And so, RM returned for the 5th season, bringing JW along with it. Yay! (Mind you, it was already around in the States, so here I'm talking only about Canada.) That said, well...
Canada decided to open RM with the episode "Colombian Slasher", as JW tried to solve the mystery of what's behind the drowning of a bride, and while this episode wasn't specifically bad, it was rather lukewarm; it almost had a tired feel behind it, as if JW just couldn't muster excitement behind it. Yes, he wasn't in Columbia before, but the various flashbacks of the other SA fish from the previous seasons took most of the excitement out of the new locale, and there wasn't any particular 'ethnic flavor' behind this episode either. Rather, I was reminded (by the show itself) of such episodes as "Piranha" (about the piranha) and "Amazon Flesheaters" (about various catfish species of the Amazon). Why?
The problem that lies behind that question is that there was no real need to show flashbacks - the viewers either knew already what JW was talking about and didn't need to see the flashbacks, or they didn't, in which case the flashbacks didn't show anything important either; in both cases they were more annoying than helpful.
As for the fish themselves... yes, the various stingrays were cool, but seeing how JW 'reminded' everyone of his previous run-ins with this family ("Silent Assassin" for example) - it took the wind out of everyone's sales, JW's included: he just didn't appear to have any real excitement behind his capture of this episode's Big Fish, but some really good acting. That is a close second, but just isn't the same...
Of course, the problem might be mine, not the episode's - I only saw it in bits and pieces, but what I saw... as I said before, the spark was missing, the 'ethnic flavor' was greatly reduced, and JW appeared to be mostly play-acting for the camera, not the 'real deal' as before. Oh well, maybe he is just having a rocky start and will improve as time goes by. We'll see.
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