After the 10 episodes of season 2 of Tell Me a Story, there's only one ugly truth the came to mind, which is, happy endings are in fact extremely overrated.
Season 2 transported us to a completely different scoop, more specifically Nashville while following the fairytales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and The Beast. You would expect that after the explosive, thrill seeker that was season 1, that season 2 would be able to keep up the pace but truth be told, it got a little bit boring at times and there were some story lines that felt dragged throughout the season. On a positive note I really enjoyed the fact that in season 2 everyone was connected somehow and that the stories had like a crossover effect every episode duo to the fact that the stars of which tale were related.
The cast was pretty consistent, and delivered strong performances throughout the season.
Danielle Campbell's dual performance was beyond thrilling, scary, captivating and unexpected. She honestly gave me flashbacks to Dylan O'brien's performance as void Stiles back in season 3 of Teen Wolf.
Danielle's easy ability to portrait vulnerability and emotional scenes made her all performance even better when she became the twisted villain on a tale that initially painted her as the victim but still, unfortunately, her acting abilities weren't enough to make
Sleeping Beauty the most interesting or entertaining tale to watch.
The thing about this season that made it harder to watch when compared to season 1, was that it made the entire storylines and characters complicated to connect with, and as a consequence complicated to actually care for when something bad happened. Since the very first episode, every single line of drama was introduced as if we already knew the characters but we didn't, and we had to make an extra effort to dive in into the emotions that they were felling if we wanted to continue to watch the season, taking away the initial thrill and entertainment.
Now let's take a close look into the haunted fairytales that made season 2.
Sleeping Beauty
What I usually look forward the most about this type of shows are the complex characters that even when they do terrible, horrible things, there's a side to them that sometimes involuntary, makes you root for them. As soon as we entered episodes 3 and 4, we found ourselves trying to understand Tucker's character impulses, but not in a compassion kind of way, what we were actually doing, was trying to make sense out of this twisted yet predictable story line. Even tho this is a completely different story and not even remotely similar to season 1, it's inevitable to step way from comparisons when the previous season delivered such an emotional roller coaster when it came to Paul Wesley's character. From Tucker's unjustifiable actions, to Olivia's unreasonable craziness to Madison's boring and plain dialogue, there was nothing remotely likable about this characters. Yeah of course we have to highlight the actors performances, and also a couple of chasing scenes that were the most thrilling thing about this tale, but with such a gigantic window of possibilities, yet again they failed to give us a proper ending, proving once again that when it comes to entertainment specially in this scoop, happy endings are just... boring. Without giving away to much, one character escapes, other one survives and the other one is stuck. If you are gonna give it a try to this season, I dare you to try and figure it out as the episodes go, which ending belongs to which character.
Beauty and The Beast
This was probably the tale that personally, I was most excited about. From the very first episode the undeniable chemistry between Beau and Ashley was off the charts, and also the concept of the pretty girl next door being the beast the the strong kind man has the beauty got me hooked from the very first moment. If we talk about the first 2/3 episodes this was probably the most interesting story line, from the mystery of who tried to kill Ashley, to the insane chemistry between these characters, to the complex demanding mother, to the fascinating Beau's backstory professionally and personally, I must confess for a moment there I thought that these 2 could save this season. I couldn't be more wrong! Once again the writers failed to go deep with these characters. When I think about the Beauty and The Beast tale even in the animated version, we see the beast struggling with the darkness in him, battling his impulses and lashing out when you thought that everything was going in the right direction. Well, you would've thought that the writers would take that personality trait and amplified to maximum and even twist it a little bit more, but no, even tho we see Ashley have one or two moments of 6 out of 10 rage, and one or two breakdowns they are almost all concentrated in the first episodes, leaving the rest of her story line focused on her on and off romance with Beau and dealing with a stalker that, spoiler alert, gets caught way early in the season. The rest of this tale was dragged and makes you lose interest episode by episode.
Even the mother played by Carrie-Anne Moss falls into a disappointment in this tale, I was hoping for some evil, or twisted moment where she's the one responsible for her daughter's accident, but no. She kind of stays in the sidelines the all time. And once again, the ending fails to deliver. With a suppose twist that was put into the season in the last 2 episodes, this explanation for everything that went down with Ashley was ridiculous, and gave no emotional connection to the story line whatsoever. A random character, with a predictable soap opera revenge plot with no development whatsoever, shows up, threatens to kill, ends up being killed and everyone gets their happy ending. There was no breakthrough performance here worth mentioning and was every bit of superficial writing on a tale that had everything to be nothing less than epic.
Cinderella
Last but not least, the actual savior of this season was probably the initial underdog storyline that turned into the biggest plot twist with the greatest emotional traits that actually makes you hold your breath from time to time.
This tale didn't failed to deliver a great romance , with the best characters development out of the 3 tales, and a backstory with some of the greatest jaw dropping moments, ending up carrying this season from middle to the very end. Simone was beautifully written, strong headed, fearless, complex and vulnerable at the same making the perfect princess for very a charming but not prince kind of style Jackson. The thing I liked the most about their romance was that they were like a mirror, their flaws and qualities were the same, which was exactly what they both needed, someone who could actually understand their pain, their fears, their motives but that could also be their anchor for redemption as their past mistakes constantly comeback to hunt them. From amazing chemistry to a deep a connection Jack and Simone were the perfect representation of a modern day fairytale, where the law of attraction puts in motion every thing that goes down later in the season for them. Simone's stepmother served as a great wicked witch, and the perfect villain for almost the entire season, making even more shocking the reveal that she was nothing more than a human being just like Simone. Everything is more than what it meets the eye, and the Cinderella tale is the perfect example, with the best
WTF moment of the season being delivered by non other than Simone's stepbrothers. The last 2 episodes are an emotional roller coaster and the living proof that sometimes your mortal enemies are closer than you think. Cinderella didn't fail to deliver a great, twisted, emotional ride ending up shinning in a season that failed to keep the previous quality when you look at the bigger picture.
The best out of this season is definitely the cast, just as Paul Wesley, Danielle Campbell and Matt Lauria that had to work with poor and predictable writing material but sill managed to deliver A plus performances throughout out the season.
