The Kill Point: No Meringue

The premiere episode of The Kill Point gave an interesting start to this Spike TV miniseries, despite its reliance on many tried-and-true bank robbery/hostage situation clichés. The second episode, "No Meringue," did a fine job keeping the clichés, but left out most of the interesting stuff.

As was expected, the FBI got involved. And like nearly every movie and TV show that shows the FBI taking over for an already established negotiator, things didn't turn out so well for the Feds. Agent Ash was your stereotypical "my way or the highway" bitch. Captain Horst Cali did his best to talk some sense into her, explaining the methods she was using (loud noises, lowering the temperature) weren't going to have any effect on men who lived through winters warring in Afghanistan. The result: Mr. Wolf turned the tables and messed with Ash's head with several entertaining prank phone calls.The episode was very cookie-cutter. FBI comes in, Cali's kicked out, FBI screws up, Cali proves he's the better man by getting another hostage set free. There aren't a lot of people out there that didn't see it coming.

This was also the episode where the hostages started to relate to their captors. Wolf and Robbie shared tales of swimming in shirts. The young ladies played dress up with the expensive jewelry Mr. Pig lifted from safety deposit boxes. Furthermore, Mr. Beck's decision to hire a hit man to take out Wolf was as predictable as everything else. The show is certainly hitting all the appropriate story beats.

Not helping matters was the clunky dialogue used throughout the episode. There were several unnecessary conversations that seemed to be trying to hit a Tarantino-esque tone. I'm referring to the sniper on the roof ruminating about the sodium in his body then switching his focus to a very out-of-place beauty behind the police barriers. Or the SWAT leader talking about Ash's man butt. Or the male team members conversing about nad scratching. Clearly this dialogue was intended to give the episode an edge, but it all sounded silly and out of place to me.

Added to this are all the little things occurring strictly for the purpose of advancing the plot, most of which completely blow the reality of the situation. For example, when Cali had Teddy Sabian introduced to Mr. Beck, the two men didn't shake hands. This led Cali to believe the gentlemen had already met, which is true. Here's the thing, though: why didn't they shake hands?! They both know what's at stake and they're both pretending not to have met before. They would have shook hands; they're not idiots. Or how about the greatest coin-wrapped-in-paper slide across the floor in the history of television? I mean, come on. They have got to do a better job of keeping things realistic or nobody's going to care about the fates of any of these people.

One thing I am enjoying about The Kill Point is the fact that there are men on the outside trying to devise a way of getting their partners out of the bank. The slow burn of this situation is working for me. In this episode, they spent their time scoping out the situation and figuring out logistics. They also foiled Mr. Beck's attempt to free his daughter. At this point, they are the reason I'll keep tuning in. How will they do it? Will they go in guns a-blazing? Will it be a covert operation? Will they find a way to contact their men on the inside? Without these questions, there'd be very little left to care about in The Kill Point.