Mayans M. C. 1.3: Two Presidents

An excellent Mayans M. C. 1.3 this week, in which what struck me as the most potentially provocative thing in this explosively provocative series was the two Presidents of the two Mayan motor clubs.

One is Bishop, well played by Michael Irby, and head of the Mayans club in far-southern California.  The other is Marcus, well played by Emilio Rivera, head of the club more up north, and someone we saw in Sons of Anarchy.  The focus in Mayans M. C. is on Bishop's club, but Marcus's presence is not insignificant.

And this week we saw an important exchange between them.  After Bishop shoots and kills Jimmy - the surprise killing in this week's episode (almost every week has one) - he asks Marcus why Marcus did not want Bishop to tell his club about the planned killing beforehand.   Marcus's response indicates he doesn't trust Bishop's crew - Marcus suspects that someone in the southern chapter may be a rat.

This conversation between the Presidents demonstrates an important facet in Mayans, M. C. - there's not just one, but two, Mayans M. C, in this story, and I'd guess that sooner or later that number will be crucial.

Meanwhile, we also get a great scene from Felipe, when he takes a classic-looking gun and points it a detective keeping track of him and E. Z.   There's more to Felipe than meets the eye.  He's not only fiercely protective of his two sons.  He knows how to deal with pesky police.

Looking forward to more of this series.

See also: Mayans, M. C. 1.1: Pulling Us In ... Mayans M. C. 1.2: The Plot Thickens

 

Mayans M. C. 1.2: The Plot Thickens

Mayans M. C. continued to develop and flex its muscles and smarts in 1.2 as a complex, multi-level drama with all kinds of conflicts and connections.

The big one in 1.2 was between the cartel and the rebels, who have kidnapped cartel leader Miguel's young son.   He wants the Mayans to get him back, and since the Mayans have all kinds of connections to the rebels, this puts them right in the middle, where they'd rather not be.  Among other things, the Mayans don't like Miguel's brutal tactics, leading to one of the best scenes in the hour, when prospect E. Z. speaks out against this, and Bishop literally puts his body between E. Z., and the angry Miguel, who is menacingly advancing on E. Z.

Miguel and E. Z. have another profound reason to be at odds.  Miguel's wife Emily, loving mother of the kidnapped boy, was E. Z.'s girlfriend before he went to prison.  She seems to love Miguel now, but has problems with his business, which she'd rather not know about, but now needs to, so she can understand why her son was kidnapped.   She still has some feelings for E. Z., and he definitely has some for her, and given his connections to the rebels, this puts him a conflicted situation par excellence.

His only completely reliable ally at this point is his father, well played by Edward James Olmos.  Actually, all the parts, major and minor, are very played, including Michael Irby as Bishop, Richard Cabral as Coco, and Clayton Cardenas as E. Z.'s brother Angel, who (presumably) doesn't know about his brother's sleeper status.

All of this is riveting viewing, and I'm looking forward to more.  (Prediction from my wife Tina: Devante - great to see Tony Plana in this role - and Miguel's mother killed Miguel's father.  This is in keeping with the Sons' Hamlet motif, and makes sense.)

See also: Mayans M. C. 1.1: Pulling Us In

 

Almost Human debuts: A Review

Almost Human - the latest J. J. Abrams' offering on television - debuted on Fox tonight.   No Robocop this sophisticated, crackling story of androids and human police.   Rather, Almost Human has the ambience of Bladerunner, which is to say, really good.

Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell) plays the android Dorian, teamed with the initially dyspeptic about androids John Kennex (played by Karl Urban), the human cop.  Urban plays Bones McCoy in the new Star Trek, never a fan of high-tech, so this is a good fit.  Beautiful Minka Kelly of Friday Night Lights fame is also on hand as police.

Kennex's been in a coma about two years, after the syndicate in this town some 30 years up the road from us (2048 Los Angeles) all but took out his unit.   He's saddled with an MX - the latest kind of cop android, considered a step forward in that they operate solely on logic, not emotion - but Kennex throws his MX out of the car into speeding traffic and android death when it figures out that Kennex's been visiting a black-market cyber-shrink to recover his memories - one of the reasons I said Almost Human harkens to Bladerunner.   Still obliged to be partnered with an android, Kennex pays a visit to the android shop. All that's available is a de-commissioned older model - phased out because these models feel emotions and are in that and other ways unreliable.  Meet Dorian, who's awakened from four years in android limbo.

So we've got a nice set up for a continuing story.  By the end of the premiere episode, Kennex has come to respect and appreciate Dorian, and Dorian appreciates this appreciation.   Kennex also discovers, in one last and dangerous dredge of his memories, that his former girlfriend betrayed him.

The police force is suitably diverse - other than the MXs - with Michael Irby (of The Unit) playing the typically skeptical cop who views both Dorian and Kennex as wrecks who came back to the force, and Lt. Maldonado (Lili Taylor) seeing them both as "special" i.e., much needed.   I like the mix, I like the style, I like the storyline, I like the action, and I'll back tomorrow.





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