Inconsistent show that can't make up its mind what it wants to be, but has some good parts.

sunshine_reggie

Started out well, but drifted away into a complete chaos at the end. For example, the characters. Take Nick George. At first he is so opposed to the wealth etc. of the Darlings, then he lets himself be seduced by it. It would be interesting to watch him sink in more and more into this shallow and cruel world.. then emerge out of it with a changed personality and a learned lesson (or not, and that would be a message to the viewers). Instead what happens is that we are first supposed to believe he is following the wrong path, succumbing to all this money, etc., then turns out that actually it's OK, he's a nice guy helping this family and that's it. There is no more drama or character development, it just stops. His marriage with Lisa falls apart, he does exactly what his daddy, who he hated, did to him, but that's all OK! In addition to this completely illogical and incoherent "turn" we find out that in fact he was always in love with Karen and is now glad he separated from Lisa. Why? Why fall in love with this shallow, rich woman who has absolutely nothing in her? Seems like the original Nick shown in the first series would never fall for that kind of person, but no, apparently he always was secretly in love with her. It's hard to believe for us as viewers not only because it's so out of the blue but also because Krauss just can't act this, perhaps because he doesn't understand why his character would do this (all in all I have to say that Krauss was really not the right person to portray supposed complexity of the character Nick). All in all the show starts as one thing, kind of a comment on the life of the rich, supposedly satire, etc. and it's good in that way. But then it loses the focus. The other flaws include complete and unexplained disappearance of Juliet who at first was shown as a very close part of her twin brother Jeremy, who then seems to forget all about her in 3 episodes. Jeremy's character is actually played well and is more or less consistent. So is Lisa's.

Some major things just happen "in passing", like Karen's miscarriage, as if the there was not enough air time to properly play the scene out. Some scenes are just forgotten, like the arrest of Patrick (accusation of murdering his wife) is just forgotten in the next episode. Not to mention the completely crumbled and unsatisfactory ending (not really an ending at all but not a invitation to watch further episodes either, just something in between.) Also there is this theme of Tripp always pressurizing his children and each one of them being secretly unhappy in their own way - Jeremy takes up a job, Juliet takes pills etc) that is also just dropped at some point and the kids seem to be actually fine. Basically the whole thing is very inconsistent. It's well done and not thought through thoroughly.

score 5/10

sunshine_reggie 21 April 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2239195/