Second Chance

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. How unfortunate it was not given many more episodes. I hate that I was not given closure, what will happen to Ottos's prediction that there were violent side effects for Pritchard!

Only the pilot is out, so all the people whining about character development, plot development, and so on, give me a break! Watch 5- 10 episodes of a new show before judging.

Sure, it's been done before (Like "Intelligence", which I also enjoyed. Even "The 6 Million Dollar Man!"), but it's a fresh twist. I wish they had done a 2-episode pilot, to develop the story-line and characters a bit more, but it was fast-paced and there was enough to get my interest piqued...

We will have to see, but I am enjoying it so far. I am entertained, and that's what this is all about folks. "Formulatic"? Of course! Most TV is ...and if we've seen some elements before, it's because, hello!, it works! ...Plus it's what, folks like myself, want to see.

Robert Kazinsky is good in the main role - I can "see" his former self "coming thru" his new, younger self. I am also really glad to see Tim DeKay, as he's a great character actor - I was wondering where he'd end up, after "White Collar", another favorite show of mine - back as an FBI agent "again", there's a stretch, but he does it so well! ...This is full of excellent actors.

I love shows like this, because there's so much room for development, directions they can take it, a lot of potential there. It appears Fox ordered 13 episodes ...I can't wait to see where it goes!

So obviously this is network TV, and is therefore bound by corporate committees and maybe by law to be unoriginal. And I think the writers tried pretty hard to fit that mold... but maybe they couldn't help making an interesting show despite some of those limitations. Clearly, it didn't happen by accident.

Right from the jump, I felt like something was a tiny bit different about this show than your usual network fare. I don't know if it was just the set design or the direction or the cinematography, or maybe a bit of all of these. But this show was a tad ahead of most other network content from the very beginning.

The acting was good. Dilshad Vadsaria played a very convincing and very sympathetic character, and also she's smoking hot. I hadn't really heard of her before, but now, having finished Second Chance, I have to go find another show of hers to watch. Robert Kazinsky did a great job. I had no idea he was doing an American accent until I read an interview with him shortly after I started watching. He seemed super familiar to me but I don't think I've seen much of his other work. On the whole, I'm kind of reminded of Henry Cavil, and that's a good thing.

But as the episodes went by, the show started getting really good. The plot pieces fit together fairly well; the suspension of disbelief was adequate. The dialog was quite good, and I had to laugh on quite a few occasions. I also shouted at the TV in frustration when Pritchard senior was too dumb to just talk to Mary about how he felt, and that's really not my usual style.

Plus, I felt like the writers and the showrunners were maybe going to actually resolve some of the key plot issues that most programs would usually milk for 3 or 4 seasons, and make room for newer things. I wonder if they had cool ideas for new storylines in future seasons.

Unfortunately, we'll never know, and it's a damned shame.

Jimmy Pritchard (Philip Baker Hall) is not the most lovable guy. He has always been irascible and too independent to be a team player. Now at age 75, the ex-sheriff resents the ravages of time. His son, Duval (Tim DeKay), is an FBI agent who plays by the book. He never lived up to his father's expectations.

Jimmy stumbles across some men breaking into his son's office and they terminate him. But his death catches the eye of a socially-handicapped savant (Adhir Kalyan as Otto Goodwin) who lives with his twin sister (Dilshad Vadsaria as Mary Goodwin)--a sister who is dying of cancer--and he devises a plan to apply his research in hopes of resurrecting Jimmy. His ultimate goal is to forestall Mary's imminent death.

Obviously, this falls squarely in the science fiction genre and it is not for all viewers.

I don't find any of these characters riveting, but I enjoy the intersection of their personalities. Jimmy is rough around the edges and headstrong. Duval is quiet and plays by the rules. And Mary is intelligent, but vulnerable due to her affliction. For various reasons, each needs the others. As of the second episode, I find this show enjoyable.

The final parameters of the show's episodic format are yet to be revealed, but I am watching to see how things develop.

Thus far, the twins are the most interesting part of the show, perhaps due to the acting, but all of these characters have plenty of room to grow.

There are countless series and movies out there where the main character is an ex-cop who, because of some excuse, becomes some sort of lone wolf vigilante with the help of some organization or the government or some technological miracle etc. or a combination of the above.

"Second Chance" is the latest addition to the pile! The "excuse" here is supposedly based on Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein. (The producers were even thinking calling the series "The Frankenstein Code").

An 80 y.o. ex-sheriff (played by the veteran Philip Baker Hall) is murdered and his body not only comes to life (!) but it is rejuvenated and genetically improved by a couple of billionaire twins (who invented the facebook or something). He becomes a 30 y.o. stronger version of him retaining in the process ALL his previous memories in every detail! Soooo, this has absolutely nothing to do with Frankenstein, which was a dull monster, sum of bodyparts from many different corpses and no memories whatsoever!!!

The basic set-up of "Second chance" is something you've seen a gazillion times on TV (Intelligence, Agent-X, The Player etc. etc.), i.e. a lone wolf action hero with high-tech support and some sort of secret.

The key question is "Is it fun?". Well, too soon to tell (I just saw the unaired pilot). The main plot of the pilot (some crooked FBI agents) are pretty much resolved. There is no mystery in that plot-arc.

So, I guess, the main character Ray (they should have named him ...Frank!) would start taking assignments "to clean the city" as an ex-sheriff he ones was. His job will be fairly easily having superhuman power and 2 billionaires hackers who can easily penetrate any database and yada-yada-yada etc. etc. You ve seen it a millions times before.

In the next episodes I'm pretty sure we will see Ray breaking-in in some facility wearing an earpiece and exchanging "witty" comments with the Twins.

Overall: Nothing special so far. Seems like a work in progress. Didn't hate it, but it looks like it will become an average unimpressive same-o show.

UPDATE after 10th ep.: I know the ratings are extremely low, but the show has improved during its course. It is "another excuse" for a special consultant cop, but the backbone of its main plot arc is also strong. And even the actors and their chemistry together were improved. A couple of twists were welcome too. So I increase my rating and hope for its continuance, although against all odds.