Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels

Episode 4: Angels in Chains

By: Carlos Uribe

Charlie's Angels is a remake of the original television series Charlie's Angels.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Charlie's Angels decided this week to take a look at a classic episode but recreate it in the least interesting manner possible. You'd think that with a plot already given to them they'd be able to turn out a decent episode. Turns out that the show's writers are really good at taking things that worked and making them not work.

This week's mission takes place in Cuba. A girl named Tessa got illegally detained in a Cuban prison, and it's up to the Angels to break her out. They go there only to have some complications and they fail. Then they (and other girls) are all taken to a mansion to serve as prostitutes for a short while, hired by an American businessman. There they manage to escape but Eve is taken hostage and the rest of the episode is spent freeing her. I haven't seen the “classic” episode this is based on, but this version was boring and tame.

For instance, I saw Prison Break. That show not only made prison real, but it actually made it seem like a dangerous place. That show may have been contrived and silly but it at least got the whole location right. In Charlie's Angels, the danger of the prison is referenced but never really shown. Then there's the part of their pretending to be prostitutes. That whole scene wasn't weird or anything-it didn't really seem that bad. There was no sex, nothing to really indicate there was something bad going on other than the fact that the show told us. Frankly, the show has failed to immerse us into a believable prison or prostitute scene.

Throughout the episode, we learnt more about Bosley. This is largely done thanks to a CIA agent that is in the show seemingly to create some tension and failing terribly. Still, some boring exposition later and you learn Bosley had someone important in his life named “Elizabeth” and things went badly. The show doesn't let you wonder who Elizabeth is or what happened to her, because at the end of the episode the show tells you Elizabeth was Charlie's daughter and she died. I guess I'm supposed to care, but I don't.

Charlie's Angels simply keeps holding itself back. The stories are calling to go somewhere but the show simply isn't willing to go there. So the show appears as a witless bore for yet another week. I'll be surprised if the show makes it to next week, but I doubt anyone will truly miss this show. And it's the show's own fault.