Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
Trinidad and Tobago superhero Batchack Man (Keyon Byron) has made the jump from film to his own webseries. The masked hero, who previously appeared in an eponymous feature film and a short called Missing Persons, had his new show The Peacemakers Series recently premiere on GT Caribbean Network. With a mild SPOILER ALERT let’s dive in.
Written, directed and starring Byron, the episode “Vigilance” opens with an historical origin for the Batchack Man in a very well-shot cold open. While his exact abilities remain quite murky I appreciated this added layer of lore. We also have Aliyah Whatley (previously seen as the mysterious Survivor in GT Caribbean Network’s Black Land series) as brutal killer Amina West going full Terminatrix on some suckers. The action choreography is not the smoothest but the sound editing and solid performances make it entertaining.
There’s also a subplot with the villain from the Batchack Man film The OH (Original Herbalist, and no, I’m not making that up) getting shaken down by a lip licking, lascivious guy that made me smile with his over-the-top antics. And we learn that OH (played by Russell A. Allen) is Russian though his accent just sounds vaguely European.
We also get a glimpse of Sydney Ledger, who absolutely killed it in the Visionaries Production feature After the Apocalypse, as the female baddie Paralysis but no more than a glimpse. The episode has a couple of characters who pop up and disappear without explanation which I presume is supposed to be foreshadowing but just ends up being confusing. Heck, I don’t even know what the opening scene with Amina West has to do with anything. The writing could do with some tightening to connect these threads, and with these types of webseries keeping things simple is always best.
For a “Batchack Man” episode there is actually very little Batchack Man. He pops up during a gunfight in the woods featuring a guy in a black skull mask. Why the guy is wearing the mask isn’t clear, but it looks cool and the gun effects look good. And in the scene we do learn a bit more about Batchack Man’s abilities which I appreciated.
Fans of the local superhero webseries Magonolia will be glad to know that Batchack Man is part of that universe, and both the hero and Keyon Byron’s appearance in Season 1 Episode 3 as a different character are referenced. This happens during a somewhat cringe-inducing romantic scene between Batchack Man in his civilian persona (what is the name of his alter ego has not yet been revealed to my knowledge) and his girlfriend Michelle (Angelia Bissoon). And I presume they went to the movies after BM left work otherwise why is he wearing a suit? That’s just weird.
So I had a decent time with The Peacemakers Series pilot. The production quality, while still not the greatest, reflects the more polished approach I saw in After the Apocalypse and a welcome improvement from the super shaky, so-bad-it’s-good efforts of the two Batchack Man films. All in all a good start for what can be a fun, supernatural superhero action series. And who say Magonolia/Batchack Man crossover event? #excitements
Editor Jules’s Score: 6 out of 10
You can check out Sommer’s video review below:
You can watch Batchack Man: The Peacemakers Series pilot for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more from Visionaries Production below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.