’s all about after all?
[Q :smack: UOTE=Beware of Doug]Damn. I clicked this expecting dragonflies not slightly larger than Earth dragonflies, but slightly larger than Earth itself.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, they were a very snippy bunch. But it looks like they may be allies of Flash in the future, which IIRC is how it went in the original series: the various tribes and ___men or __________men on Mongo were fierce at first, but then when the realized Flash was like, totally against Ming, all was cool.
Strange. They are obviously proud of the fact that they have budget allocated for CGI effects, yet they seem strangely reluctant to use them for anything that’s actually relevant to the story.
I realize that Sandahl Bergman is not as young as she used to be, but she really should have been playing the amazon queen. Casting her as the subordinate was rude to her, rude to the fans, and just plain wrong.
Dang. I used to have a Playboy that had a photo spread from All That Jazz, including several photos of Bergman. I can’t remember whether the carpet matched the curtains, or not.
I actually thought the writing was a bit better here. “These burlap pants bring an urgency all their own” was pretty funny. I’m also glad they didn’t miss the obvious ways of bringing Nick down at the wedding.
Thought for this episode: the chief natural resource of Mongo must be eyeliner, and now even Dale has obtained some.
I did not mean to imply any carpet/curtain mismatches. I just meant that it appears to really, really be helpful to be a brunette if you’re female and you want to get a good role in this “Flash Gordon.” Sandahl’s TV-showing hair is blonde, therefore she was lucky to get cast at all.
Times must be tough, she hadda take a role like that.
I just did a quick, unscientific survey around the office. All my co-workers were incredulus that anyone wouldn’t like Flash Gordon. But I work with all men. This may be a Y-chromosone thing.* Further study may be required.