JONES-ing For Some JESSICA

Article first published as TV Review: JESSICA JONES Season 2 on Seat42F.

Marvel’s JESSICA JONES is finally back for a second season on Netflix! The more-than-two-year wait between seasons can be explained by the aggressive Marvel Netflix production schedule, which saw four additional shows premiere since then, including a team-up between Jessica and other heroes, and a second season of an older series, Daredevil. With crossovers between the casts, it would be difficult to shoot them all at once. Though given how quickly the shows are being released now, I wouldn’t expect such a long break the next time.

Back to the series at hand, JESSICA JONES seems not to have missed a step as it begins season two. Jessica (Krysten Ritter) is haunted by the fact that she killed Kilgrave, making her, in her mind, a killer. To cope, she’s drinking a LOT, even for her, and refusing cases she might develop an emotional attachment to. Her sister, Trish (Rachael Taylor), has taken the opposite tact, jumping fully into investigating the past, though admittedly Trish didn’t murder anyone. And Malcolm (Eka Darville) tries to build up Alias Investigations as a business, despite its salty owner. Even Simpson (Wil Traval) pops up to show us how he’s doing after the events of last season.

It seems like not as much time has passed in the world of JESSICA JONES as it has in the real world, but that’s OK. Some time has gone by, and big events stick with you for weeks, months, even years. So it makes total sense that the emotional state of many of the players is influenced by season one, even if it’s been a bit.

Speaking of emotions, despite her estrangement from Jessica, Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) remains very much a part of the series. Her scenes are separate as she deals with some very tough medical news in not-so-healthy ways. But I’m interested to see where she will tie into the central story.

Season two doesn’t have such a clear villain to focus on as Kilgrave was. Instead, there’s a shady company known as IGH that seems to serve as the antagonist. But it doesn’t come out of nowhere. These are the people that gave Jessica, and others, powers. There’s a twenty-day span spent in their care that Jessica doesn’t remember. Why did they release her? What was their purpose? Jessica doesn’t know and so we don’t, though it seems certain we will find out as time goes on, especially with Trish on the case.

It isn’t necessarily a novel idea to dig into a lead character’s past to mine drama. But given how detached Jessica is in her daily life, it feels like a good road to go down for her. She isn’t going to speak her feelings to anyone, nor the audience, so by placing her in a position where she’s forced to confront her internal struggles, JESSICA JONES lets us learn a lot about the character. Physical artifacts force their journey along to nice effect. It’s far more interesting than just seeing her fight some baddie.

JESSICA JONES is the story of more than one broken character, but each have their own unique story. While they cross many times, there’s also a feeling of aloneness more present than with some of the ensemble casts of other series, even other Marvel Netflix series. This alone-while-with-someone take is something many viewers can relate to. Seeing Jessica, Trish, Malcolm, and Jeri deal with it also inspires us in a way heroes don’t usually do. JESSICA JONES shows us a different kind of inspiration, and it’s welcome.

Given the complex story and the deep emotional content, even though I’ve only viewed two hours thus far, it seems certain JESSICA JONES will maintain its quality through a second run. Even if it’s hard not to miss the magnetic persona of Kilgrave, whose specter hangs over the story.

JESSICA JONES season two is available now on Netflix.

ONCE UPON A TIME Needs a "Mother"

Article originally written for Seat42F.

More than one “Mother” makes a tough decision in this week’s ONCE UPON A TIME on ABC. The story has reached a pivotal moment for several characters. The lines of good and evil have been blurred, but now some players must pick a side, either going back to who they were or moving in a new direction. Do any of the bad guys really have the power to sabotage anything else?

In flashback, we see Cora (Barbara Hershey) return to apologize to Regina (Lana Parrilla) for killing her one true love. But instead of tracking down Robin Hood (Sean Maguire), Cora tries to pass off the Sheriff of Nottingham (Wil Traval) as her daughter’s destiny. Regina sees through it, makes herself barren when she thinks her mother’s plot involves taking control of Regina’s yet-to-be-conceived child, and banishes Cora forever.

I’m not really sure Regina and Cora are well served in “Mother” based on where they were at the time this plot takes place. Cora is truly evil in past installments, and this Cora seems sincerely repentant. This Regina is in the height of her days as the Evil Queen, and seems way too eager to give up what she has achieved for true love. It just doesn’t gel in the continuity.

The present Regina has a much more satisfying story. She considers having Isaac (Patrick Fischler), the Author, write Zelena (Rebecca Mader) out of the storybook entirely. But when Zelena brings up Cora, Regina realizes that part of being a hero is not taking petty revenge on one’s enemies, and she decides to drop the scheme, showing her growth. Unfortunately, Isaac is not at all consistent, first raving about how much he loves Regina’s shades of grey, then immediately fleeing back to Gold’s (Robert Carlyle) side when Regina does the right thing. Also, Regina seems to have achieved her happy ending without the Author’s intervention, which was supposed to be impossible, no?

Gold himself is nearly dead at this point, something that also doesn’t really add up with who he was, especially given his redemption arc in the early seasons, and the fact that we’ve never seen anyone die of a black heart before, no matter how evil they are, even ones much more so than Gold. But I guess we need to suspend disbelief here and hopefully the ending of the season will make sense for ONCE UPON A TIME, at least in the context of recent episodes, though I’m not very optimistic about it.

Speaking of uneven characters, Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten) bypasses a redemption arc entirely, so happy to have her daughter, Lily (Agnes Bruckner), back that she abandons all thoughts of revenge. Even when Lily doesn’t seem to share Maleficent’s vision, Maleficent stays tame and reasonable, ready to be there when Lily does calm down and decide to give a family a try. This is moving, sure, but oh so ridiculous for a villain.

The one subplot that does kind of work in “Mother” is when Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) helps Emma (Jennifer Morrison) forgive her parents. Even though Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) has a completely unnecessary injury at the time and Emma directs her healing words only at her mother, ignoring David (Josh Dallas), who is standing right there, the way this turns out still works well for Emma, resetting her back on the right path.

ONCE UPON A TIME is so frustrating because I feel if the writers either concentrated a little bit on continuity or were allowed to do so (I really don’t know who exactly is to blame for the piece jumping all over the place) it could be very good again, as it once was. Yet, even in an episode like “Mother,” which seems to make sense in theory, there are way too many things that need fixed for it to be praised. I kind of hope Isaac resets everything entirely, wiping the slate clean so the show can start all over again, though I’m sure that’s not what will happen.

ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Lacey Begins a New Once Upon a Time

Article first published as ONCE UPON A TIME Review Season 2 Episode 19 Lacey on Seat42F.

Grade:  94%

ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME breaks a long hiatus this week with “Lacey.” Regina (Lana Parrilla) helps Belle (Emilie de Ravin) get her memories back, but not her fairy tale ones. Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) is not too happy with Lacey, Belle’s new persona, who is somewhat the opposite of the girl he loves. Will they be able to find each other again, as true love’s kiss is needed to break Regina’s spell?

“Lacey” gives us another piece of the Rumplestilskin / Belle back story. We see them living together when they aren’t getting along. This is the part of the Beauty and the Beast story where things are unhappy, and ultimately culminates in the library / “there may be something there that wasn’t there before” bit. Yet, even in their most miserable times, Belle sees something in Rumple that gives her hope.

A young man named Robin Hood (Tom Ellis, Miranda) ventures into Rumple’s home to steal a magic wand. Rumple captures and tortures Robin Hood, intending to set an example for anyone else that might think to steal from him. Belle can’t stand to hear the suffering, and allows Robin to escape when Rumple isn’t looking.

I feel like these scenes in “Lacey” take Rumple in a darker direction than we’ve seen him before. Yes, we have witnessed him kill out of revenge, and use magic to manipulate and get what he wants. But we haven’t seen him being cruel, inflicting physical pain, without good reason. It’s not like he even knows Robin; Robin is just a man willing to break the rules to save the woman that he loves, with no personal beef.

It’s a little strange that Belle sticks by Rumple at this point. I mean, I get that she thinks she can save him, and sees the inner part of him that isn’t bad. But as Rumple is hurting Robin, making her wash his aprons full of blood, there should be more outrage here. Belle should be disgusted and turned off, maybe even trying to run away, despite her duty, or take down Rumple. How does she keep from judging him, even as she begs Rumple to show mercy, which he eventually does, sparing Robin’s life in the end.

Quick side musing: might Robin’s never-missing bow, which Rumple ends up with, be the same one that Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) eventually owns?

The Storybrooke versions of the characters are different than their fairy tale personas, and yet there is a thread connecting them. Lacey is nothing but dark, loving alcohol and violence. At first, this is confusing, because Rumple has always regarded Belle as a sweet, pure innocent. But I think “Lacey” shows us that his view is simplistic and wrong.

Lacey urges Gold to keep beating on the Keith, a.k.a. the Sheriff of Nottingham (Wil Traval, All Saints), in Storybrooke, delighting in the dark side it brings out of him. This can’t come out of nowhere. I think the purpose of the “Lacey” back story is to show us that Belle doesn’t flinch at darkness, and may even be attracted to it. Yes, she encourages Rumple / Gold to act good, but perhaps she also likes knowing that, deep down inside, he is bad. Or she likes the influence she has over this part of him, making her feel powerful to be able to control someone like that, even if it comes across as her encouraging Rumple to better himself.

It’s a sobering and depressing turn. It reveals the more complex nature of Belle, but it also shows us something about her that we won’t like. This kind of changes the game, giving us a new understanding of a pivotal character that could have long reaching affects.

There is an immediate consequence in “Lacey,” and that’s that Gold is now embracing the evil nature he fights to overcome. He is in love with Belle, or Lacey, or whoever she is. He is going to do what makes her happy, even if it’s what the old version of her wouldn’t have wanted, at least, so he thinks. The fact that she eggs him on when he is beating Keith, and so Gold keeps going, is a bad sign for where the character of Rumple may go in the last few episodes of the season to impress his gal.

See, “Lacey” opens with a powerful scene in which Rumple murders Henry (Jared Gilmore), his own grandson, because Henry has been foretold to be the instrument of Rumple’s destruction. At the beginning of the hour, Rumple is deeply bothered by this vision, and clearly is not comfortable carrying it out, hoping Belle might remember who she is and help him overcome these desires. However, if Lacey wants him to be bad, we’ve seen how easily Rumple can get caught up in that darkness. His behavior late in the installment is bad news for Henry.

Which means Regina has screwed up again. By manipulating Belle to be Lacey, thinking she is just going to hurt Gold, she actually puts Henry is danger. This is similar to last year’s late arc, in which Regina tries to poison Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Henry ends up the one in the coma. Clearly, Regina has not learned her lesson.

Regina is also causing trouble in another way. She secretly investigates what the dwarves and Anton (Jorge Garcia) have been doing, and discovers their beanstalks. The question is, what will she do about it?

She doesn’t immediately burn the fields, so maybe she wants to go home. It seems the Charmings have no intention of taking her with them, based on a line Emma lets slip, probably a good move considering the threat Regina poses in the past in fairy tale land. But this now means they can’t just escape her. Which, they couldn’t have anyway. The disappearance of many, if not all, of the townsfolk would have eventually raised her suspicion, and she would have found them. Now, though, she may threaten them leaving in the first place.

It is doubtful that Regina will team up with Gold, considering she doesn’t trust him. Regina only finds out this week that Gold is Henry’s grandfather, and considering that he arranges her adoption of the boy in the first place, she doesn’t believe that he didn’t know who Henry is ahead of time. Might the two baddies battle each other, rather than the heroes?

Even if they do, the end of “Lacey” triples the threat count when Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Greg / Owen (Ethan Embry) bring Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) back to town. He is their prisoner, but surely he will have no objection to causing trouble for their enemies. Plus, Hook arrives along with quite a few boxes. What is in all of those?

“Lacey” is very much setting up some big end-of-the-season plots, and is interesting, if a bit depressing, in its own right. For every amusing scene of David (Josh Dallas) giving Gold dating advice, we get one of Lacey ditching Gold during dinner, balancing the enjoyable with the story elements that cause dread. The next three hours should be very exciting.

ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. on ABC.

Red Widow surviving, not thriving

Article first published as Red Widow surviving, not thriving on TheTVKing.

ABC's newest "gripping" drama is Red Widow, which offered a two hour premiere this week of "Pilot" and "The Contact." In it,  Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell, Silent Hill), the grown daughter in a crime family, asks her husband, Evan (Hell on Wheels' Anson Mount), to get her and their three children out of the family business. Evan promises to do so, after warning Marta that they will have to leave everything behind. But before that can happen, Evan is murdered and Marta is forced into being a criminal herself to pay off his debt.

There are multiple sides to this story that Marta is trapped in, pulled in several directions. Her father, Andrei Petrov (Rade Sebedzija, 24, Batman Begins), whom she loves, is heavily involved in illegal activities. Her brother, Irwin (Wil Traval, All Saints) not only worked with Evan, but is now in jail. These characters are presented as loving and sympathetic, as is Marta's sister, Kat (Jaime Ray Newman, Eastwick, Grimm), so we are supposed to root for them, right?

But there are also the bad guys that we don't trust. This includes Evan and Irwin's partner, Mike (Lee Tergesen, Oz, The Big C), whom Marta doesn't trust, and who happens to be married to Marta's best friend, Dina (Suleka Mathew, Hawthorne, Men in Trees). I do wonder how Marta can wrap her head around the fact that Dina loves a man she despises, and if this has caused conflict between them in the past. Or maybe Marta is just now seeing Mike in a different light, after suspecting him of being involved in Evan's death? It's not clear how this dynamic supposedly works prior to the events of the "Pilot."

And then there's Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic, ER), the man that Irwin stole from, but Marta is being forced to work for in Evan's name. There is almost a bit of romantic tension between Marta and Nicholae, at least from his side, but he also radiates a level of danger. This is a Very Bad Man, we're quickly told and shown in an extraneous boxing scene.

I'm going to be honest, Red Widow, while having many good components and interesting performances, does not feel all that unique to me. With Revenge, Scandal, and other like dramas on the air, this one, while somewhat different, isn't stand out enough to earn its place. ABC is starting to reuse its concepts, and making more of the same is not what viewers want.

I find most startling the differences between Schiller and the Petrovs. Even though both operate on the wrong side of the law, they are painted in such different strokes. We know right away who we are supposed to root for and against. The complexity that the series would get on a cable network isn't present here, and that makes it a lot less enticing, and plot twists seem forced.

In "The Contact," Marta makes her first move in Schiller's service, turning Bob (Rodney Rowland, Veronica Mars), a broke, divorced man into her paid-off patsy. It's a challenging assignment, one meant to wake Marta up to the new world that she is living in, and testing her resolve and dedication, done in the name of protecting her family. Yet, it's also completely predictable, and the ending feels like a cop out.

Also, we see Marta being a mother to Boris (Jakob Salvati), who thinks its OK to bring a gun to school, Natalie (Erin Moriarty, The Watch), who somehow stayed in the dark about what her dad did, and Gabriel (Sterling Beaumon, Clue), who is trying to follow in his father's footsteps. It's like the developers of this show had to give Marta these stakes, whom we know will never have anything too bad happen to them, but will likely be used mostly as pawns. Toss in a charming nanny, er, guard named Luther (Luke Goss, Hellboy II), and there's almost an unnecessary family series here, fighting for space within the main story.

At the same time as Marta dips her toe into the dark side, she is also being pressured by a federal agent, James Ramos (Clifton Collins Jr., The Event), to cooperate with the government. It turns out, Evan intended to turn in Andrei, Irwin, and the rest in in exchange for his family entering witness protection. Marta is horrified at this "big twist," having trouble believing her husband would turn on their family. This only serves to illustrate just how naive Marta is.

The biggest problem with Red Widow is that Marta is not a compelling character. She's too much of a fictional creation, lacking authenticity. Everything happens around her in broad strokes, because she might not be able to understand or deal with the nuance. The story is lacking because she is lacking. And the show keeps throwing more stuff and more characters at us hoping to distract from how surface everything is, and how weak Marta is as a creation.

Red Widow might still be good; it's not unsalvageable. It just feels too safe for ABC, and lacks the drawing power a new show needs in the current, crowded environment of high-quality TV. The more we see that's better, the more obvious it is when an effort falters. Red Widow's first episodes are quite shaky.

Red Widow airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.