Round Two: Rogue

Rogue: Season 1, Episode 3 “Cathy’s Song” (C)

I found this episode less impenetrable than the first two-hour installment, but I still wasn’t drawn in to the believability of the characters. Everyone here, except for Ian Tracey, who plays Mitch, and Ian Hart, who plays Buddy, is overacting, which is also true of Martin Donovan, though he has so little to do in a dull role as Hernandez’s boss. Jimmy and especially Alec are such overdrawn, exaggerated villains that it’s hard to take them seriously. As soon as I saw those duffel bags, I flashed back to a classic moment from “The Sopranos” and knew that there were heads inside. If I have a beef with someone who took out a bunch of my men, I doubt that having the guy who ordered it walk in and deposit their severed heads on my card table would sufficiently convince me that I should lay down my arms and make peace. It’s equally unbelievable that Jimmy would actually take Grace up on her advice to go to the police station and profess his innocence. While Buddy was cracking up and delighting in Jimmy’s extravagance, everyone else was just angry, and it seems that Grace is continuing to cut herself off from the police force while communicating only with Mitch, who appears to have nothing else to do besides help her. The fact that it took the entire episode for them to finally find something is hardly reassuring, and I don’t think this show is going to be headed anywhere interesting quickly.