Second episodes can be really hit or miss for me and this one was most definitely a miss. The writers spent the entire episode on filler conversations and cliches. I get that the show was going to tell us how the various residents of the mysterious town got trapped there but did they have to hit the viewer over the head with a sledgehammer? After the excellent Pilot, I was expecting better than this. WAY too much introspection and pontification to the point of being pretentious. Characters are all of a sudden cracking up and doing stupid things just to move the plot along. The young deputy, the cult leader lady, the weird girl, the creepy peach guy all delivering boring and confusing monologues with borderline amateur acting. I'm tired of cliche oddball characters in horror movies. I'm also sick of "tell instead of show" writing. I didn't need weird girl to TELL me that she left the hospital door open. I figured she did that when the night people were standing there and the nurse ran away from them. So what's the point of her saying she left it open? To somehow cleanse herself to the viewer and make us feel sorry for her? Then to make matters worse, the writers actually go completely unsubtle by having the diner lady break a glass and pick up the pieces to mimic the girl's strange story to her brother. You see, the girl just told her brother some pointless story about shards of broken glass, then she walks in on her co-worker picking up glass shards. It all comes together! But to cap it all off is the dumb plot convenience that on the SAME night that the deputy is doing all his drunken whining about his grandfather, the crazy girl just happens to murder the drunk newcomer in his hospital bed and uses him for a sacrifice that ends up killing the grandfather as collateral damage. It's so contrived and unearned to the point that I couldn't care less when the deputy was doing his big monologue to the Sheriff character. Speaking of, the only good stuff in the episode were the camper scenes with the Dad, the EMT girl, and the Sheriff, my 3 favorite characters from the much better Pilot episode, thus the 2 extra stars. More focus on these actual interesting characters and less throwing unearned dialogue and scenes to the less interesting ones, writers.
Review of The Way Things Are Now
