[TV] For All That Is Holy, SyFy’s ‘Dominion’ is Worth the Watch

Archangel Michael (Tom Wisdom), soldier Alex (Christopher Egan) and vengeful Gabriel (Carl Beukes) star. 

For All That Is Holy, SyFy’s ‘Dominion’ is Worth the Watch

Four out of five stars, highly recommended.

Dominion isn't any ordinary angel with a harp slung over his shoulder, white feathery wings, and an astonishingly pretty face. The show that premiered June 2014 flips the theme of angels on its head and re imagines the heavenly beings as snarling warriors with a penchant for killing humans.

With a window of open time before the next seasons of ‘Orphan Black’ and ‘Bitten’ now was a better time to than ever to dive into the world of Dominion and see what it’s all about. In a word, it’s impressive.

The pilot opens with illustrations of angels in the same richly toned, gilded style common in medieval bibles and the stained glass panels in churches. The angels rise into action and a narrator explains how the archangel Gabriel grew vengeful of humans and took it upon himself to amass armies of other angels in his quest to kill the entire human race. By means of possessing human bodies many of the angels were able to successfully infiltrate and slaughter humans, but it didn't end there.

How's that for a poster?

The archangel Michael took a stand and became the defender of humans, he fended off Gabriel and his forces and managed to secure a sanctuary for humans, and perhaps most importantly he managed to find the human baby destined to become the ‘savior’, who will officially end the conflict ravaging the earth. That savior is said to be born with markings on his body and the ability to decipher them, to defend humanity from the angels. He is protected and kept secret by Michael, and is the subject of much speculation by the people who continue to pray and hope for him to emerge.

With that, the episode begins with Alex Lannon, a soldier with cropped blond hair and a gray uniform exploring a dilapidated casino. It doesn’t take long for him to stumble upon a trio of angels camped out one of the card tables.

In the nature of the demon possessions in the early seasons of ‘Supernatural’, Dominion’s angels are black-eyed, and sharp-toothed, with gravelly voices. These fiendish foes, with protruding networks of veins that show on their bodies like a rash, are both hideous, fearsome and convincing.

Enter the savior!

Fast on his feet, Alex gets a few good swings in before he races back to his jeep where he hauls ass across a dark and barren landscape, urgently calling into his radio for the soldiers in the city to open the gates and let him in. As he speeds down the dusty road the angels follow after him shrieking. There are a few moments where the motion of the angels swooping, with their CGI wings snapping out as they dive into Alex’s jeep that are silly, but they’re not in any way a stain on the show. They don’t change the dark tone of the show to anything campy.

The gate is opened, and the angels are shot down by military fire as Alex speeds back into the compound of the city. At once Vega, what was previous Las Vegas, is both familiar and different. Much like some of the zombie apocalypse settings that show a previous big city location as a stripped down and disintegrating mess swarming with civilians and military mavericks alike, there is a lot of familiarity to this world. But it manages to still make it a distinction onto itself. Vega is a land of crumbling casinos, decked out with military weapons, expertly trained soldiers, and humans crippled by poverty and an unjust social caste system. The level of a person, from lowest V1 determines where they can live, what they can eat and what they can work as.

What happens in Vega... oh forget it.

The scenes in the cramped living quarters are something like an army barrack, jail cell, and summer camp cabin all in one. There are walls full of lockers for the few possessions these citizens have, and privacy is hard to come by  with the shared and open-stall showers, and the bunks that are stacked up and down, far and wide. Despite this, there is a strong camaraderie among those who live in that caste of Vega.

Alex is soon punished by the governmental leaders and the archangel himself, Michael, by means of a few lashes from a whip and his rank being demoted to a V2. Yet he’s defiant and defends his excursions out the barriers and beyond Vega.

Alex and Michael frequently face off.

The story is a breathless rush of political intrigue and action with the suspense looming over head. Tensions run high and there’s not one overly long moment or lull in the entire episode. From the dark cinematography to the costuming, storyline and characters, the premier of Dominion is a success across the board. Most notably, this show seems very tonally sure of itself. There’s no wishy washy vibes coming from the way it wants to present itself. It promises to be gritty, dramatic, and exciting, and in the premier it delivers.

General Reisen (Alan Dale) and Consul Whele (Anthony Head) are the men with all the power.

The casting is a total win. Anthony Head is commanding and ambitious in his role as Vega’s senator Consul David Whele. Affecting an American accent and carrying himself in arrogantly, Head distances himself from earlier roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Merlin, but still brings his acting skills full form. 

When it comes to the female characters, Bixby is a precocious waif of a girl that would be right at home in a Tim Burton film, and is charming in her role as Alex’s young friend.

Bix has an uncanny resemblance to Burton's "Staring Girl".

The stately but lethal grace of the archangel Michael, the guardian of the city and fighter for humanity is at all times solemn, poised and ever watchful. There's a quiet strength to him. He’s slight of build, dark-eyed, and  his knife work in fighting off the rogue ‘eight-ball’ angels, one of the nicknames for the angel-possessed humans because of their black eyes, is something that’s visually enchanting.

As for the lead, Christopher Egan expressed emotion well as a lead in the sugary 2010 romance flick ‘Letters to Juliet’, and he brings that same sensitivity and spectrum of emotions here to Dominion. From the hurt when he meets his estranged father who abandoned him when he was just a child, to the tender romance he shares with the governor’s daughter, Claire, there is a certain emotional depth to Alex that promises to make him a character that’s not only relatable but fully fleshed out.

Claire (Roxanne McKee) cozies up with Alex.

  By the time he witness his father, and the only one who could decipher the mysterious Chosen One tattoo markings, die at the tail end of the pilot there is a sense that Alex is already starting to grow as a character. With the pain flashing across his face and his eyes briefly glinting with a sheen of tears Egan gives a remarkable performance.

The concept of the Chosen One is all too often a cliche, if not a total bore. Chosen One stories tend to be formulaic, predictable, and seen as more of a joke than anything. Yet, Dominion makes it work. It’s not even a question of suspending disbelief. The dangers in Vega are very real. The characters are fully realized, flawed, and relatable. Vega is a mashup of glitz, desolation, and desperation, that shows through physically in the solid world building.

From Alex seeing the Humans possessed by angels playing blackjack in the ruins of a casino, to seeing with mingled astonishment and horror his father’s skin crawling with the Chosen One’s tattoos as he bleeds to death, everything about this episode works.

When the tattoos suddenly begin to scrawl and writhe across Alex’s own body, marking him as the true Chosen One, it’s not a surprising twist but it’s anything by bland or forgettable. Dominion takes flight moments after it pilot begins and it has, for lack of better words, earned its wings.

And so it begins...

All images from the IMDB and SyFy website.