Mary Dailey – Google

I can suspend when required by a plot but this series asks too much of viewers. In a series of unbelievable scenes devoid of imagination we are asked to believe in a secret army fighting evil networks of child abusers. The plot wraps these underground superheroes in the veil of a haunted house, while also linking their existence to the flight of children from Nazis. It is both a frivilous and ridiculous treatment of the topic and in bad taste. The modern sensibilities around gender and sexual identity are great in a normalizing sense. That said the romantic entanglements take up too much space. I imagine this was necessary to draw viewers away from the giagantic problem of no real plot around either the trafficking operations, or the supossed army of child savers. The one compelling story line involves two 40ish women who are rekindling a romantic relationship after 20+ years of separation and all the complications (marriage to a man) that came in--between. These scenes feature the best writing and best acting by far, which is a bit odd as these characters are somewhat peripheral. Ontop of it all, it ends on a cliffhanger. As I said earlier- irritating!

As a crime drama it's mediocre but it has enough hooks to keep you coming back. As a story of friendships and romantic / sexual relationships it's quite compelling. Perry Mattfeld does a fine job but it's others in the cast that kept my attention. I absolutely loved Morgan Kranz as Felix Bell and the comic relief his character provides. Brooke Markham as Jess jumps off the screen. SPOILER ALERT - stop reading if you don't want to know details of relationships & plot. The friendship between Felix and Jess is funny & heart warming with a real sense of spontaneity. The frustration, tension and loving history in Jess and Murphy's relationship is viseral. Max & Murphy's up-down-all around relationship is great - involving a cool depiction of someone struggling with when & how to be more vulnerable, connected and trusting. The trying to hard relationship between Vanessa & Jess and the love addicted relationship between Darnell & Jules were also well drawn. A second season feels unnecessary as they wrapped so much into the last two episodes of season one & (spoiler alert) I have no interest in the guide dog business becoming a money laundering enterprise - feels like a devolution a la Weeds. The only relationship that didn't seem plausible was between Dean & Murphy. Perhaps that's intentional to prevent us from getting overly attached but seriously there was no chemistry & it's hard to buy Murphy being motivated into bed for cuddling. By the end it's also clear that a character in Dean's position would never have pursued it. Furthermore I think they could have left it at an unrequited friendship without losing anything from the story. That said I did appreciate Rich Sommers' performance as Dean unravels. Thamela Mpumlwana presents an incredibly charming character as Tyson & I hope to see more of him cast in other kinds of roles than this stereotype. Keston John is great & thank God the character gives him room to be more than an evil drug dealer.