Critic’s Rating: 3.1 / 5.0
3.1
With the season’s penultimate installment, Accused Season 2 continues its trajectory of going out with a whimper.
Is anyone else having a difficult time connecting with most cases this season?
Here, Ken Jeong does some solid dramatic work, given that most people are accustomed to him in a comedic fashion. But it isn’t enough to make a compelling or interesting episode.
But that’s been the pattern this season, hasn’t it? I’ve noted before that it seems like every other installment has sparks of what made Accused Season 1 so intriguing to viewers and luring us back for more.
And then the other episodes fall so flat that, at best, you go through the motions of watching dutifully, and at worst, you don’t care.
I don’t know the deal with the series or how it could have improved or done anything differently to keep viewers captivated. I only know that it’s been one of the most inconsistent seasons of television I’ve witnessed in some time.
“Eugene’s Story” was okay. It was mostly boring, with a thin script that didn’t inspire much interest or provide any twists or turns to hook us at any point in the hour.
It was great to see Jamie Chung, who is typically a delight in most of her works, but here, she simply couldn’t bring Grace to life onscreen, perhaps because of how thinly the character was written.
And sadly, I found Chung’s performance uncharacteristically wooden and underwhelming. We needn’t get into the lack of chemistry between Chung and Jeong here.
I can only imagine that the difficulty of portraying Grace as a reformed, broken soul wracked with guilt so much that it interfered with her happy life and marriage doesn’t translate well at all.
Instead, this results in a seemingly imbalanced relationship where Eugene seems devoted to Grace, but Grace is such a flat character that nothing is convincing about her life, motivations, or whatever feelings she shows.
The troublesome Rex with a laughable marker tattoo of Texas sketched across his neck is so one-note that there’s nothing to grasp onto, good, bad, ugly, or complex.
He’s just there, filling in the slot of a villain and nothing more. And it’s sad because one of Accused‘s greatest successes was its ability to have a collection of the most unexpected and talented actors portraying these intriguing characters who can tell a full-faceted and captivating story in 45 minutes or less.
Again, I don’t know where Accused is going wrong this season, as the actors are certainly there. The season bolstered Felicity Huffman and Cobie Smulders. We’ve had stage, theater legends, and comedians sinking their teeth into dramatic roles and pulling it off.
The cast and talent are there, but everything else has been so hit or miss this season that you don’t know what you’re even getting from one installment to the next.
In the words of my wonderfully precocious, round-eyed, and earnest toddler nephew, “Wha happen?”
Yes, Accused, what happened?! Inquiring minds want to know? What’s not clicking, and is this simply one of those byproducts of the strikes and fast turnaround with production?
I don’t really know. It’s a pity, though, as the last thing I want to do is heavily criticize one of the most delightful anthological series I’ve experienced. But here we are.
Back to Eugene. What can we say about him? He was a devout Christian who found meaning and purpose in his church community and his lifestyle as a jeweler working alongside his father-in-law.
Eugene thought he had a perfect life and was doing everything in his power to live as God intended, as a good person who conveniently swindled people into purchasing engagement rings beyond their means, but more so did it because he believed in love and all that good stuff.
He was a man who tried to live by turning the other cheek, which often had him appearing weak to the obnoxious and racist dog walker who didn’t clean up his dog’s poop and made fun of Eugene’s eyes.
Eugene was devoted to Grace, who seemed to be his entire world. And, yeah, we know there was some darkness in him, as he implied that he, too, had a past.
We also saw how his first flashes of anger seemed dangerous. Carrying around his father-in-law’s gun in his back pocket was a bit off, considering he didn’t always have a valid reason.
It genuinely did seem like he contemplated threatening that jerk before “leading with kindness.” But that’s the thing about being human; it’s not about your first thoughts and instincts but more so your actual actions in the end.
Eugene mostly had himself together; his weak spot was Grace.
Suspecting that she was cheating on him was a big turning point for him, but after confronting her and hearing about her past with Rex, he realized he was the real villain and the one causing harm.
Then, he devoted his attention to making Rex pay to save Grace because Eugene was intensely happy, devoted, stable, and seemingly perfect.
For someone as flawed as Grace, with her past, it’s understandable that she concluded that maybe she wasn’t worthy of Eugene or that if he knew all the deep, dark details about her past, he wouldn’t love her anymore.
Rex was a horrible part of her past that she could put away for a while, but once Rex got out of prison, it all came rushing back.
Eugene’s idealism and positivity established high standards and expectations, whether he intended them or not, which was at the core of this installment and Eugene’s relationship with Grace.
In that sense, they touched on many of the notes you’d expect from an hour with a heavy enough theme on religion and Christianity: Sinners can be redeemed, God and Jesus forgive.
Grace was a flawed woman with a past, but she was worthy of forgiveness and love, and Eugene could give that to her.
But he couldn’t extend forgiveness to Rex. Instead, he was ruled by vengeance and other human instincts that make us flawed and constantly at the mercy of seeking prayer and forgiveness for the Big Guy.
In many ways, I wish they’d delved a bit more into the religious aspect instead of lightly touching on things as a backdrop. It felt forced and underbaked, perfunctory, if you will.
But then so much of this installment had that overall vibe, as, aside from Jeong’s intriguing enough break from comedy, very little was engaging about the hour.
The second season also spends a great deal of time with those on trial for some form of death, and I wish they’d switched things up a bit more.
Eugene is going away for felony murder, his actions resulting in the death of the woman he loved, and while tragic because of the outcome and his love for her, very little about how things played out made me ponder much of anything about the justice system and the complexities of humanity or care.
And I hate that.
But those are my thoughts on the matter, and maybe I’m too pessimistic about the hour, so I’d love to turn things over to you.
Accused Fanatics, what were your thoughts on this case and the overall season thus far?
Sound off below.
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