Second Chance: Series Premiere Review

We can rebuild him.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. FOX has a new procedural drama that blends familiar buddy cop dynamics with a fantastical twist. No, it’s not Sleepy Hollow or Almost Human or Minority Report or New Amsterdam or Lucifer. It’s Second Chance, the story of a retired sheriff given a literal second chance at life thanks to modern super-science. There are enough compelling elements in this first episode to hold the viewer’s attention, but this is just one more example of a show that would work better if it wasn’t crammed into the procedural mold.

While ostensibly inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Second Chance can best be described as a mash-up of The Six Million Dollar Man and the 2015 film Stop/Loss. The show revolves around Jimmy Pritchard, a retired, disgraced cop (played at first by The Insider’s Philip Baker Hall) who is murdered and subsequently revived in a young, healthy, superhumanly strong new form (played by Pacific Rim’s Robert Kazinsky). That revival is made possible by Mary Goodwin (Greek’s Dilshad Vadsaria) and and her twin brother Otto (Rules of Engagement’s Adhir Kalyan), owners of a Facebook-esque social media company called Lookinglass who have somehow pioneered the greatest breakthrough in modern medicine on the side. Pritchard’s mission upon waking up in this rejuvenated body is to protect his FBI agent son, Duval (White Collar’s Tim DeKay) and granddaughter Gracie (Red Band Society’s Ciara Bravo) while unraveling the vast conspiracy that led to his death in the first place.

Said conspiracy is easily the most snooze-worthy element of the show. It’s a vaguely defined conflict that seems designed only to inject a little more urgency into a show that should, by all rights, have plenty already. There’s also the strong implication that Pritchard’s career-ending disgrace isn’t quite what it seems. The thought of the inevitable flashbacks to “what really happened” sounds barely more appealing than the present-day conspiracy.

Nor does this first episode do much with the idea of a super-strong protagonist. Early on Pritchard demonstrates his newfound abilities by punching a few dents in a solid steel door, but after that his strength barely comes into play. Instead, there are the obligatory scenes of pritchard giving into hedonistic excess and enjoying his restored youth. FOX is no doubt hoping to cash in on the current superhero craze, but so far Second Chance offers very little in that regard.

Harder, better, faster, stronger.

The show does have a decent lineup of performances going for it, at least. Kazinsky neither looks nor sounds much like his older self as portrayed by Hall, but he brings an earnest, straightforward charm to the role. The same can be said for DeKay, and many of the strongest scenes in this episode come when the two men are interacting together. Kazinsky’s character is nothing if not psychologically complex, with the part calling for both a sense of elation at being granted a new lease on life and despair at the thought of not being able to reveal his secret to those he cares about. Pritchard’s pain over being reunited with his son and granddaughter while pretending to be someone else is palpable.

The Goodwin twins are arguably the most interesting characters in the show, to the point where I found myself wishing Second Chance was less about the Pritchard family and more about them. The two have a close-knit, not entirely healthy bond, right down to having a shared “twin-speak” language no one else can understand. This episode paints Mary as the levelheaded face of their company and Otto as the brilliant but emotionally stunted source of its groundbreaking technology. Otto’s obsessive behavior and inability to connect with the outside world makes him the most fascinating character in the show. Looking at Second Chance as a superhero show, it’s easy to picture him one day becoming the villain. For her part, Mary begins the story with a vested personal interest in resurrecting Pritchard but soon finds herself drawn into his world.

Again, it’s a shame this show tries so hard to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to combining high-concept storytelling with a familiar police procedural format. It tries to do too much, and some of what it does simply isn’t very compelling. But nor is it the dull Six Million Dollar Man retread the early trailers made it seem. There’s a chance for this series to grow into something special over the course of this first season.