1x05 V

[7.4/10] This was a bit of a step down from prior episodes, but still cool. I like the idea of Jack running into a set of quasi-Jetsons and needing to help him. The premise of the show -- Jack as a wandering ronin who helps various groups of people he finds along the way -- is a durable one. It lets the show have fun inventing and designing which pack of futuristic weirdos Jack will encounter each week.

So I enjoy the 1950s zeerust-style nuclear family we get here. The pastel fishbowl helmets and Jetson-y designs give a bit of flair to their whole setup. I particularly got a kick out of their little dancing scene inside the rocket, and the one nerd who’s constantly giving people the odds. They’re distinctive little guys, and it’s fun to see them fretting and planning on how to escape from Aku’s grasp.

That said, some of the fights left me a bit cold here. Honestly, it may just be that even a mere five episodes in, we’ve already seen Jack fight a lot of bug bots, so there’s not a lot of novelty to it, and not much he does here that he hasn’t done in past episodes. The space suit element is a neat enough wrinkle, but at some point his hack and slash game with various robotic bees and mosquitos and praying mantises becomes static. Still, there’s a few neat bits like him heating the sword to defeat one type of bug, and reflecting the giant bee gun’s rays back at it.

It was pretty obvious given the fact that this was episode five that Jack was unlikely to make it back to the past so soon. That telegraphed the way he would sacrifice his chance for time travel by saving the rocket people at the last minute. But it’s still a nice character choice for Jack, and the image of him in a tattered space suit, looking up at the stars at the end, has a certain poignance to it.

Overall, not my favorite episode the show’s done, but still plenty to like.