10 Thoughts/Questions: Killjoys Seasons 1 and 2

And now, 10 Thoughts/Questions (seriously, I need a better name for this) about SyFy's Killjoys Seasons 1 and 2 (because we watched them back to back). Killjoys is a show about three bounty hunters (called Killjoys) who go around the galaxy catching bounties. Spoilers ahoy!

1. More than anything else, this show is really fun! It sometimes didn't make any sense, and (in the first season, at least) had almost no continuity from episode to episode, but that didn't stop it from just being barrels of ridiculous fun. And I do mean ridiculous. A lot of the show doesn't really hold up if you examine it too closely.

2. Hannah John-Kamen is awesome on this show. Her character of Dutch is cool, badass, sexy, and runs rings around her two compatriots. She's clearly the smartest and most level-headed of three, never falling into that weird trap of a perfectly competent female character suddenly losing her shit and getting stupid for no reason at all.

3. The Quad is a pretty neat setting (if a bit on the nose with its class issues), all told. You get the planet Qresh, the most beautiful and well-kept celestial body where the Nine families (aka the one percent) live a ridiculously wealthy lifestyle and rule the whole of the Quad, and its three moons: Leith, somewhat pristine planet where the middle and upper middle class live; Westerley, the most populated, dirtiest moon, and where the lower classes live (along with new immigrants from elsewhere in the galaxy); and Arkyn, a dead moon that is mostly used for secret human experimentation (as you do). Our hero Killjoys spend most of their time on Westerley (in Old Town specifically), but go to Leith to get their warrants fairly regularly, making space travel a mostly safe affair.

4. Speaking of the Nine, Dalle Seyah Kendry is a fantastic character. She's the head of one of the Nine families, but clearly craves more power than she's already got (which is substantial). She sometimes sends Dutch and the boys on missions, but very quickly shows her true colors in her ruthless takeover of Westerley and murder of Pawter Simms. She's alternately played as insane and calculating (sometimes in the same episode), but doesn't stop her from being awesome, and I fervently hope she's being set up as the new major antagonist...

5. ...because the previous antagonists weren't that great. Khlyen, Dutch's ex-teacher in the arts of assassination (she's not an assassin), and his (but nor really his) project to turn great Killjoys into what have been termed Sixes (for a reason so ridiculous, I'd rather tell you it's ridiculous than explain actually explain it: it's damn ridiculous). These Sixes are unkillable killing machines who only listen to specific people (this is never really made clear, I don't think, though one assumes it's the Nine maybe?). Khlyen started out kind of cool and mysterious, but then turned anti-hero when the other Sixes rebelled (or maybe he rebelled and the other Sixes were just tasked to bring him in? I honestly couldn't tell you because no sense) and joined forces with Dutch and the boys even though they'd been trying to kill him just one episode earlier. It's a mess, and I'm fairly glad that it looks like they'll been written out of the show by the end of season 2.

6. The ship's name is Lucy, and she's really funny in a very droll way, and I love her.

7. The Quad has a pretty interesting history, beyond the political stuff of Qresh and its moons, and why and how it colonized its moons. There are also the Scarback Monks, who literally write stuff onto their skins and bleed themselves to bless people. Dutch and the boys once found a book made of Scarback flesh. That is both gross and awesome.

8. Dutch's two companions, who I keep dismissively referring to as "the boys" just aren't as interesting as Dutch herself. John Jaqobis is a tech geek and Lucy's favorite, and I like him because of that (and also because he's played by Aaron Ashmore aka Icetwin), but he's often quite one note. His brother, D'avin Jaqobis, is even worse. It doesn't help that he's the muscle, the one with selective amnesia in the first season, and with some kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo attached to him in the second season. Honestly, he's just the worst.

9. The Reclamation Apprehension Coalition aka the RAC is the organization all Killjoys work for. It's independent (somehow) from the Nine and the Company it controls, but that Sixes program is also a part of it (Khlyen had an office in the RAC's ship, called "the Rack" just to confuse everybody), so who knows. However, we've met very few other Killjoys beyond Dutch and the boys. There's Fancy Lee, who I actually like quite a lot, and not just because he has an awesome name, and Turin, the sort of gruff, boss guy who is antagonist towards Dutch and the boys, but not actually an antagonist. But that's it. We've seen a few other Killjoys on screen, but haven't really met them, which is a bit sad, since I really want to. Seriously, as fun as this show is, the boys cannot support it. I'd rather the show be about Dutch, Fancy, and Turin, frankly...

10. ...but also Pree, because Pree is awesome. He owns and operates the bar on Westerley that Dutch and the boys often find themselves in, but also hung out on the ship with them for a little while when Westerley was under martial law. Yeah, let's change the show so that it's Dutch, Fancy, and Pree traveling the galaxy on Lucy, reporting to the gruff Turin. And you know what, throw in Clara with the bionic gun arm (she guest-starred in first and last episodes of the second season, and is played by Stephanie Leonidas, who also played Irisa on the dead-too-soon SyFy show Defiance). Yeah, the five of them versus Dalle Seyah Kendry. That show would be way more fun to watch (and maybe might make sense once in awhile).