Friday, April 16, 2021

What I’m Watching: Big Sky

Big Sky: Season 1, Episode 10 “Catastrophic Thinking” (C+)

This show is back after a two-month hiatus, and things do feel relatively different. I’m starting to understand who is meant to be the focus of this show, especially seeing the names of certain series regulars that have been dropped from the credits, like Jade Pettyjohn (Grace) and Natalie Alyn Lind (Danielle), who don’t seem relevant anymore. Instead, it’s Jenny and Cassie who are the protagonists, with Ronald still existing for some unknown reason since he’s really rather unbearable. Calling and breathing into the phone so that Jerrie, who is at least being put to good use as the new office assistant for the P.I. agency, could know it was him was one thing, but lurking outside in his disguise was definitely a sign of idiotic behavior. That he managed to win over a woman and her daughter enough that they would trust him and not notice his peculiarities is hard to believe, and that the mere presence of an unexpected element would cause him to express silent anger with his taser in the bathroom makes it unlikely that he’ll be able to keep up this façade for much longer. Fortunately, I’d like to think that the infusion of so many new characters means he’ll soon fade from memory. We already saw two new bad guys introduced and killed, but I’ll focus instead on three familiar faces that I’m happy to see here even if I’m unsure that the material can live up to their talents. Ted Levine was great both as a cop on “Monk” and as a serial killer in “The Silence of the Lambs,” and he seems quite angry and powerful here, and Michael Raymond-James from “True Blood” is a great choice to play his inmate son with an apparent connection to Cassie. Omar Metwally is another great performer from “The Affair” and “Mr. Robot,” and he seems intent on following in Timothy Olyphant’s footsteps as an eccentric U.S. Marshal with an unusual way of regarding his job. Maybe they’ll be able to enliven this show and improve its quality.

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