Just after the half-way point of this, the worst episode in the short-lived series, Chance is on a plane with his team, as well as a former lover who "tricked" him into this mission under false pretences.
Then his boss/partner (Indira Varma) calls and reprimands him for "stealing" the plane and misleading her, and tells Chance that the pilot has been instructed by her to abort the mission (even though they are just about to land) and return to the US, and oh yeah, don't bother trying to break down the door to the cockpit -- after which Chance punches a hole in the side of the plane to deplete the oxygen supply and force the plane to land anyway.
Talk about a dysfunctional work environment? I don't usually repeat the plots in such detail (honestly -- check my other reviews) but I needed to "share" to show you how horrific this episode is (and that was only a minute or two, and I know you are already cringing), an episode which was essentially of the harbinger for the show getting cut at the end of the second second season.
Bottom line: it is too bad. Steinberg's vision for the show (which was clear from Season 1) turns out, with the benefit of hindsight, to have been the antecedent for the monster hit PERSON OF INTEREST. But something went horribly wrong in Season 1 and, somewhat in desperation, Steinberg in this season seems to have not only abandoned the central theme of the show (which was one on one body-guarding, as the name "Human Target" implies) but doubled up on the oestrogen (Indira Varma and Janet Montgomery) while at the same time turning the series into some sort of superspy show -- without first warning the audience.
I will miss the show. It is always a pleasure watching Jackie Earle Haley work, and Janet Montgomery in her introductory episodes (not the later ones where she mainly sulked) was an eye-popper. But by this stage of the second (and last) season, the series was running on fumes.
Then his boss/partner (Indira Varma) calls and reprimands him for "stealing" the plane and misleading her, and tells Chance that the pilot has been instructed by her to abort the mission (even though they are just about to land) and return to the US, and oh yeah, don't bother trying to break down the door to the cockpit -- after which Chance punches a hole in the side of the plane to deplete the oxygen supply and force the plane to land anyway.
Talk about a dysfunctional work environment? I don't usually repeat the plots in such detail (honestly -- check my other reviews) but I needed to "share" to show you how horrific this episode is (and that was only a minute or two, and I know you are already cringing), an episode which was essentially of the harbinger for the show getting cut at the end of the second second season.
Bottom line: it is too bad. Steinberg's vision for the show (which was clear from Season 1) turns out, with the benefit of hindsight, to have been the antecedent for the monster hit PERSON OF INTEREST. But something went horribly wrong in Season 1 and, somewhat in desperation, Steinberg in this season seems to have not only abandoned the central theme of the show (which was one on one body-guarding, as the name "Human Target" implies) but doubled up on the oestrogen (Indira Varma and Janet Montgomery) while at the same time turning the series into some sort of superspy show -- without first warning the audience.
I will miss the show. It is always a pleasure watching Jackie Earle Haley work, and Janet Montgomery in her introductory episodes (not the later ones where she mainly sulked) was an eye-popper. But by this stage of the second (and last) season, the series was running on fumes.
