Thursday 10 October 2013

Galilei Donna - Episode 1

A ship sails through the sky, dropping a decidedly deadly cargo upon an unsuspected mine, with the giant robots unleashed by said craft blowing the whole place to smithereens.

Alongside this, it seems that whoever has a penchant for blue ships isn't doing much for the reputation, as the next thing we see is three very different girls finding themselves simultaneously under threat of being kidnapped.  The trio all manage to escape in their own varied ways, and from this we come to learn that, different though they might be, the three are in fact sisters.  Not only that, they're distant descendant of Galileo (cue Bohemian Rhapsody) - something of which they're mother is clearly very proud.


As we learn a little more about the workings (or lack thereof) of this dysfunctional family, so the person we assume to be the orchestrator of those kidnapping attempts comes calling to their home, literally bursting through the wall brandishing a gun.  With some World Cup qualifiers about to start, this man is in a hurry and he has a simple demand - he wants them to hand over Galileo's inheritance.  The family seem confused by this request, but as their captor's patience runs thin and he calls for his giant flying ship to increase the pressure upon them it seems that they have met their match courtesy of one of the three Ferrari sisters, Hozuki, and a giant mechanical goldfish.  No, really, I haven't been drinking.  Yet.

This is perhaps the kind of series that isn't well served by promotional trailers, and as a result I'm left entirely unsure of what to make of this first episode of Galilei Donna - I love its dysfunctional family and the relationships and attitudes between its three sisters in particular, which is the stuff of situation comedy writ large.  Beyond that, the episode becomes so bonkers so quickly and with so little exposition to back up what's going on that I can't really cast any further judgement on the show at this point.  I'm intrigued, which is a good start, but hopefully the series will come up trumps with more than just crazy stuff happening around these three siblings once it starts to bed in and develop.

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