Critique: Invisible City (Series Two)

Luna and Ines are looking for Eric. He’s awakened and is immediately entangled in the dirty business of a mining company.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Non-Problems

 

There were many events which seemed like huge mistakes when watching. However, when thought about, they were the sensible choices.

At first I was gobsmacked that Ines was looking for Eric, considering she took him away at the end of Series One. Surely she’d know where she left him? Later we learn that the ocean took him away. So how, then, did he emerge from a pool that’s not connected to another water source? Maybe he was brought there by floods, or by underground tunnels connected ponds to the ocean that are known to occur in the Americas.

The judge Clarice is the Mule, represented as a horse with fire replacing its head. In her animal form she is clearly a horse. Maybe trained horses are easier to find or to work with than trained mules. Maybe it’s a bad translation, like how the Cemetery Mule of the Berber people is also a horse.

In Series One, the name Ines was pronounced ‘in-Az’. In Series Two, it was ‘in-ez’. Even the voice actor of Eric (the same in both series!) changed his pronunciation. Maybe this was the dub being corrected?

Why was Ines looking after Luna? The siren Camila was more involved with Luna in Series One so she would have been my initial choice as guardian. Also, Ines ruled and protected the entities, so why would she go on an expedition and leave them? Maybe that’s the answer: Luna is an entity and Ines takes all entities under her wing.

 

 

Problems

 

Sadly, there were many mistakes that lowered the overall quality.

With the two years between the two series (both in-story and in-life), it’s unsurprising that Luna looks older. Luna says she’s thirteen, making her eleven in Series One. However, by her looks and behaviour in the first series, I would have aged her at eight. So when I first saw her in the second series, I thought her makeup and clothes had aged her too dramatically.

Castro’s general demeanour to Debora was like that of a romantic partner. But then he took her shoes off, called her a romantic name, then lay down on the same bed with her. This confirmed to me that they were romantic partners. But then we saw him be romantic with Clarice who turned out to be his wife. So maybe Debora is his mistress? No, Debora is his sister. So his behaviour was inappropriate.

Clarice, in her capacity as a judge, had dismissed all the cases against her husband’s mining company. How had no one in the judicial administration taken account of the conflict of interests?

Eric was told not to increase his heat because Debora, as a viper, would see this and then know Eric was still alive. But Debora can see everyone when they’re cold, including Eric, so why would getting hot matter? Unless Eric’s heat is unique, this doesn’t make sense, but considering Debora hadn’t seen Eric at all, how would she recognise his unique heat? To top it all off, how is Eric supposed to control his heat? This whole thing was a mess.

The auction guests are to hide their gold. Then Lazzo’s wheeled in and points at a lady who unhides her gold. Everyone’s surprised Lazzo knew where treasure was. But Lazzo pointed at a clearly rich lady at an auction for clearly rich people, so it’s unsurprising that she has gold. Thus this demonstration shouldn’t have proven that Lazzo could find hidden treasure.

Clarice and priest are on a balcony and the priest said what they did was wrong. This was presented as a flashback, even though the sex was presented as a current event. When the husband mentions the cheating, the priest said it was a long time ago. If the sex was a long time ago, it should have been presented as a flashback. Further, the sex seemed like a response to modern events. So the timeline was disorientating.

Matinta Perera, a shaman who can take many forms including that of an owl, tells Eric that love isn’t selfish. She then says that Eric only thinks about his self (i.e. is selfish). Yet all Eric thinks about was getting Luna back… because they loved each other. She knows too much to be oblivious to that apparent fact. So Matinta Perera didn’t make sense.

Matinta Perera states that Eric has made many bad choices and that they would lead to environmental destruction. She made out that Eric’s made loads of bad choices but I don’t see how. Yes he took Lazzo and Bento’s powers without their permission, but considering they viewed the powers as a curse this isn’t awful. Debora was controlling and killing people so taking her powers protected Luna and also others. Taking Ines’ powers without her consent when she was doing nothing wrong is bad, clearly. Obviously, her dying due to this is also bad. But how does any of this lead to environmental disaster?

Castro, the husband of Clarice, tells his men to leave Debora alone because she’s worthless. Yet one of his men goes after her anyway? This doesn’t have any bearing on the plot but it is odd all the same.

 

 

Positives

 

Really good choices were made.

Eric’s handcuffed to a bed. Bento bites the chain part. I thought it would make more sense to bite the actual cuff so that no one would know Eric had escaped, thus making his getaway less suspicious. But when Eric absorbed Bento’s powers, he used them to bite off the cuff. This was a good decision because it demonstrated Eric’s new powers without having to talk about it.

Castro made trotting noises at his wife whilst holding his shoes. This was nice foreshadowing that she was a horse entity.

Series Two has fewer changes of clothing and less animation. However, there was much more drama and suspense. It was a matter of plot over visuals.

Matinta Perera warned Ines that Eric would take her powers, making Ines a human and thus killing her (because Ines has lived longer than a human lifespan). Ines replied that she trusted Eric. Matinta Perera makes Eric watch this memory straight after he took Ines’ powers. That was cruel but an excellent piece of writing.

 

 

Questions

 

These things aren’t problems because they could be described away as legitimate choices. However, failing a descent explanation they are problematic to the extreme.

Eric was naked when he emerged from the pool. We saw that when Ines took him to heal in the sea that he was clothed, so how did he get naked? Can the ocean currents rip off clothes? That doesn’t sound likely to me.

Matinta Perera brought Eric back to life… only for him to go back into the pool and back to death. Maybe releasing him was the only was to unleash the events leading to Debora rejoining her people and to Castro ceasing to destroy native land? Matinta Perera said that Luna owed her a favour for bringing her dad back alive but she never collects on it. Unless her telling Luna to let her father go was the price? Maybe ‘back to consciousness’ would be better because his dead wife at the end of Series One told him he still had stuff to do and said he wasn’t dead. But then he could have died in the two years between the series.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, this series wasn’t satisfying. There were too many problems. There are too many events that need a brilliant explanation in justification. Yet there were many excellent choices. So the phrase ‘missed in translation’ comes to mind. Considering I don’t know Portuguese, I can’t check the original. This does not, however, excuse the disappointment. Especially when the first series demonstrated how well it could be done.