Week 2 of Notorious picked up the pace while doing a fine job by fleshing out our leads, building stronger interaction upon their initial connection and showing that Jake certainly paid attention and took notes while Julia preps her show.
The case of the week involved a mother searching for her missing child. It was an interesting case and I enjoyed all the small misleads, twists and turns. It was also very interesting to see Julia and Jake work together on this and put their Oscar Keaton case differences aside. I certainly didn't expect the story to end with the mother giving her child away to spare it from the psycho dad almost out on parol. It was an entertaining side story to follow and a good example how media attention if not handled well can bite you in the a*s.
Meanwhile, Sarah's death started to push Oscar and Jake out of control. It was interesting to see both men go to dark places but in very different ways. While Oscar was drinking the pain away, Jake expressed his pain through anger and pushing people away. I enjoyed Daniel's performance so much more than in the pilot he was very much on point in every scene. Julia eventually pushed through and Jake decided it's time to open up to her about what happened with Sarah the night before she died. After this Jake got proactive and decided to do the best for Oscar which meant arrange Oscar a ticket straight to jail. I thought it was very smart how Jake used Sarah's funeral as a way to prop up Oscar's public image while getting him arrested in the process. It was gross and disgusting but still a very smart move.
At the funeral, Jake experienced his true breakthrough and shared with his brother Bradley about his last night with Sarah. This sharing was a lot different than what we saw Jake do with Julia. When Julia and Jake interact no matter how much they lower their business personality shield's they still are those people at their core. Meanwhile, when he opened up to Bradley, the person who knew him before he built up his public image, it felt raw and real and really moving to watch. Hopefully, we see more of this down the line.
Julia's story in this episode was less emotional, even though she deeply cares for Jake and was invested in his story. That said with Megan's help she was looking for the person who sent her the incriminating pictures in last week's episode. When Megan revealed that the pics of Sarah's dead body were sent out of their office, I thought that information would get dragged around a bit. But to my personal pleasure, it was revealed after a couple of scenes that Ryan was the one who sent Julia pictures. Ryan Guzman's Ryan had a small breakthrough in this episode and it was very enjoyable to watch, not cause he was half naked half a time instead it added substance to his character. After Julia found him in his undies sleeping in her office, I thought they would reduce his character to the cute playboy character but we got a character with substance instead. Ryan wants to be independent and proof himself on his own. That is why he stalked out at the Keaton villa and took the picture, he also moved out of his father's house. Ryan also revealed that Julia impressed him a couple of years ago when she called his dad an ass at a party. It formed a bond between Julia and Ryan and I hope he works himself into the inner circle very soon.
Besides working on helping Jake and handling Ryan, Julia also spent time on getting a story for her show. Her main target was Alan, Sarah's brother, and her only living relative. Alan wasn't up for a team up with Julia and shamed her for disgracefully trying to exploit his sister's death. But after Oscar got arrested at the funeral, Alan decided he couldn't let Oscar of so easily and promised Julia some dirt on Oscar, ending the episode on a tiny cliffhanger.
Today on Louise's Shenanigans: She was going on a lunch date with Mr. Sean Combs aka P. Diddy and playing naughty strip poker with our new favorite camera assistant, Luke. While playing strip poker with Luke, Louise found time to slightly blackmailed Julia into promoting her strip poker partner into the main cameraman of Julia's funeral. As said in the pilot review, having Louise question Julia's authority is a really good thing for the show overall. And Kate J Grant delivers all those lines perfectly.
Luke: You rather have too much than not enough.
Louise: That is what I always say.
Your turn now, share in the comment section what you thought of Notorious' second outing. Is the show notorious enough for you or will you drop it like hot cocoa. Also, what is your verdict on Oscar? Guilty or Innocent? And if innocent who else do you suspect?
