‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 Episode 10 ends with a dramatic climax but with major shortcomings
The review contains spoilers for Episode 10.
Ten episodes and 10 weeks later, the three intertwined fairy tales marked its ending today.
As promised in the preview, we were anticipating a lot of action from our antiheroes. But under-utilized characters, loose endings, and a predictable plot left us a hanging and wanting more, but to no avail. While there was enough action-driven drama, so to say, we still have questions and feel that there are many plot points that were missed.
Let us start from the start.
From the very day the second season was announced, we have been excited about Carrie Anne Moss being on the show. She plays the role of Rebecca Pruitt, the matriarch of the Pruitt family, one of the influential ones of Nashville. As little as that definition is enough to create intrigue about what you can expect from a character. But as the story continued, we were disappointed with how little Moss and her potential have been exploited in the story. For a single mother who controls and manages the life of her celebrity daughter, and has a strained relationship with her son, Rebecca Pruitt should have had more shades to her character than just being in almost guest appearances.
In addition, her character’s plot also doesn’t seem well-defined. Nowhere throughout the nine episodes, do we get to hear about the deceased Mr Pruitt or Rebecca’s relationship with her husband. Almost towards the fag end of the story, we discover her husband’s affair and illegitimate daughter, who turns out to be the ultimate ‘villain’. This instantly raises the next question - what exactly happened with Taylor Conroy and her mother. In a heated dialogue exchange, we learn that the Pruitts have been ‘unfair’ to the mother and daughter. Even if we have to assume that Rebecca’s husband gave up on them and covered up their existence from his children, it still does not explain why Taylor wants to kill only Ashley and not the other children or even Rebecca. Furthermore, if Taylor is a victim of psychological issues or childhood trauma, we have no way to find out, since her character only appears around episode 8.
Similarly, Jackson Pruitt’s character also seems a little short on the selling point. His character takes off well in the initial episodes, making us expect that there will be more about his journey. But halfway through, Jackson Pruitt’s significance seems lost from the plot. For an actor like Matt Lauria, we would expect a little bit more of screen time.
Long story short, there were many important characters that could have been given more significance, instead of slow development of the lead characters in the initial episodes. However, all said and done, ‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 still topped its first installment and remains a good work of art.