[7.2/10] I like the twin lessons of this one. “Don’t believe everything you see on T.V.” may be a little simple, but it makes sense for both the gargoyles who are getting used to the twentieth century, and for the show’s younger audience. The lesson that the Pack may look virtuous on television, but are scumbags in real life is a succinct, age appropriate “Don’t meet your heroes” lesson for Lexington.
But I also like the counterpoint Goliath offers after Lexington threatens to devolve into a Demona-esque “I’ll never trust humans again” funk. Goliath points out that if they don’t take these sorts of chances, knowing that some of them will go wrong, they’ll end up disheartened and alone. When Golaith initially expresses skepticism about Lexington hanging with the Pack, Lex is right to point out that this same type of leap of faith characterizes goliath’s relationship with Elisa. To the same end, it’s nice that when things go wrong with the T.V. heroes, GOlaith doesn’t say “I told you so,” but instead tells Lexington he was right in the first place -- reaching out to humans is worthwhile even if it goes wrong sometimes.
Unfortunately, The Pack are really dull villains. It’s not even clear what they are exactly. Apparently they’re former commandos who are now T.V. stars playing Kraven the Hunter-esque heroes? Only now they yearn for some real “action” again? Their motivations lack anything truly interesting, and their training mazes seem pretty contrived. The show does get some juice out of Goliath luring them to a rooftop full of regular stone gargoyles and using the setting to his advantage, but otherwise, this one features a lot of action that failed to keep my attention.
Overall though, there’s enough going on under the hood (including an imprisoned Xanatos scheming this whole thing) to bolster this one and continue serving the sophisticated ideas at the core of the series.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-20T18:24:54Z
[7.2/10] I like the twin lessons of this one. “Don’t believe everything you see on T.V.” may be a little simple, but it makes sense for both the gargoyles who are getting used to the twentieth century, and for the show’s younger audience. The lesson that the Pack may look virtuous on television, but are scumbags in real life is a succinct, age appropriate “Don’t meet your heroes” lesson for Lexington.
But I also like the counterpoint Goliath offers after Lexington threatens to devolve into a Demona-esque “I’ll never trust humans again” funk. Goliath points out that if they don’t take these sorts of chances, knowing that some of them will go wrong, they’ll end up disheartened and alone. When Golaith initially expresses skepticism about Lexington hanging with the Pack, Lex is right to point out that this same type of leap of faith characterizes goliath’s relationship with Elisa. To the same end, it’s nice that when things go wrong with the T.V. heroes, GOlaith doesn’t say “I told you so,” but instead tells Lexington he was right in the first place -- reaching out to humans is worthwhile even if it goes wrong sometimes.
Unfortunately, The Pack are really dull villains. It’s not even clear what they are exactly. Apparently they’re former commandos who are now T.V. stars playing Kraven the Hunter-esque heroes? Only now they yearn for some real “action” again? Their motivations lack anything truly interesting, and their training mazes seem pretty contrived. The show does get some juice out of Goliath luring them to a rooftop full of regular stone gargoyles and using the setting to his advantage, but otherwise, this one features a lot of action that failed to keep my attention.
Overall though, there’s enough going on under the hood (including an imprisoned Xanatos scheming this whole thing) to bolster this one and continue serving the sophisticated ideas at the core of the series.