By Brandon Pascall
I’ve been following Deadly Class since it’s inception five years ago. I was a sophomore in high school and much like Marcus (the main protagonist) I identified with his problems.
For those uninitiated, Deadly Class is set in the backdrop of the late 80’s and it’s a high school for teenage assassins. The series was created by Rick Remender and Wes Craig, two masters of storytelling. I had the privilege of viewing the pilot so today I’ll be recapping some of the main highlights of the pilot.
Fans can rest easy knowing that SYFY’s adaptation of the killer graphic novel Deadly Class stays very true to its comic-book counterpart of the same name. We are quickly introduced to the main character of the show, Marcus (Benjamin Waddsworth). Marcus is a homeless teen and the shows main protagonist, he’s on the run from a violent past and holds a personal vendetta against the current president at the time Ronald Reagan.
The plot of the pilot itself takes inspirations from the first three issues of the comic, we get to see moments from the comics and hints towards to the broader world of Deadly Class outside the walls of the school. While some of the students seem like a big enough threat for Marcus we are reminded constantly on how dangerous the real world actually is, from physical threats to the mental issues that plague Marcus the show establishes an interesting take of what being alone can do to a person, especially when you’re a teenager.
A series of events occur that readers of the comic will be familiar with occur which leads Marcus down the path to join Kings Dominion School Of Deadly Arts. From this point forward we fully meet the supporting cast of Deadly Class and begin to explore what the school has to offer and what its students are capable of.
The interactions between the bigger cast members in the pilot truly nail the feeling and tone the comic book gives off, the standouts of these interactions are definitely Maria (Maria Gabriela de Faria), Willie (Luke Tennie), and Billy (Liam James). These three have the most impact on Marcus while on screen and considering that relationships play a very important aspect in the book you can easily tell that it translates perfectly onto the screen with ease. Master Lin (Benedict Wong) was also a highlight of the episode, he seems to have a very good chemistry his students and is able to acknowledge that what he is teaching his students can change the world around them for better or worse, Master Lin doesn’t seem like an evil headmaster but an understanding teacher, one that actually cares for his students and their well being, but we’ll have to wait and see whether or not this changes as more episodes roll out.
The look and feel of the school is what truly blew me away, the school itself feels like a character and getting to explore some of the classes that the cast takes was very cool and actually felt more expanded on then the book, I hope that they continue to play up this element and show the viewers some of the more advanced classes and some of the extracurricular activities that aren’t explored in the comic.
Overall the pilot episode of Deadly Class was relatively solid if it continues down this path fans of the show will earlier be waiting for what’s next.
Deadly Class premiers January 16th, 2019
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