Netflix's 'The Order' Review
Netflix's 'The Order' Series 1 Review
The Order. An entertaining Sci Fi fantasy series with a target audience of older teens and young adults. Following primarily the life of Jack Morton (Jake Manley), a first-year student at Belgrave University, it explores the conflict he experiences between two secret societies, The Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose and the Knights of St Christopher. Within the first couple of episodes, most of the new pledges of the Blue Rose (neophytes) are violently killed and Jack takes it upon himself to investigate into how and why. With the persistence of his obsessive and at times dismissive grandfather Pete (Matt Frewer) pressurising him, Jack works to uncover the dark truths of the Blue Rose and take vengeance on the man who supposedly caused his mother’s death.
Created by Dennis Heaton and Shelley Eriksen, The Order, in my opinion, is the new and perhaps darker version of shows like Teen Wolf and The Vampire Diaries. With its comedic nature, romance focus and all kinds of supernatural monsters and heavy influence of magic towards the end of the season. Even though it is labelled as a ‘horror’, it definitely feels more fantasy/ Sci Fy with a dash of American comedy. As someone who usually cannot and does not tend to watch horrors, I found this show interesting and most of the time relatively light. There are gory visuals of dead bodies and a ‘spooky’ nature to the series, but I would not go as far as to label it ‘horror’. With young protagonists fighting off supernatural and magical beings and spells it certainly has the same potential and intriguing concept as these other American supernatural shows. Think Chilling Adventures of Sabrina but with more comedy and romance and slightly less fear, shock and intensity.
There are some very good performances from the cast of the show. Jake Manley makes a good protagonist and brings humour to the rather dark episodes. His chemistry with fellow actor and on-screen love interest Sarah Grey as Alyssa Drake is believable and intriguing but Morten’s flirting techniques are also at times cringeworthy, and not in a good sense. He does make a good protagonist though, as a working-class kid infiltrating a society that mostly involves stereotypical ‘rich kids’. His inquisitive nature, courage and intelligence shines through, eventually earning him his place in The Order and capturing our attention as audience members. However, his character does seem inconsistent at times within the script, which does make it hard to believe that he is an ‘underdog’ that lacks life, sexual and relationship experience. Despite these inconsistencies in script, the acting and character are interesting to watch and definitely makes the show worthwhile. Sarah Grey is outstanding. An intellectual female lead who shows a lot of promise for the next season, along with Katharine Isabelle as Vera Stone, Adam DiMarco as Randall Carpio, Thomas Elms as Hamish Duke and Devery Jacobs as Lilith Bathory.
Although I did enjoy the first season, the writing in terms of characters was either inconsistent or predictable. Every character is virtually a typical ‘stock character’ of an American teen drama. The male characters are mainly predictable. For example, the jock who is a douche and also ‘happens’ to be the love interest’s ex-boyfriend and the gay best friend who gets pushed around by their rich bitchy girl best friend. Most women in the show are perceived to hold their own agency, but when they come across a dilemma, they become submissive and depend on a man’s attention or approval. If not this, then they are presented as ‘evil’ or ‘bitchy’. Alyssa almost compromises everything she believes in to gain Edward’s (a member of the Order played by Max Martini’s) approval. Vera almost falls to her demise through her sexual feelings towards Edward. Then there is Gabrielle Dupree, the stereotypical ‘rich girl’ who cares only about herself. Always reaching to have control and power at the expense of others and even herself. Lilith is the only saving grace of the show. She manages to hold her own, and often ends up saving other people rather than people saving her like a damsel in distress.
The show’s small budget is evident at times through its visuals and graphics as well as the inconsistency of scenes. The CGI for supernatural creatures at times were not believable. Most scenes that involved transformations broke the believability of the episode and often drew my attention away from whatever deep situation the characters were in. With a new season on its way, the budget will hopefully be increased, and we can start to see more realistic and believable CGI effects and more effective editing that doesn’t make crime scenes look inconsistent.
Comments
Post a Comment