New series Reverie continues, with Episode 2: Bond. Jane Bond. (Warning! The following review contains SPOILERS!)
For some reason, as this episode unfolded, I felt that this series might end up being a bit like a live action version of Mr Benn, the BBC series from the 70s; in that show, Mr Benn enters a fancy dress shop, trying on a new outfit each episode, and then experiences an adventure, normally with some moral or educational angle after going through a magic door at the rear of the shop. The difference would be that in the Reverie version, it would include someone going through the magic door to try to save Mr Benn from certain doom.

REVERIE — “Bond. Jane Bond” Episode 102 — Pictured: Ahna O’Reilly as Rachel Kauffmann — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)
The aspect of Reverie that triggered this thought is that this week, the story took a different angle. Rather than focus on people primarily looking to recreate lost loved ones, as had been previously suggested as the main activity for the programs use, this time around, it was as a diversion to normal life. After the initial problem arises with Rachel (Ahna O’Reilly), the client, and Mara (Sarah Shahi) goes in to investigate, Paul (Sendhil Ramamurthy) explains to Mara that ‘Spy Reveries’ are quite popular, indicating a more general application. While this is an obvious extension of the technology, the pilot had suggested a more narrow focus, especially considering the subplot about Alexis (Jessica Lu) and her deceased twin brother, Dylan (Kai Scott).

REVERIE — “Bond. Jane Bond” Episode 102 — Pictured: (l-r) Ahna O’Reilly as Rachel Kauffmann, Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)
In this episode, the spy story instigated by Rachel starts out as a fairly standard affair, and she is thrilled by it, but it soon turns into something else. The program latches onto a need in her subconscious, and makes the target in the plot, the man she thinks is her father (John Brotherton), who seemingly abandoned her at birth. This changes the Reverie into less of a diversion, and more of a desperate search for her missing past, which Mara has to unravel.
There are a couple of nice little linguistic and pictorial red herrings thrown in there, which can be annoying, but work well here, and generally the plot is satisfying. The investigations outside of the Reverie don’t get solved too easily and aren’t full of unlikely solutions, but I did find that the tension was a little broken up, unnaturally in my view; at the beginning they state that Rachel has a heart condition, so she needs to come out of the Reverie as soon as possible and this situation continues to escalate, but when Mara wants to go home and have a nap, they suddenly find some medicine that stabilises Rachel. Whatever tension they had created became irrelevant by the middle of the episode.

REVERIE — “Bond. Jane Bond” Episode 102 — Pictured: Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)
There is good stuff in here though. The plot is well done, and the actors do a great job, especially Ahna O’Reilly, who displays both a fun and then increasingly desperate side. This group of characters seem to be gelling quite well and it looks promising going forward. There was a point for instance, where they could have taken a cheap turn, to create ‘mystery’, which happens quite often in TV procedurals and is infuriating, but instead chose to let the characters be honest. On the downside, the character of Monica Shaw (Kathryn Morris) seems to be slightly poorly catered for, as she is presented in a way that immediately puts Mara on the defensive, and seems unrealistic.

REVERIE — “Bond. Jane Bond” — Episode 102 — Pictured: Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint — (Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC)
There is also more to come from the backstory of Alexis, and the section of this episode where Mara goes to her for help is a little silly. As a ‘genius’ she would have surely have seen through Mara’s thinly veiled fishing expedition, and called her on it, unless of course she just didn’t care. To a degree, I’m not sure why Mara is fishing for personal information anyway, as it’s a little rude!
So far, this show is looking promising, and could well fill the gap left by other shows such as Stitchers. The characters work well together, and there is clearly enough mileage in the setup for many stories to be explored. Whether a short 10 episode season is enough to get it truly on its feet is another matter, but we shall see!