Pilot

Painkiller Jane Episode Review

In which we all have our problems.

What Happened

A Federal agent named Jane Vasco finds herself trying to bust some drug dealers, only to wind up facing three guys who look exactly the same. The one in the middle claims that she's dealing with someone who can alter her perceptions, and when she correctly guesses who to shoot, he's impressed.

Andre McBride tries to recruit Jane to join his team, and when she balks, he insists by having her framed for possession and forces her transfer. McBride introduces Jane to Riley, the computer geek; Ford, the cannon fodder; Joe, the random hanger-on; Connor, the "ugly one" who seriously isn't, but is kind of a pig; and Dr. Seth Carpenter, the medical geek. They hunt "Neuros" genetic aberrations with mental powers.

Their latest case is a suspected Neuro who is dealing sub-standard drugs out of a company called Vonotek. One of their agents, who was trying to go undercover, walked out after her first day and stepped in front of a bus. Jane and Ford are sent in, but as they snoop, Ford suddenly goes crazy and attacks Jane, sending them both flying out a window... Forty stories up... It's a pretty good bet their both dead.

Which would explain why McBride and his team are stunned when Jane staggers into their lair, alive but not entirely whole. A few hours later, she is completely physically healed. Even weirder: when they do some tests, Jane isn't a Neuro. Completely over the whole thing, Jane heads home, where her former DEA partner Maureen is just as shocked as Andre was. When Maureen admits that she has been following up on McBride and the Neuros (great band name), she becomes their next recruit.

While Maureen makes another attempt at going undercover, Jane and Andre realize that the Neuro is using the company comsets to control people. The Neuro is the assistant to the head of security, and when she makes Maureen, she orders the agent to walk out a window. Jane gets through to her, however, just before she falls. As the Neuro makes a break for it, Andre, Jane, and Connor move in.

The woman ducks into a police station and starts controlling the cops, but Jane runs a gauntlet of gun-fire, taking multiple hits, in order to shoot her with a power-dampening chip.

What We Learned

• Control can be a dangerous illusion. There are some things you have no control over. Gravity being one of the big ones.
• No buy, no bust.
• Jane is more the kind of girl you have to take to dinner first.
• Andre has that "I love the chain of command" charm about him.
• Drunks fall off buildings. Jane was pushed.
• When you're on the run, who better to control than people with guns.
• Connor was in jail.
• There were extenuating circumstances.
• There always are.

Best Lines

McBride: "He's a genetic aberration."
Jane: "We all have our problems."

What Did I Think?

Good, but not great.

The pace was very fast, which unfortunately reduced that amount of time dedicated to sorting out who the characters were beyond Heroine, Mentor-Guy, "the Ugly One" (who was totally not ugly at all), Doctor, Computer Geek, Best Friend, Weird Old Guy Who Doesn't Seem to Serve Any Purpose Yet, and Cannon Fodder.

Now that I list them out, that's quite a packed cast, isn't it?

Anyways, they did get all the important bits out. Namely that Jane can't be killed and heals really fast, that she has Mommy Issues (a change from the ubiquitous Daddy Issues), and that there are super-humans called Neuros wandering around doing dastardly things with thier special powers - but Jane isn't a Neuro, she's something else. Just in case you were wondering.

Despite the pacing, I did feel that there was more time spent than necessary on Jane's recruitment and her resistance to said recruitment because she is Just. That. Cool. Seriously, what's the point of taking the time to track down the Super Secret Spy in his Super Secret Hideout if you're just going to smile smugly at him and walk out. Then after all that, her friend gets recruited and sent on her first mission in less than three seconds of story-time - a gap smoothed over by a voice-over. And if Jane and her friend got recruited because they had a computer geek investigate the Super Secret Guy and then had to join up, why wasn't the computer geek recruited?

Was it because they already had a computer geek? You guys might reconsider that one, because the computer geek you've got doesn't look entirely stable to me. Not that any of them really look good; everyone's just kinda grungy, which makes Kristanna Lokken stand out even more. She's like Peta Wilson from La Femme Nikita, but without the exotic accent. Though, I'll say this in her favor: she's not some teeny tiny little waif of a woman that they are so desperately trying to convince me is a bad-ass. As least she's got enough weight on her bones that I can really imagine her managing to take a guy down if she had to.

I'm reserving judgement on the voice-overs. There can be a reliance on them in early days of some shows just to get the exposition out of the way. Dead Like Me used them a lot. Jane is no George, however, even if they both share that understated "I'm distancing myself from the world" 'tude. The difference was the George actually was funny, while Jane is... not so much. There's a little too much force going into the humor, like everyone is over-playing to make sure the audience gets it.

There were some attempts at visual stylings, which was... interesting. Someone needs to explain that not everything looks good under green light. Like The Dresdan Files, the show has potential and a pretty good cast, so we'll just have to see if they can work out the kinks.

And consider better lighting.