‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Staggering plot with too many breadcrumbs but no concrete character developments
One of the key characteristics of ‘Tell Me A Story’, as we have observed, is the presence of too many breadcrumbs throughout the plot, at least in the initial episodes. Season 2 of the dark take on fairy tales turned out to be no different. Knowing how it worked in the previous season, we could only expect this season to have a slow start. But surprisingly, that didn’t happen. Right from the beginning, the characters were laid out right in front of us.
Although they seemed quite inscrutable to connect with right away, the audience could easily figure their fairy tale counterparts and the dark twists that were perfectly played into the show’s characters.
However, the second episode could not hold onto the pace that it opened and which promised upcoming fireworks. After you see a devastating, freak accident of one of the leading characters, you expect more to happen in their lives, or to people around them.
But Ashley Rose is still stuck onto her struggles of losing her career and her social image. We even saw a slight tension between her and her her security personnel, Beau, and were hoping for things to move forward, not necessarily sexually or romantically, but more on a friendly, comfort level.
Next up, is our Cinderella, or Simone in this case, whose character is still in its introduction stage. We finally saw her as the ‘Cinderella’ with an evil step mother and two step brothers.
So far, the characters are still at a distance and we have not been able to connect or feel compassion to. One might argue that Tucker Reed is the only surprise element of episode 2. Well, yes, he is, to some extent. But we have to admit that there are too many breadcrumbs in his story that doesn’t yet point anywhere.
Even the introduction of his character was way too mysterious for a season opening. Why is he suddenly interested in Olivia, who is but a stranger and a new girl in the city? From there, we jump straight to him stalking her and taking notes about her life, whereabouts etc. Why? Till now, there has been no indication that Tucker has any history or he could be involved in something sinister.
All we know is that he is a struggling and frustrated writer. But how does one go from being a frustrated writer to kidnapping a stranger? And episode two did not help in answering our questions either. So far, we know that Tucker Reed is a confused, complex character, but no insight into why his behavior towards Maddie or Olivia is so sketchy.
While we do understand that the best characters of any story are not supposed to be in black and white and should be in layers to make them more interesting, we also cannot resonate with so many unconnected jigsaw pieces, not at least at the moment. And hence, the pace of the story feels so staggering. But hopefully, we will soon see concrete developments of the very same characters and much more development of the plot in the coming episodes.
‘Tell Me A Story’ Season 2 airs every Thursday (midnight), only on CBS All Access.