Reverie Review: Pas de Deux S01E06

Reverie tries a new angle this week, while also treading old ground, in Episode 6: Pas de Deux.  (Warning! The following review contains SPOILERS!)

This week on Reverie, we have an episode that on its own is fairly serviceable and has some interesting points, but in the wider context of the series doesn’t bring a huge amount of new ideas.  The new angles include bringing in Mara’s (Sarah Shahi) ex, Chris (Sam Jaeger) as a psychiatrist who has a patient connected to the Reverie program.

Straight away I felt that this was a little clunky and somewhat unlikely.  What are the chances that Mara’s ex would happen to be the Doctor of someone stuck in a Reverie?  While drama takes liberties with reality quite often, this really bumped and seemed overly cheap or lazy.  There are a number of ways they could have brought in that character that wouldn’t have been so jarring.  He could have been a specialist in a particular area they required information on for instance, and Mara could have sought him out; this is a much more likely scenario than shoehorning him in the way they did.

REVERIE — “Pas De Deux” Episode 106 — Pictured: Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)

The patient in question is a dancer, Holly (Sally Pressman), who has been paralysed after an accident.  As you would expect, there has been PTSD and depression, which has been alleviated somewhat by use of the Reverie program.  Unfortunately, Holly has begun spending more and more time in there, despite her sister Vivian (Wynn Everett – Agent Carter, The Newsroom), trying to help her.

REVERIE — “Pas De Deux” Episode 106 — Pictured: (l-r) Sally Pressman as Holly Maxwell, Ireland Richards as Sadie — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)

This plotline is where things get a little problematic, as it’s only a slight twist on a previous effort, and the writers will need to be more inventive if the show isn’t going to become formulaic.  There are some emotional aspects to the story which are interesting, such as the desire by Holly to have a daughter and a life that was taken away from her, but it’s not far from the same motivation of Tony (Josh Bitton) in the pilot episode, where his wife (Hannah Levien – The Magicians) had died.

REVERIE — “Pas De Deux” Episode 106 — Pictured: Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)

What they’ve tried to do is cover up that deficiency with the soap opera stuff with Chris, and the other reveal which happens at the end of the show.  It doesn’t really work though, and I just found the whole thing a bit disappointing.  If the show is to have any longevity, then they either need to make the Reverie issues more innovative, or use another angle that puts them into the background.

On the positive side, the actors do a good job with the material they’re given and there is a great performance by Sally Pressman, hiding the true nature of her Reverie.  There is also a nicely nuanced turn from Wynn Everett, displaying the complexities of a woman struggling with her own issue, trying to maintain composure, and caring for her sister at the same time.

REVERIE — “Pas De Deux” Episode 106 — Pictured: (l-r) Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint, Sendhil Ramamurthy as Paul Hammond — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)

As I stated before, if this was in isolation it would have been a fine episode, but in a wider context it comes across as patchy, and as a show still trying to find a direction.  There are currently many balls in the air: the ex, the hallucinations, Monica/DOD interference, the Alexis/Dylan mystery, and now the survival of Ray (Christopher Redman).  Some of this needs funnelling into the plot in a more cohesive way though, as at times it seems like it’s all being thrown at a wall hoping something sticks.  If it doesn’t it could spell the end of this show, but in the meantime, the charm of the actors is holding the wolves at bay.