BrainDead SE01 EP02 - "Playing Politics: Living Life in the Shadow of the Budget Showdown – A Critique"

Episode Name: Playing Politics: Living Life in the Shadow of the Budget Showdown – A Critique

Original Airdate: June 20, 2016

After a recap of last episode is sung to us, we're pretty much where we left off.

The space insects have infested multiple houses, and are moving into Laurel's apartment. She attempts to ward them off with typical bug spray, but to no avail - they just keep coming. Concerned, but having more important things on her mind then insects, she goes to work. Waiting for her is FBI Agent Anthony Onofrio, who wants to ask her a few questions about the incident with Daudier. Aside from the fact that his head exploded, Laurel really doesn't know much. She's pretty certain, though, that it wasn't from a gunshot (one of the EMT's claims they heard a gun firing), and she's almost positive it wasn't because the driver is of Middle Eastern descent. Onofrio gives her his card, and lets her know that should she remember and/or learn anything, to contact him.

Agent Onofrio

While not many constituents are in the office, Laurel rejects her brother's offer to go back home. He has a Democratic caucus meeting to attend, the first since they lost the majority in the Senate (and as Senator Healy's the party Whip, he is expected to be in the hotseat). He is - he's blamed by many for losing Senator Spitz to the Republican Party. Luke is backed up by a fellow Democratic Senator, and instead of blaming him and questioning his position as party Whip, they plan to fight the Republicans. After the meeting, however, the Senator in question tells Luke that if he has some plan, he best get on it, as she can only keep the rest of the members at bay for so long. As Spitz was offered a lot to switch to the Republican Party, Luke states that he'll find the Republican who was pushed aside and bring him over to the Democrats.

Unnamed Democratic Senator (left) standing up for Healy

One of the few constituents, Annie, a young girl with cancer, is trying to raise money for awareness by posing in front of twenty national monuments in twenty days with her father's help. The problem is, because of the shutdown, they're unable to take a picture in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Laurel promises to bring it up to the Senator and do what she can. Luke mostly blows off the request, but does offer to look into it if Laurel can meet up with Gareth and find out which Republican was pushed aside to make room for Spitz.

Annie and her father

Luke convincing Laurel to get information from Gareth

During the meeting, Gareth doesn't apologize, as he feels he did nothing wrong - Senator Wheatus simply changed his mind on helping end the shutdown. He does, however, invite Laurel to the Tax Prom, a prom-type party run by tax lobbyists. After an appearance on a political show, Wheatus offers to end the shutdown if Luke meets him for a meeting the next morning, which he agrees to do.

Meanwhile, chess player Gustav noticed a friend of his is bleeding from his ear. Despite getting him to a hospital, his friend's head explodes, splattering brain matter on his shirt and leaving him in shock. At home, he researches exploding head syndrome, but finding that one's head doesn't actually explode from it. He decides to record some of the brain matter left on his shirt to see if he can learn anything. After some time, he captures footage of a small insect exiting the brain.

Gustav playing chess

Gustav's now-deceased friend

At the Tax Prom, Laurel runs into two former friends - a photographer Stacie, and Abby, who months ago won a grant to write a novel, but now is working for a right-wing organization Help America Rise Again, confounding both Stacie and Laurel. Stacie suggests that the three of them have a girl's night out, get Abby drunk (as she has also stopped drinking), and have fun like they used to, which Laurel agrees with.

Stacie, Laurel's friend

Abby, another of Laurel's old friends

First comes her time with Gareth, though. They poke fun at each other for their respective political beliefs, Laurel eventually saying that D.C. just makes people cynical and former shells of themselves. Gareth gets a call, and taking the opportunity, overhears him talking to Wheatus about at Republican who was screwed over by Spitz. Laurel copies the number down, calls it, and finds that Senator Barneki is the Republican in question. Immediately, she gives this information to her brother.

Laurel and Gareth

Rochelle Daudier, daughter of the poor individual last episode whose head exploded, meets with Laurel as one of the constituents. She's a resident at Mount Vernon hospital, and states that her father's autopsy claimed a fake cause of death. Laurel confirms that her father's head did explode, and is surprised to learn that this happened the day before to another man. Rochelle shows her the two ct scans performed on this man, and shapes inside the brain appear to have moved. She brings this information to Agent Onofrio, who tells her that he'll look into it.

Rochelle Daudier

Laurel speaking with Agent Onofrio

The meeting between Wheatus and Healy doesn't go well - Republicans offer to end the shutdown if Democrats agree to cut spending on Education, Commerce, and Energy. Healy believes the offer to be insane, and suggests they use it against them. Using Annie as a symbol of the damage of the shutdown, Democrats, and Luke Healy in particular, try to embarrass the Republicans.

Girls' night with Laurel, Stacie, and Abby doesn't go well either. Upon questioning Abby on her choice to give up the writing grant and work for Help America Rise Again, she shoots back at Laurel for not finishing a single documentary since college and having a rich, Senator brother to make her life easier. She leaves prematurely after scolding Laurel, leaving Stacie and Laurel quite confused.

Laurel and Stacie

Abby, Laurel and Stacie

Happy that he's able to commit Republican Senator Barneki to switching parties, Luke again sleeps with Scarlett. She's obviously uncomfortable, though, which Luke notices, and decides to leave before Scarlett's able to infect him with the alien insects.

Senator Luke Healy and Scarlett

The next day, Republicans uncover some damaging information about Annie's father (the fact he's an atheist, for one) and the news airs it, along with an interview with Senator Barneki, who talks about how desperate the Democratic Party is to end the shutdown by offering information about what he was offered to switch parties, embarrassing the Democratic Party. Laurel learns that Barneki's number that Gareth wrote down was simply a ploy to see if she'd try to get him to switch. Because of the recent fiascos, Healy is removed from the Democratic Whip position.

At night, Laurel is able to convince a guard to let Annie and her father into see the Lincoln Memorial, and after reading a portion of the Gettysburg Address, feels inspired. She finds photos online from Gustav of the bugs on a conspiracy website, and decides to contact him. Before she can, Abby calls and offers for Laurel to come over for some tea. Laurel takes a raincheck, but lets her know that when she has time, she'll come over. After hanging up, we see that Stacie is over at Abby's, locked in the bathroom. As the space insects start pouring into the room, Abby plays "You Might Think" loudly to block out the screams.

Laurel and Annie gazing upon the Lincoln Memorial

Stacie, locked in Abby's bathroom, about to be infested by insects

I enjoyed the first episode of the series - it was pretty fun and rather amusing at parts. And luckily, the trend continues.

BrainDead is turning out to be quite a quirky show. The recap of the previous episode done in song? I certainly hope that they keep doing that, because while at first it took me for an unpleasant, tacky surprise, upon re-watching it, I think it fits the tone of this series rather nicely. I'm unsure if any past recaps have been done in song form, but it certainly seems a moderately unique technique.

Things are heating up in Washington. Those infected by the alien insects are far more partisan and uncompromising than they were before, and it's getting ugly. Attacking Annie for having an atheist father is certainly not beyond the Republican Party, but Senator Wheatus' utter unwillingness to end the shutdown unless the Democratic Party chooses to cut Education, Commerce, and Energy is, like Luke Healy said, "insane." What's the aim of these alien organisms? I don't know if they even have one, but right now, it's not overly clear.

What's also not clear at this moment is why some people, once infected with the insects, meet their death by exploding head, while others assimilate, quit drinking alcohol and start a fruit juice diet. At first, I thought it was just making people more partisan to their political beliefs, and those who had their head blow up were apolitical/had no political beliefs. But Doctor Daudier was sure to have at least some political ideas regarding scientific spending, and more to the point, Abby, Laurel's old friend, seemed to be a girl with few inhibitions and little to no interest in politics, and yet, here she is, working for Help America Rise Again, a right-wing organization, and more so, she's spouting off support for Trump. So obviously, my "politically neutral heads reject aliens by exploding" theory has been shown to be wrong. We'll see what happens to Stacie following her infestation, but it's not clear to me why some people take to this and others don't.

But let's look into some individual characters. Laurel's relationship with Gareth has hit quite the snag in this episode - I expected Gareth to be one of Laurel's partners in discovering the truth behind these aliens, but at the moment, it's looking less likely, especially with new characters such as Rochelle Daudier and Gustav Triplett being introduced. Rochelle I'm less sure about insofar as future importance of the show, but Gustav seems to be quite an important character. Laurel reached out to him at the end of this episode, so perhaps she and him will meet up next week and trade information. Regardless, I do think his addition is an interesting and important dynamic moving forward.

Back to Laurel, though. She's becoming the conniving, backstabbing person that personifies exactly what she hates about politics. Even though she's not infected, in a way, she's still playing the partisan game she hates. And despite Gareth's generally polite nature, he too is being sucked into backstabbing and tricking others for his Senator's gain. Neither one seems overly happy about this, but can they let go of each others' slights and work together? Over time, I do think that's likely, but insofar as the next episode's concerned, I'm thinking that Gareth will be on the backburner.

Another character who's place in the show I'm not yet sure about is Agent Onofrio. Despite his comments early in the episode about Daudier's exploding head being linked to potential terrorism, he seems like he genuinely wants to help and is interested in the information that Laurel brings to him. What he'll do with this new-found information isn't yet clear - he is still an FBI agent, after all. Still, he seems like a positive character, and while he's rather one-dimensional at the moment, perhaps over the time of this series, he'll grow into almost a hero-type character.

Luke's becoming more and more unbearable, by design, I'd think. He's the typical politician who cares more about his position in the party than he does the struggles that other people go through. He did avoid being infected this episode, though I expect he won't be able to avoid it for long. He was never going to be one of the focus characters, and once he gets infected, than Laurel will really need to figure out what's going on. Infecting a friend who Laurel's not seen in awhile is one thing, but Luke would be much more close to home.

I'm not sure where this show is planning on going, which is a good feeling. While I expect Gareth to be an important player down the road, who's to say that he doesn't get infected next episode? Wherever this show takes us, I do think it's going to be quite the exciting and sometimes suspenseful ride. 

The pilot set this show up well, and luckily, at least based off this episode, things are still going pretty good. Hope to hear "You Might Think" more as the series goes on, though. Until the end came along, I almost thought it'd be absent. It's just a small touch in a quirky series.

Rating: Above Average

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BrainDead SE01 EP01 - "The Insanity Principle: How Extremism in Politics is Threatening Democracy in the 21st Century"

I always wanted to review a series week-by-week as it airs. It just so happens that as I want to review so many older series, that doing so would be difficult to fit in, and moreso, I didn't really get a chance beforehand. However, there are three series that will begin within the next three weeks, and I'll try and finish up both Freaks and Geeks, along with the first season of Survivor, in order to make room for these additions, BrainDead being one of them.

I randomly ran into a preview of BrainDead on IMDb via an advertisement, and while it didn't look like something I would generally watch, as far as my reviews go, I thought it'd be something to give a shot. I do enjoy politics, and while the comedic elements may fall flat, there might be enough to balance out these episodes. Adding in an alien menace definitely wouldn't hurt anything. So I don't know how this series will go, but I'll be reviewing each episode as they come out. Without further adieu, let's get started.

Episode Name: The Insanity Principle: How Extremism in Politics is Threatening Democracy in the 21st Century

Original Airdate: June 13, 2016

The pilot starts out making a statement on the political situation of the USA: "In the year 2016 there was a growing sense that people were losing their minds and no one knew why until now."

A meteor lands in Russian waters, but with the political landscape of 2016, little to no coverage of this appears on American television, who focus far more on the election and the impending shutdown of the government. 

Meteor crash-landing in Russia

We then meet our protagonist, Laurel Healy, younger sister to Democratic Senator of Maryland's Luke Healy, and daughter of a man consulting with armed services. She has little to no interest in politics, though - instead, she's a documentary filmmaker, tackling subjects such as yodeling and religious music from the Solomon Islands. But money's dried up, and when she's offered a job by her father in her brother's staff, she takes it, stipulating both that her father pay half the cost of finishing her documentary ($100,000), and that it's a six-month deal, then she's done.

Laurel Healy

Senator Luke Healy and his sister, Laurel 

Doctor Daudier of the Smithsonian Institution, working with a Russian institute to retrieve the meteor, attempts to get an additional $40 million by talking with Senator Healy, but the best he can do is $5 million, as Republicans would be unlikely to give anymore out to scientific endeavors. Still, the meteor is retrieved without incident, despite odd behavior from fish.

Healy's position is one of constituent cases - she meets with constituents of the Senator, and helps them with their concerns or problems. Most of the time, this is moderately mundane, such as trying to fix Medicare issues or Social Security concerns. Her last meeting of the day, though, is with Breanna Burke, who is concerned with her husband's recent behavior. He's distant, and has quit drinking cold turkey. This happened after he returned from working on a container ship named the Alba - carrying, of course, the meteor fished out of Russian waters earlier - she shows Laurel video of her husband, Randall, and a shipmate checking the container, and something indescript happens to them. Breanna came to Senator Healy's office, as opposed to the police, because the Senator signed off the on shipment of the crate. Healy tells Breanna that she'll find out what she can, but not before being interrupted by Gareth Ritter, Legislative Director for Republican Senator Wheatus of Maryland.

Breanna Burke meeting with Laurel

In a meeting with Ritter, he offers a deal to prevent the government shutdown that's to occur in 90 minutes (beginning, it seems, due to a dispute over a Supreme Court nominee). Wheatus is willing to cross the aisle and vote with the Democrats, Ritter informs her; all he needs is a $48 million earmark in autism research. If word gets out that Republicans tried to deal with Senator Healy, he'll deny ever being there and rescind the deal. If Laurel is unable to convince her brother to take the deal, Ritter tells her, than the 100,000 people that'll be laid off due to the shutdown will be on her and the Democratic Party.

Gareth Ritter

She scrambles to find him, and does so, locating him in his Chief of Staff's apartment, having an affair (Senator Healy's wife is eight months pregnant at the time). On a conference call Democratic leaders, Healy discusses whether or not to take the deal. One Democrat believes they should, but others, including Healy himself, want the Republicans to shut down the government, and offer the deal afterwards, harming the people's opinion of the Republican Party and embarrassing them. Laurel is disgusted by this tactic, as it'd put 100,000 people out of work, but she's dismissed from the room, and instead awkwardly talks with Scarlett, the Chief in Staff that Luke's having the affair with. After the call, her brother let's Laurel know that they're not going to take the deal, taking the long view, that it's more important to keep the Republicans out of the White House then it is to prevent the shutdown for a short period. Laurel chastises Luke for cheating on his wife, and Luke tells her that it won't happen again.

Senator Healy and Chief of Staff Scarlett

Senator Healy and Laurel in argument over shutdown

With the government now shut down, funding has stopped completely for Doctor Daudier, and he, along with his fellow scientists, are forced to leave the meteor. As soon as the lights are turned off, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of ant-like insects exit the meteor and escape via a broken window into Washington, D.C.

Senator Healy lets go of most of his staff, keeping his Chief of Staff, Scarlett, and, to other's chargin, his Constituent Caseworker, his sister. Laurel knows that given the shutdown, she'll have next to nothing to do in her job, and so instead investigates the Alba and the crate that Breanna Burke believes made her husband begin to act so strangely.

Captain Young of the Alba seems unconcerned about his crew member's behavior, and in fact, doesn't even ask which crew member she's talking about. She notices other odd behavior from the crew - they constantly stare at her, and the crew member she saw on video with Breanna's husband denies even knowing Randall. More annoying still, "You Might Think" by The Cars is being played over the ship's intercom system, apparently the music of choice for the captain. Insistent, she asks for the ship's manifesto, but discovers that Gareth Ritter has them already.

Crew members staring at Laurel on the Alba

Laurel goes to speak to Gareth, running into a drunken Senator Wheatus, slurring incomprehensibly at her, while Gareth seems to be making the important calls of the day. Gareth has no interest in answering Laurel's questions, and when she pushes it by following him, lets her know that he doesn't want others to believe he's collaborating with the Democratic Party. Laurel smartly asks what he'll be wearing at a pro-choice rally in front of Republican staffers, and forces him into a meeting.

Republican Senator Wheatus of Maryland

Laurel forcing Gareth into a meeting

Gareth too looked into Breanna's concern about her husband, and surprises Laurel by providing her the same answer that Captain Young gave her from the first crewmate. Another surprise comes when Ritter lets her know that Senator Wheatus may still be interested in a deal, and that if she can convince her brother, Washington, D.C. could be done with the gridlock by the next day. Meeting with Luke, he brushes off the concern she has about groups of people staring at them (to him, politics is like Hollywood, but with "uglier people"), and she calls Breanna, letting her know of her progress so far into the case. Her husband asks who she's talking to, though, and Breanna, scared, ends the call prematurely. Afterwards, Breanna is held down by her husband as the alien insects enter her skull via her ears.

Breanna being infected by alien lifeforms

Luke is interested in the deal that Wheatus is offering, but asks that Laurel confirm that it's from the Senator himself and not from Ritter, who has a sister with autism, and thus, something invested in researching the disorder. Upon meeting Laurel again, Luke admits that it's his idea, and that the Senator had nothing to do with it, but truly wants to end the shutdown and insists he can get Wheatus to agree to the deal, assuming that Luke Healy meet with him. She's unable to convince her brother, but Laurel calls their father, and convinces her father that it'd be good for his career (helping end the shutdown, in her eyes, would make him one of the most powerful players in the Democratic Party). 

Meanwhile, Breanna and Randall meet with Luke and Laurel, and Breanna thanks Laurel for her assistance - she was simply worried, but it's all okay now. Randall then repeats the exact same line said by Captain Young and the first crewmate, Laurel able to say it word-for-word along with Randall. Confused, but given the fact they want to donate $2,600 for his re-election campaign, Luke thanks his sister for helping out. Laurel views this as money to pay them off to stop investigating, but happy with the donation, Luke tells her to take "yes" for an answer.

Senator Healy and Laurel meeting with Breanna and Randall Burke

Their father gets Luke to agree to the meeting, and as Senators Healy and Wheatus have a cheerful meeting, Laurel and Gareth bond. During a playful dispute over the desires of liberals and conservatives, along with discussing the Solomon Island's dissipating culture due to global warming, Laurel again hears "You Might Think" by The Cars, playing softly on the intercom system. She's made more uneasy by seeing others stare at her, but Gareth doesn't understand the concern, and when the senators tell them that they agree to hold a press conference the following day, the uneasiness of mostly wiped from her mind.

Senators Healy and Wheatus agree to hold press conference

That night, however, the insects crawl into Senator Wheatus's room, and into his skull. A portion of his brain slides out of his ear. Unconcerned, Wheatus falls asleep, and wakes up the next day a new man. Playing "You Might Think" on his iTunes, he prepares for a new day, throwing away his considerable amount of alcoholic drinks from his office and canceling the conference with Senator Healy, directing him to call another number instead.

Portion of Senator Wheatus' brain

Laurel goes to the Smithsonian and talks her way in, with the goal of looking at the meteor herself. This doesn't last long, as she finds Doctor Daudier unconscious on the floor. During the ambulance ride, Daudier mutters incoherently about something being "in his ears," and shouts that his mind's going. Despite trying to keep him calm, his head explodes.

Senator Wheatus meets with Democratic Senator Spitz, and by offering him Chair of Armed Services, ranking member on economic policy, and a $14 million war chest from the Republican superpac, life-long Democrat Senator Spitz decides to switch parties and become a Republican. Democrats lose the majority in the Senate because of this switch and Senator Healy, in his new office, commits to kicking the Republican's asses with the help of Scarlett and Laurel. Laurel agrees, and seconds later, notices that Scarlett is listening to - of course - The Cars' classic hit, "You Might Think."

Laurel notices that Scarlett's listening to The Cars

We end with the proclamation from a political news host, a rip-off of Rachel Maddow, that because of Spitz's betrayal to the Democratic Party, bipartisanship is dead.

Rachel Maddow rip-off Claudia Monarch

Truth be told, this episode rather surprised me. I wasn't anticipating enjoying it all that much based off the preview I saw. I thought it would be too drenched in comedic elements to break out into more serious territory.

Without question, I was wrong.

In fact, I got it mixed around. The comedic elements were, in my view, far more minor than were the elements of political intrigue and drama. The death of Doctor Daudier was pretty traumatic, and there were plenty of biting words said of both Democrats and Republicans, sometimes by the same people. The comedy came in a few scenes, but to my delight, it didn't overshadow the ominous tone of the episode (the ending was particularly well-done). Insofar as the tone was concerned, it was pretty damn good.

Only a few actors and actresses really stand out, though luckily Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Laurel Healy) is one of them. She has a Chloe Bennet-feel to her (Bennet plays Skye on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), though not as snarky. Still, she is a perfectly enjoyable actress to watch, and casting did a fine job there. I wasn't overly wowed by either Danny Pino (Luke Healy) or Tony Shalhoub (Senator Wheatus), but Aaron Tveit (Gareth Ritter) seems a pretty fine choice. There could very well be a chemistry between him and Winstead, which I hope to see develop (or worsen, considering the fact that Laurel may very well feel betrayed by Ritter) over the course of the series.

The story of a meteor containing alien lifeforms that slowly take over humanity isn't overly creative, but throwing in a political arena such as Washington, D.C. was a great idea, especially in such a turbulent election year as the one we're in. Keeping it based in reality, by seeing clips of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders, was a good idea also, as we have connections to this story and see that this is fictionally happening at the same time as this presidential race.

On a sidenote, I don't believe I've ever heard "You Might Think" before, but it's a catchy tune, and you can dance to it, so hey, if it becomes the unofficial theme of this show, more power to it. Oh, and it's has a pretty trippy (and very 80's) music video that you might want to check out. Definitely worth it.

I have absolutely no idea where this story will go. I have no idea if this series will have a second season. If it did, well, I'd be surprised. But this series surprised my already, so I'm prepared for it to happen again. A very solid first out, and while not perfect, this pilot did well to drag in the viewer, and unless the next episode is a blunder, I don't know when it'll let go.

Rating: Above Average

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