Review: The Haunting of Amphipolis
A friend of mine has an expression that he came up with several months ago. "Two great tastes that go great separately." I think it is an appropriate description for this most recent episode. It honestly felt to me like there were two similar, but almost totally unrelated storylines grafted together - and the seams were pretty obvious.
That's a shame too, because I don't think either plotline was bad in and of itself. The "haunted house" story surrounding the death of Cyrene had quite a bit of potential, and the "exorcist" plot with Eve plays very nicely into the metaplot Rob Tapert seems to be working towards.
The trouble is, when the two stories merged something got lost in each. The suspense and horror required for Cyrene's tale didn't get built up properly - I'll get more into that in a moment. And the plot revolving around Eve and Mephistopheles seemed almost to come out of left field, rehashing the same (tired) Xena-versus-deity story that we witnessed several times last season (and in last week's premiere).
Here's my theory on what happened. You may notice in the credits for this show there are separate entries for the story and the teleplay. In addition, the people credited for them are (so far as I have been able to determine) first-time scribes for the series. I believe they submitted the story idea revolving around Cyrene and the haunted ruins of Amphipolis. It was a good story - certainly good enough to merit an episode.
However, Rob Tapert had some metaplot concerns. In order to play into his overall plan for Eve - and this season - certain plot elements had to be introduced and developed. Most notable of these was Eve's role as the "messenger" for Eli. (This is not a bad idea in itself, and I'll address it in a moment or two.)
So when the teleplay (that is, the actual script) was written, these metaplot concerns were grafted onto a story that seemed like it could have supported them. In fact, it did - to a point. Unfortunately the original story of Cyrene's tormented spirit accidentally got amputated. It ended up serving as atmospheric "set dressing" and all sense of horror and tension got dropped from the episode.
Whose fault is it? I don't know for certain. I'm not even sure blame can be laid at any one person's feet. Tapert's focus on the overall story arc is certainly a factor, but I wonder if the inexperience of the writing team played a part. There are some wonderful moments, but they lack cohesion overall. Without a solid script - a solid story - everything else generally falls flat.
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