Welcome again! After the reviews of my partner Erin, I take over for the Heels 1×05 “Swerve” review and the remaining episodes of this season. This episode presents us with some conflicts between characters while the emotions in the ring increase … but they still cannot reach our hearts. Time for review!
Here we go!
The thing about Heels is that I don’t like wrestling, I don’t know anything about its world and I don’t understand much of it. Seriously, it’s not even a sport that I see at the Olympics and I’m a huge fan of the Olympics and Paralympics games, but wrestling… it’s just not my cup of tea. So Heels had only one bullet left to win me over: emotion. And, at the moment … it is not succeeding.
Heels 1×05 “Swerve” is my first review of this show but I watched all the previous episodes and I largely agree with my partner Erin: there is no emotional development of the characters, not enough at least. It is as if in each episode you expect the stories to move towards a deep emotional conflict, to see the characters show another facet apart from the one we saw in the first episodes. I mean, we just got past the middle of the season, it’s about damn time.
But it doesn’t happen.
This would be very simple if I did a recap, I would only have to highlight the events of Heels 1×05 “Swerve” but this is not a recap if not a review, which means an opinion but … what happens when nothing of what has happened gives you a deep opinion? The whole point is to talk about what you thought while watching the show. And that’s… it was inevitable for me to see Oliver Queen in Stephen Amell.
And it’s not because of Stephen Amell. It’s just that… I’m a huge Arrow and Olicity fan, I spent many years following that show and writing about it, feeling very strong things for it… so I couldn’t help but think that Jack cheering everyone on from the ring in Heels 1×05 “Swerve” was a lot like Oliver giving great inspirational speeches to his city.
Just like when Jack smiled proudly at the tenderness of his son, I thought he was eating with Mia while they were waiting for Felicity. Or maybe with her and her brother Thomas. Yes, I’m that masochist. Love me or hate me but I’m like that. That look … brings back many memories with it and, to be honest, it has always put a smile on my face.
So Stephen Amell is Jack and he does a great job, but his voice… if I close my eyes I see Oliver Queen and that’s just me. It always happens to me, when there is a show that I love, it is very difficult for me to see the same actor or actress playing another character. In addition, it is impossible for me not to compare Arrow with Heels and Arrow had bad, terrible moments, of laughing so we wouldn’t cry but I think it was always a very deep emotional show and that is why it hooked many of us … and that does not happen with Heels.
In another vein, a large part of me is rooting for Crystal and the other large part for Thomas because I adore that kid! I still can’t stand Bill and Ace needs to fix his shit, what the hell did he do?
Ultimately, I think Heels tries, tries very hard to delve a little deeper into the characters and the emotional stories, their conflicts, just… they are not there yet. We hope they are soon because this show has a lot of potential to get us emotional.
They just need one more step to achieve it.
And here ends our Heels 1×05 “Swerve” review. We will be back next week with a new one!
