Classic Tragic Love Story
Episode 2 of The Big Leap begins in 2019 with alarm bells wailing. Nick is out at sea shooting a perilous game that looks set to end in disaster. The network want him to stop shooting but Nick is adamant that they can continue filming, chalking it up to added drama. Well, fast forward to present day and Nick comes under fire when a massive lawsuit is launched against him. Still, that doesn’t stop him from pressing ahead with this Swan Lake production. All of our characters show up at the studio, with the cameras rolling as they prepare to shoot the first day’s big reveal for the judges. With Nick directing traffic, interviews help to exude exposition about Swan Lake’s story, confirming that this is your classic love triangle, involving a white and black swan. Nick though needs drama on top of this, which stems from the contestants he’s chosen. That drama comes in the form of the contestants and pent-up drama each feel with one another. Justin worries that he’s not good enough while Mike is the focal point for Nick’s steely focus, given he’s going through a divorce. However, Nick manages to convince Mike to open up about how he cheated on his ex-wife, under the pretense that they’re not filming. Only, they very clearly are. Speaking of marriage, Julia’s starts to fall apart. After an earlier quip in the morning about his addiction to porn, Nick sneaks upstairs with the camera crew and overhears Julia and Kevin hash it out, with the latter admitting that he doesn’t love her and wants to leave and stay in a hotel. This sex chatter spills across to the gang at Swan Lake, and in particular with the girls. Given Raven is a stripper and spends her life working in the sex trade, this inevitably brings up some tensions with Julia. That is, until she tells Raven that she’s ruining marriages and storms out. Gabby meanwhile, is invited out to dinner with Reggie in the near-future. Although she’s over the moon, Gabby comes crashing down when she shows up at Reggie’s trailer in the morning. Unfortunately she walks in on Brittney giving him oral. Out of al the people to comfort her, Nick is the one who shows and encourages Gabby to focus on the dancing… and revenge. Another person struggling with their dancing is Justin. However, Simon shows up to help engage in more elegant moves. There’s definitely some chemistry between them too, although we’ll have to wait and see how that develops over time. All of this crescendos into the rehearsals, where everyone puts on a great show. After, all of our characters await what parts they’ve been given. The part of The Queen goes to Julia. Reggie plays The Wizard while the Prince goes to Claude. The Black Swan role goes to Simon while the White Swan role is bestowed upon Britney. The rest of the roles are back-up dancers, except for Gabby. In fact, Gabby is given the role of understudy. She’s going to learn every single role and take over for anyone who can’t perform. Why? Because everyone loves an underdog story and Nick is determined to put her through her paces. As the episode comes to a close, Julia opens up the webcam site that Kevin has been frequenting…and realizes it’s the one which Raven uses. Uh oh…
The Episode Review
The Big Leap returns with a brilliant follow-up, one with a great amount of comedy and drama wrapped up in a parody of the reality TV scene. All those big bouts of forced drama, and making sure there’s enough for audiences to chew on, is indicative of the industry as a whole and The Big Leap does a great job showcasing that. It also helps that the characters are interesting too, with some big personalities battling it out for dominance on the screen. To be honest, any of these characters could be the focal point although I’d imagine Brittney will end up ill or injured in some way, giving Gabby the part of the White Swan. Either way, The Big Leap has been a thoroughly enjoyable show so far and it’ll be interesting to see what direction this one takes next.
