Dominion Season One
Angels With Grumpy Faces
Release Date: OUT NOW!
2014 | 15 | Blu- ray/ DVD Creator: Vaun Wilmott Cast: Christopher Egan, Tom Wisdom, Roxanne McKee, Anthony Head, Alan Dale
Using the
Bible as inspiration for your fantasy series is only slightly less desperate than using a Scott Stewart film for inspiration. Dominion uses both.
This TV sequel to 2010 turkey Legion ( in which an American diner becomes an unlikely battleground for good/ bad angels) is set in a postapocalyptic Las Vegas, now walled- off from a world where feral angels run wild. Why feral? Well, they’re more interesting than harp- playing cherubs.
Expressionless ( though apparently guilt- ridden) archangel Michael helps the citizens of “Vega”, seemingly in return for an endless supply of soft furnishings, while evil brother Gabriel auditions for Baron Hardup in pantomime, plotting nasty stuff while twirling his moustache.
There’s a “chosen one”, Alex, with tattoos all over his body only he can read ( presumably using a mirror for the ones on his back); he has a destiny, of course. Destiny also brings together two telefantasy stalwarts – Anthony Head ( as a shifty counsellor) and Alan Dale ( as Vega’s leader) – in the same show for the first time. They look like they’re trying to inject some class, but fail miserably, and Head’s plantationowner accent is hilarious.
It’s pretty dire stuff, where prophecies are plotting and political intrigue comes down to who has the juicier blackmail material time after time after time…
Still, there are some pretty CGI angel wings and a lot of shirtless male torsos, if you’re the sort to whom that kind of thing appeals. The rest of us are praying for redemption.
Both formats have deleted scenes ( 13 minutes) and a gag reel, and include the full- length two- part season finale as it aired in the UK, not the condensed version shown in the US. Dave Golder