Chloe King Gets No "Redemption"

THE NINE LIVES OF CHLOE KING
Episode 2: “Redemption”

OK, let’s recap the pilot:
Chloe King gets pushed off a really high tower, and she dies. Then she wakes up with super cat powers and kisses a boy, inadvertently killing him. She finds out she’s part of a race called the Mai.

She has two Protectors in the form of cousins Alek and Jasmine, who like wearing black hoodies.

She’s being stalked by Scarface (OK, officially he’s listed as “The Rogue”, but I’m calling him Scarface), who works for Evil Rich Guy Whitley Rezza (really? Whitley?), whose son Brian is the boy Chloe now is crushing on. Only she can’t kiss him because of the whole “instant death” thing.

Oh, and she suddenly is really good at Parkour.

Everyone caught up? Good. Now, onward! Here be spoilers, but I’m not going to break down every single scene, because I’m just not that emotionally invested in this show.

This week’s episode is called “Redemption”, and I was really hoping they were after some after the pilot. But alas, ’tis not to be, as the title speaks to both the A-story and B-story both, and they both revolve around Xavier the Red Shirt.

Turns out, Chloe feels really bad that she killed Xavier, and she really thinks it’s her fault he’s dead.

And his brother Gabriel is getting blamed for Xavier’s death by the family, who thinks Gabriel got Xavier into drugs. When it was the other way around, with Xavier trying to get Gabriel out of stealing drugs from his hospital job.

So, redemption. You see where this is going, right?

Opening scene: Chloe sends Dad an e-mail saying “Come home”. That’s it? He makes contact 10 years after disappearing (do we really even know it’s him?) and that’s all she has to say? I’d be writing volumes!

Then, a noise on the roof leads to a long montage of “running across the roof” shots. Chloe’s chasing someone in a hoodie! Ooh, scary. But wait. It’s just Alek (who’s probably wearing the same hoodie he wore last week…) and he almost pushes her off the roof! But he doesn’t. Instead, he says, “Don’t be so careless with your lives.” Oh! He’s trying to make a point with his terrible accent… I get it. (and I know the boy was born is Surrey, but the accent just sounds overdone)

After that, the rest of the episode is all exposition until the last ten minutes. Really.

Paul has a good line that really applies to this entire show: “Superpowers are completely wasted on you.” That about sums it up.

I can’t decide if Chloe and Brian have chemistry or not. I can’t get past the bad writing or bad acting to determine if it’s just me or not.

Chloe and Mom are still trying to do the “Gilmore Girls” thing, and it’s just not working. They need a new schtick. But in one little bit of business, Mom seems to be looking at Xavier’s obituary quite a bit, especially after Chloe admits to kissing him. This bit of subtlety was not lost on me. Oh, no. I think Mom knows more than she’s telling. Oh, yes, I do.

Contrast that with Brian and his Dad (because it’s the very next scene, so the show is telling us to contrast Chloe and Mom with Brian and Dad). Brian’s got a chip on his shoulder because his mother is dead, and Dad has the Clunker Line of the Episode: “If you want my respect, you’re going to have to earn it.” Ooohhh, you tell him, Evil Rich Guy with an Accent.

And in the second date between our 16-year-old Chloe and College Boy Brian (at least, that’s my impression based on his conversation with Dear Old Dad), we find out Brian’s mother was – gasp! – murdered!

Here’s where I’m going to predict that Brian’s mother was a Mai, making Brian half-Mai, which means he won’t die when he finally kisses Chloe.

So, Chloe keeps getting calls from the phone of Xavier the Red Shirt, and it turns out it’s the brother Gabriel, who’s tied up with very bad dudes. Gang dudes. And Gabriel is supplying them with drugs he steals from his hospital job. And after one conversation with Chloe (after Xavier loosened the lid, of course) he’s decided he’s absolutely done.

Naturally, he’s going to meet with them one last time to end it all. Which means we get a close-up of Chloe as she faces the Ultimate Decision of the Week: Action? Or more Exposition?

Finally, in the last ten minutes of the episode, after talking the audience to death, there’s one action sequence. And it’s a mis-mash of close-ups of body parts covered in a wild AfterEffects adjustment layer that I can do on my laptop.

This is what cat people night vision looks like.

So, bad guys beaten. Chloe has mad fighting skills (who knew?). And Alek smolders more. And everyone is still taking Soap Opera Pouty Gazing 101 classes.

I’m going to call out the episode’s director Chris Grismer and the writers. This is lame dialogue. Sloppy pacing. The plot this week is clunky and contrived and predictable. And what’s with all of the shots with Skyler Samuels (you know…the star) behind objects in the foreground? Shows don’t usually do that unless the star’s … uhm.. .nahhh. It’s got to be poor shot composition. Really. Because I noticed it.

“Redemption”? Not this week.

[all photos: ABC Family]   [Official show site at ABC Family]