‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 Episode 1 has a slow start but unleashes the key characters in a well-laid out plot
This review contains spoilers and if you are yet to watch episode 1 of ‘Tell Me A Story’, then it is advisable to skip and catch the show right away.
A struggling author, a lawyer, a successful pop star, and a struggling musician, and a mother who likes to control them all. That pretty much sums up the key protagonists of ‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2. They are all tied together by virtue of being a ‘family’ (or soon-to-be).
CBS All Access just dropped the second season of its highly anticipated show that takes on classic stories from the Grimm’s Brothers tales and turns them into more convoluted versions of the same. As the dark, drama-thriller premieres, it slowly unravels what would soon become a highly suspenseful story of love, loss, betrayal, and possibly a murder.
In Season 1 we saw the characters of Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel couched in a contemporary yet in a sinister mask. Season 2 starts with the rich and powerful Pruitt Family, and their complicated relationship dynamics. Ashley Rose, a Nashville (this season explores the home of country music to a great extent) based pop star who is all set to launch her new single. But as luck would have it, she meets with a freak accident and almost burns 27% of her body and face. This incident not only impacts her career as a musician but also her confidence as a 25-year old woman and a successful icon. For those who have heard or read ‘Beauty and The Beast’ would be easily able to relate to Ashley turning into a ‘beast’ with a half-burned body and a life in hiding. Consider this story to be a role reversal of a sort of the classic fairy tale character. We also get a hint of who the ‘beauty’ in this context could be. Beau, her personal security officer, whose name translates (from French) into ‘beautiful’ might just be our beast’s counterpart.
Then we have Tucker Reed, the struggling author and fiancé of Ashley’s sister, Maddie. Paul Wesley (of Vampire Diaries fame) does not live up to our expectations in this role. But one never knows what unfolds in the future episodes. His actions seem a little sketchy, especially when he follows a stranger to her home and tries to sleep in her bed. The stranger in question is Olivia, whose motives and history are yet to be elaborated and until then, we cannot say if she might be the ‘Sleeping Beauty’. It could also be Maddie, whose character is still in the shadows.
Cinderella’s counterpart, however, comes across quite clear and obvious. Jackson, Ashley’s struggling musician brother meets a girl at a bar, who drops him home after a drunken bar brawl. So far, we have no inkling if she is our intended ‘Cinderella’, until she mentions that she has to reach home by midnight. Such innuendos followed by her bracelet with a stiletto charm, that she leaves at Jackson’s place are hints enough to confirm that we will be seeing the ‘poor slave girl’ very soon. Whether Jackson is her prince charming or not, is something the upcoming chapters will tell.
Last, but not the least, there’s the character of Rebecca Pruitt to be told. Carrie Anne Moss (of Matrix fame) is the perfect fit for the steely, matriarch who puts her image and her decisions before anything else. Her acts of tough love for her children, especially Jackson, gives her the impression of being a powerful woman, she might just be fit to be the ‘evil queen’ and we will not be surprised if Rebecca becomes a strong villain of the story.
With these breadcrumbs, ‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 Episode 1, leaves us with a slow start, but does enough for us to us to know who we are expected to deal with. Stay tuned as the grisly, modern fairy tale (sans the fairies) comes back in a week.
‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 will stream on CBS All Access every Thursday midnight.