Sarah Michelle Gellar starred as Buffy the Vampire Slayer for seven years. That fantasy show ended in 2003. This is Gellar's return as a series regular on network TV since then.
Gellar plays two characters here, twin sisters in fact. One sister is
Bridget Kelly, a recovering alcoholic who is in the witness protection
program in Wyoming. The other sister is Siobhan Martin, a Manhattan girl
who is married to a wealthy investor.
Bridget escapes witness protection because she's scared the mobster
against whom she's testifying will kill her. She flees to New York to
hideout at her sister's place in the Hamptons. The two go boating and
Bridget falls asleep. When Bridget wakes up, Siobhan is gone and a piece
of her clothing is floating in the middle of the water.
Bridget assumes that Siobhan committed suicide. Bridget is devastated
and sad, but no one knows that she's there and no one in New York knows
who she is. Therefore, Bridget decides to pretend to be Siobhan. Bridget
totally assumes her sister's identity. The rest of the series then
becomes if Bridget can maintain this charade and the complications that
might come from this deception.
At first, Bridget thinks it'll be easy, but a boat load of secrets about
her sister's life gets revealed. Bridget has to juggle these secrets as
well as people from her old life who are trying to pull her back. One
of which is a FBI agent named Victor Machado, played by Nestor Carbonell
(Suddenly Susan and Lost). The other is a former sponsor named Malcolm, played by Mike Colter (The Good Wife).
Created by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder, it's a noir soap opera that
has become a total guilty pleasure, built upon answering two questions.
Why did Siobhan do what she did and will Bridget's true identity be
revealed? Within that frame, there are many, many twists and surprises.
The first and certainly second episode established this energy and
pacing that kept me on the edge of my seat from moment to moment.
Thinking about future episodes, I felt as if there was no way that the
show could maintain that energy and that suspense, but I was wrong. In
the subsequent third and fourth episodes, the show did maintain that
energy and that suspense, and the show never felt like it was slowing
down, even though logically it has to slow down. If it's going to run
for a full season of 22 episodes, it at least has to tap the breaks a
little.
The show, to some extent, has done that, but even in its slower moments,
the show still has this rhythm and nervousness about it, that makes you
feel like you never know where it's going to go. Along the way, the
writers create some good character moments. There are flashbacks where
Gellar has to do double duty playing both characters at the same time,
but there are other moments when she's just playing one and these
moments are never wasted. We learn significant pieces to the back story
and overall mystery that prove important and emotionally strong.
The TV series Terra Nova on FOX did a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in its second episode, which was lame and completely over-the-top. Ringer did a reference to Hitchcock's Rope in its second episode that was better in that it wasn't overt. It was subtle and achieved the effect of being thrilling.
Five Stars out of Five.
Rated TV-14-LSV.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Tuesdays at 9PM on CW.
