by Arcadio Reyes
The Hunter family attempt to deal with recent events as they struggle to move on and find new beginnings. But little do they know -- this is just the beginning. Evelyn is at breaking point, Matt fears for Lisa's sanity, Ally finally tastes freedom, while Christian is nowhere to be seen. And now, the Johnson family live directly opposite the Hunters... and it's not going to be pretty.
I recognised Between The Walls as a well-written virtual drama series when it arrived on the MZP doorstep a while back, so now that the long-delayed second series is finally underway it's time to give it the ZPM review treatment. The influence of Six Feet Under and even Desperate Housewives is strong throughout, but with the Hunters, showrunner Arcadio Reyes has built up a well-developed cast and some brilliantly convoluted plots to hold the dysfunctional characters together. I'll admit I never read that much of the first series, but I'm fairly sure I know all the main developments so I can dive right into this. I did that for Pathways, right? I'm going to do mini-reviews for the current four episodes while I catch up, then start the proper treatment from 2x05 onwards.
Returning to the troubled life of the Hunter family allows us to catch up on what we missed - an artfully-directed opener shows the grief that both Evelyn and Della are going through, despite the very different circumstances both mothers are in. Ally has troubles of her own as Lisa wakes from a traumatic, baby-influenced nightmare and is still suffering from the chaos of last season. Again, I'm playing catch up to some extent, but I'm able to get the gist of what happened in Season One fairly easily thanks to the opener. Ally's divorce proceedings from Michael exhibits a good, tensely-written sense of drama, with the murder of Connor last season still hanging over Michael and leaving him nowhere to go. Evelyn seems even less in control of things than ever - mother figures and their influence over the family around them is always going to make a good source of drama, and here Evelyn has plenty to be mixed up about. Well, except for getting checked out by the new cook in her restaurant, anyway. Nateisha asks realtor Theo to start a family, but when he tries to back down he almost gets a plate to the face - looks like somebody's got some baby issues here! Lisa almost confesses something about her miscarried baby (and mother's death) to Ally, but that particular revelation gets saved for later (showing an experienced sense of pacing from Reyes). Evelyn's good-hearted attempt to apologise to Della, and the subsequent shooting down, also shows that this show's going to have plenty of strong stories to sustain itself for a while yet. In fact, throughout the episode Della makes a point of being pretty hardline, shouting down Nateisha over breakfast later on and marking herself out as the kind of strong character that shows like this always need. Also good to see everybody demonstrating some kind of flaw - and Lisa's return to her coke habit does not bode well at all! A brief return appearance by Christian keeps that storyline from being lots of moping, and Lisa's closing breakdown is a good way to end what's been an engaging script, making for an easy introduction to a complicated world of relationships. A good season opener should serve as an introduction for any new reader, and this accomplishes that nicely. Good stuff.
However! There's the occasional bit of somewhat cheesy stage direction - lines like 'Two neighbors. Two women, so alike in their pain, but so distant due to guilt and resentment' sound more like voice-overs for a Hallmark movie than lines from a script! There's also a running theme of people having freaky dreams or talking to the dead that feels too much like it's been lifted from Six Feet Under - it's a good storytelling device, but it's already been done and draws some unfortunate comparisons with SFU. Lack of character direction (stuff like (dry) or (snaps) in the dialogue) also saps some of the emotion out of the lines - I know it's a technique that has to be used quite sparingly, but Reyes barely uses it at all, and in a few places the dialogue reads a little flat for it. That said, the strengths of the dialogue and plotting make up for those stylistic niggles, so there's plenty here to recommend.
Oh, and I know where you nicked the title for this episode from, Arc, you sneaky git :P
No comments:
Post a Comment