I think I fell in love with Topher by half way through. But, he reminded me more of Andrew than Xander. I didn't like him at the beginning, but that was more the gratuitous over explaining that he was doing. By midway through, he just made me laugh.
And the handler guy was GREAT.
I like the cast so far.
I wasn't happy with poor Amy's face being all sliced up and even less happy to think it could be the end of the season before we even get a hint of what happened to her. But, I'll deal with that. I just don't like the idea of Fred being hurt.
As for the first article, I gotta disagree with this part
And as much as I loved Dushku on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, I don't feel that she's able to carry off the burden of carrying a series by playing an infinite number of characters. Dushku seems to work best when she's in Bad Girl mode (i.e., Faith or Taffy) but otherwise she seems more or less to be channelling the same personality imprint the rest of the time... and she also doesn't quite pull off the "blank slate" aspect of the Actives either. (Unlike Dichen Lachman, who as Sierra, nails it in her first scene.)
Granted, he's seen more than I have, but I was actively THRILLED to not only NOT see her play a "bad girl" but amazed that she did it so well. To see her REALLY smile and look happy and not have it look fake (or slightly evil) was AMAZING.
More and better, she played the doe eyed innocent "non-active active" quite well. It was VERY refreshing to see and I was honestly amazed how easily I fell for it and not as if it was an "act" but real. She does make a good "bad girl", but I really liked seeing her as little lost innocent girl too. I sat in shock through most of the show with how WELL she did it.
I mean, I've seen her smile on talk shows, but she still has that "edge" to her in RL. But, she really had the confused innocent thing going on.