The Fades is a British supernatural fantasy horror series that I've been watching on BBC Canada. It follows a high school student, Paul, as he discovers the world of the Fades - souls of the dead who were unable to ascend to Heaven and became trapped on Earth, and can only be seen by special people (Angelics) like himself. A war between the Fades and Angelics is happening, because the Fades have found a way to regain some humanity and strength, and want to destroy everything, and Paul finds himself gaining special abilities in order to fight them.
I'm not much of a horror fan, but the term "horror" is used loosely to refer to some content that is dark, gross, and violent. I wouldn't call this show frightening, in other words, and I don't think its goal is to be scary so it's not a failure. But I had a lot of fun, starting with the second episode. Episode one wasn't bad, it just didn't draw me all the way in; episode two got me invested in some of the characters, just as Paul was realizing that he loves his family and friends too much to give them up. There are tertiary characters I'm still fairly indifferent to as they are unrelated to storylines involving Paul, but they were used to expand on the nature of the Fades, so they were necessary if not entertaining. In particular I enjoy Mac, Paul's loyal best friend and the main source of comic relief in an otherwise serious show, and Jay, Paul's girlfriend who is too cool for him but accepts his nerdiness anyway. John is also quite interesting once the show sets him against Paul in a Lost/Carnivale-type way as the main villain.
Being of British format, the season is only six episodes long, but it actually felt like a satisfying length with a beginning and an end. It is left open for a second season, but it could also stop where it is and not be terribly disappointing. I'd also like to say that I love the episode endings: this show likes to go out with a bang, throwing us a cliffhanger, and then cutting straight to the scrolling credits while a song plays that perfectly fits the mood of what we just saw. For something I never would have heard of if my dad hadn't been watching BBC Canada to catch the preview for it, this show was surprisingly good, and actually the first British series I've ever watched that wasn't a comedy.
Best Episode: While Episode 2 (there are no episode titles, it seems) is memorable for the reason I mentioned above, the best might be Episode 6, where everything comes to an epic conclusion. Or does it?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hit me back!