Revenge: Season 2

Previously on Revenge; Emily Thorne (Emily van Camp) was a kick-ass vengeful heroine who would have scared Count Monte Cristo’s socks off...in season 1. When the show debuted, Emily’s goal was to take down anyone and everyone who played a part in her innocent father’s (James Tupper) unfair downfall and his eventual death - and at the heart of this conspiracy was the Graysons, a wealthy Hamptonite family who would lie, cheat, manipulate and kill anyone to score an extra buck or two. There were mindgames between Emily and the Grayson matriarch Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) as Emily worked her magic wrapping Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman), the Grayson son, around her fingers. With an explosive season 1 finale, Revenge was supposed to have an even better follow-up season. So where did it all go wrong? Season 2 has ended, and the third season is well under way, but unless there is a serious creative reboot, Revenge may as well call it quits, as the sliding ratings show the audience wasn’t a huge fan of the second series. The problems started when characters with potential were written off with barely a chance to speak. Most notable was Jennifer Jason Leigh’s embarrassingly brief stint on the show as Emily’s biological mother. As a mentally unstable character, there could have been more drama to play around with, but sadly after one brief hostage situation she went away for good. Much anticipation and hype surrounded what Emily’s mother would bring to the overall narrative and what chemistry she would share with the cast but alas, this was not meant to be, and an actress of Jason Leigh’s calibre should have gotten more.

Exhibit B of more useless characters: the men. That is, of course, with the exception of Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny) whose pure evil nature makes him awesome as he gets more deserved screen time. Nolan (Gabriel Mann) is also invaluable to Emily’s quest, and is excluded from this category. Plus, he’s loaded and is a genius. Who can hate a man like that? So “the men” include Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler), his often-invisible younger brother Declan (Connor Paolo), Daniel Grayson, and a new entry to the cast, Aidan Mathis (Barry Sloane). Jack the lost puppy in search of a connection only delays and derails Emily’s agenda, which makes for more sappy minutes, Declan goes to a fancy posh school and finds that he’s not fitting in so well (oh god), and Daniel is stepping up to the challenge of becoming a bona fide Grayson, plotting and scheming although still looking like an oversized immature 14-year-old way over his head. The worst offender of all however is Aidan - an old classmate of Emily. The two of them met whilst they were both in the Japanese Revengey Academy (not a real place). Their sensei saw romance developing between the two, and decided to tear them apart. It’s been years, they reconnect, and he wants to help Emily. Help her how exactly...? All Aidan does is create another side of a love-shape Emily’s rapidly building up for herself, and with another eligible bachelor comes at least a few episodes of mopey sulking, when people should really be getting their act together and launching an attack on the smug Graysons.

Want more needless characters? Charlotte Grayson (Christa B. Allen) should have stayed dead with the overdose from the season 1 finale and Amanda Clarke (Margarita Levieva), Emily’s “best friend aka the girl Emily swapped identities with” wants the audience’s sympathy when it comes to the mid-season climax, and to that I say too little too late. Only Ashley Davenport (Ashley Madekwe), the Graysons’ live-in slave (not being racist here, she really IS a slave), shows potential with her duplicitous, selfish side emerging, only for that to go nowhere too (she’s also being written out for season 3 - bye bye Ashley, be a dear and poison Charlotte on your way out will you?).

Things take an even more drastic turn for the worse with the introduction of The Initiative, a collection of bad guys ultimately responsible for everything bad that’s happened in Emily’s life. The name is ridiculous in itself, and when we get a glimpse into their offices, oh what a treat we’re in for. They sit in their sci-fi futuristic set, one that would most likely find its place on the Starship Enterprise, they stare at screens and make decisions to kill people. Yes there may be people in the world who do this kind of thing for a living, but given how Revenge started, this marked a serious step down for the show. Putting a face on The Initiative are Helen Crowley (Wendy Crewson) and Mr Trask (Burn Gorman), two villains so over the top they make Disney baddies look like a real-world possibility. Helen eventually clashes with Victoria, the protective mother, who has one highlight episode of actually doing something memorable. That’s right...ONE...out of 22.

Victoria, as always, is craftier with her verbal threats than she is when it comes to actually getting things done. She fancies herself as quite the schemer and backstabber, but she always finds herself on the losing end. But on the plus side, she always looks so damn flawless and outshines her younger co-stars which is a real visual treat.

Coming back to the character who started all this in the first place, Emily looks as lost as the writers. She dilly dallys with her revenge idea, a huge let-down for everyone who’s been rooting for her since day one (i.e. me), and with a drewwwwary pace that is more interested in her love stories, Emily has very little time to flex her action muscles and put her tacky martial arts moves to good use in dodgy choreography.

Are things looking better for the third season? Well...to start with, two of the aforementioned good-for-nothing roles were given the brutal axe (not literally - although this is an absolutely just cause for celebration: hurrah), but to put a damper of things is the announcement that two new actors have signed on for recurring roles. One, a character close to Victoria and another who may or may not have something going on with Daniel. Only time will tell on whether there are enough people still invested in the show to keep those all important 18-49-year-olds’ ratings/share, but to not haemorrhage viewers, the show needs to go back to where everything kicked off so well, and lose all the fancy wannabe plot lines to keep everything taut and focused.