****Spoiler Alert*** If you have not seen Krypton Season 1, episode 1. Do so now. Do not read any further. Go check it out on Syfy.com.
Episode 1 opens in this majestic, King Arthur kind of way. In walks Val-El, wearing the iconic Superman cape. It is slightly changed from our hero, Superman. But it flows around him like the spirit of his great, great grandson, Kal-El is with him.
Val-El is brought before The Voice to be charged with crimes against Rao, the god of krypton. He is judged to hold science higher than the religious court. He is found guilty, his family stripped of rank and he is sentenced to death in front of his family.
As Val-El stands on the platform, his cape, Superman’s eventual iconic cape, again wraps around him, foreshadowing the solitude and sacrifice of a hero. Val-El looks to his grandson and says, “Keep believing in a better tomorrow.”
We fast forward to a nearly 23 year old Seg-El. He is in the midst of a bar fight reminiscent of how Star Trek’s introduction of James T Kirk in Into Darkness. Seg-El is introduced to us with quips such as “please tell your wife and sister I’m going to be late tonights.”
The young Seg-El is losing the fight when his friend and bookie steps in to save the day.
Seg-El returns home with money for his family. They have a very Luke Skywalker’s Aunt and Uncle vibe to them. It initially appears that his parents have given up. His father works for the government guilds and his mother scolds Seg for being so brazen as to fight and draw attention to himself. But, they are just trying to keep their son safe from a family mystery.
A cut scene to the Military guild where we are introduced to the concept of arranged marriage and the cruel relentlessness of the guard. The trainer of a batch of recruits fights her own daughter and when her daughter asks for mercy she is stabbed through the hand with a knife by her own mother, the trainer.
Later we see Seg in the city of Candor. He is witness to an attempted assassination which he thwarts with his own body. The graphics in this scene are pretty amazing. We see a large and very detailed chamber with the governing body high up looking down at the condemned. The guard blows off the arm of the terrorist, splattering it around on the ground.
Seg becomes a hero and is taken to the very man that condemned his grandfather. Seg is given his rank back and betrothed to the 5th daughter of his very enemy.
Seg then meets his stalker, the ball cap man named Adam Strange. Adam Strange, as we know from previous DC comic books is an ordinary man, an archeologist. In the comic book, Adam could transport to worlds via the Zeta Ray. While he is an ordinary man, Adam Strange has a hero’s past.
Adam Strange tell Seg that he is from the future and warns him of a destroyer of worlds and tells him about his hero grandson. Adam then hands him a crystal key with the, although slightly changed, symbol of the house of El.
Seg takes it back to his home and while keeping it from Seg, the parents know Seg’s future is now a destiny that needs fulfilled.
Seg has a complicated relationship with Lyta Zod, daughter of the head of the guard. They have a passionate night and the scene cuts away to a looming bright red tower in the sky. It burns in the night as the star crossed love between Lyta and Seg looms.
Seg leaves her house and is chased by guards, when all hope is lost of his getaway, his mother appears in a stolen ship. He climbs aboard and his mother takes him to his grandfathers fortress of solitude.
Here we begin to see more of the destiny of Superman leaking into the story line. We see that Seg is destined to walk a parallel path with his grandson.
The guard soon finds out about the stolen ship, and his mother is accused of being part of a mystery group named Black Zero. Seg’s parents sacrifice themselves to the high court in order to keep Seg from being accused. Again, the death of his parents, much like Skywalker’s own family leaves him stranded and seeking answers and a way to give his family’s death a purpose.
After his parents death, Seg returns to the fortress of solitude where we again see Adam. This time Adam hands Seg his grandson’s cape and warns him that he must save Krypton from the destroyer of worlds, Brainiac. And that not only is Krypton in danger but so are the rest of the worlds in the universe.
Seg-El is not only our hero, but unlike Superman, he is quippy and a bit of a playboy. These things we would never expect from his grandson Kal-El. We wish at times in Kal-El’s life that he would loosen up a bit and let his cape down. In this rendition of Superman’s past we can begin to see what that would look like. We wish that Kal-El would be a bit more like Sueprman and that Kal-El would be a bit more like his grandfather, Seg-El.
Over all the film and the sets are amazing. They are so well done that you are drawn into the story line immediately. You know that his is no low budget DC series, that this is more like a full fledged film with every detail painstakingly cared for by the director.
Cameron Cuffe, (Seg-El) is a wonderful choice for this role. He has a bit of a Jonas Brother look but with a broader chin and wide shoulders and a whole bunch of kick ass vibe. His ability to come off as a martyr instead of victim is really what makes him so believable in his role. Again to parallel Star Wars, when Luke lost his family and looked for purpose he came off more of a whiner and less than a potential hero and turned much of the audience off to his character, and therefore took a backseat to bad boy Han Solo.
Overall I’d say this episode had a great start. We are left with lots to look forward to next Wednesday and are left in suspense of what will happen next. Will his next battle be with The Voice, with his soon to be family by marriage, with Brainiac? When will we find out who or what is Black Zero? Will his soon to be wife be friend of foe? Does Adam Strange stick around and become a sidekick? Will Seg live up to the reputation of his grandson?
I don’t know about you, but I will be waiting anxiously on the edge of my seat to find out.
-Momma Geek
