Allison to Lillia - Episode 9

After absolutely tearing apart episode eight of Allison to Lillia piece by piece (and let's be honest, it deserved it), I fear that I may have struck some kind of mortal fear into the show's script writers. After that episode full of calamitous clangers and plot holes you could fly an entire air force through, the latest instalment of the series contrasts by not having a single real issue you could take a swipe at. In fact, it's so inoffensively bland that I really have nothing much to say at all.

As this is the start of a new mini-arc, all we get this time around is scene setting - Ker Benedict has used his hero status to blag a bunch of tickets for the new Trans-Continental Express between Roxche and Sous-Beil, and of course he's invited Allison, Wil and Franc.... err... Fio.... umm... Fi, too.

So, they all meet at varying stations as the train makes its journey, and... That's it really. If you want to make this episode more interesting, I would suggest playing back Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express over the episode, only repeatedly singing 'Trans-Continental Express' over the tune. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if this episode was a homage to the electronic music pioneers given its steady, unyielding uniformness.


Okay, so I have to admit there is some semblance of a plot: So far we've been introduced to two bad guys - One so generic I have nothing to say about him, while the other seemingly slightly more evil character appears to be none other than Rainier Wolfcastle from The Simpsons. That aside, there's also the important question of whether Allison will manage to seduce Wil, and I think it isn't too much of a spoiler to say that this was only ever going to be akin to her attempting to seduce a wet lettuce in the success stakes.

Roll on episode ten, when something will hopefully actually happen. I think I actually preferred it when the show was failing at being dramatic compared to this tea party of an episode.