Moving The Pieces Around
After last week’s intriguing pilot episode, Tell Me A Story picks up where it left off for a more methodically paced, subdued episode. With the characters still reeling after the shocking climax to last week’s episode, the second episode, aptly named Loss, deals with these repercussions, gravitating the plot around the two dead bodies that play heavily on the overall narrative. Still in a state of shock, we catch up with Jordan haunted by the memory of Beth’s untimely death, killed last week by one of the gunmen in pig masks robbing the bank. With the police investigating the case, Jordan helps lead investigator Detective Perez to try and catch the bank robbers whilst dealing with his unstable and vulnerable mental well-being. After being called into a room to pick out the culprit from a line-up, his actions spark the chain of events that are sure to succeed this. We catch up with Hannah at the gym, after cleaning up the crime scene and disposing of the body with Gabe, she tries to deal with her brother’s paranoia as the body is found in a river. Only, this isn’t the place Hannah hid the body, throwing up questions of loyalty and who to trust as the two scramble to cover their tracks. Rounding out the trio, we catch up with Kayla dissolving back into her old ways, skipping school, jumping into a hot tub with new friends Ethan and Laney and generally just being a teenager. A confrontational spat with her father leads to her getting high and falling back into the exasperated arms of Nick who makes it clear they should not repeat their lustful encounter. All of these storylines progress along at a steady pace with one of the bank robbers, Eddie, panicking at the prospect of being caught when things went awry at the end of last week’s episode. He, along with the two other robbers, try to tell themselves everything will work out but you can see doubts manifesting with all three men. This ties in nicely with Jordan’s vengeance angle, ending with a tantalizing shot of him staring at Eddie’s house, tears stinging his eyes. While there wasn’t much in the way of progressive plot during this 50 minute episode, Tell Me A Story feels like a show that’s starting to find its groove, moving the characters around to meaningful places while consistently peppering the show with bites of drama. Unlike the first episode, Tell Me A Story doesn’t feature any nods to the fairy tales they’re based on, making the second episode feel flat and a little formulaic in delivery. With the exception of one key scene involving Jordan and one of the men wearing a pig mask, there just isn’t any hint that these stories are modern adaptations of fairy tales. With the promise of more action to come and each of the three storylines beginning to kick into gear, the future still looks promising for this CBS exclusive drama but the episode felt lacklustre and bland compared to the pilot. Still, it’s early days yet and it’ll be interesting to see what direction Tell Me A Story goes in as the season progresses and the stories inevitably become more dramatic. As it stands though, the second episode is largely forgettable, taking the foot off the gas for a reflective episode used to move the characters around ready for the season to come.
