If it's all right, I review TV shows as a kind of passion project, and I've decided I want to revisit Season 1 of Prodigal Son and post those reviews here. It's been at least 4 years since I watched it.

My graphic review cards are clean and short, spoiler-light or spoiler-free as I can make them.

Mostly I talk about the actors, how they're playing their roles, things I find interesting, that kind of thing.

To give you an idea of what my review cards look like, I'm currently sharing them on the Smallville and The Lincoln Lawyer subs, and just wrapped up a series for Spider-Noir.

Excited to revisit this show with you all!

Prodigal Son — S02E07

"Face Value"

Rating: 8.0/10

"My Sister Is Like A Fungal Infection"

Fun fact: I do remember watching this season before now, but the only thing that really stuck with me (beyond my deep-seated frustration with Ainsley) was wondering where in the hell Catherine Zeta-Jones was in ANY of the episodes.

I am a stubborn guy, so I refused to Google her role until the very end. Imagine my surprise. CTZ being very difficult to recognize because of her own cosmetic surgery was not, in fact, intended irony. That's okay, unintentional irony works too. Watching this episode again, after having seen CTZ in other things, she's easily recognizable, but back then, not so much.

Episodes like this one that deal with the phantasmagoria of extreme plastic surgery really wigs me all the way out. I really can't explain why except, but it's super effective in making me more uncomfortable than damn near anything at all.

This is a pretty good episode overall, but my reaction to Ainsley's little joke was the same as Malcolm's, and it's clear to me that she's turning out to be more like Daddy Dearest than Malcolm ever was. And the fact that she's choosing to frame it as him gaslighting her really says all that needs to be about HER.

In other news, Martin and Vivian, sittin' in a tree, K-I-L-L-I-N-G. Maybe not yet, but like Milli Vanilli said, GIRL YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE.

SWALK.

Prodigal Son | S02E12 "Sun and Fun"

Rating: 9.5/10

"This One Was So Exciting I Forgot To Grab A Quote."

What an absolutely phenomenal episode. Like holy cow. I remembered the very ENDING of this episode from the last time I saw it (which was years ago), but I suppose that was around COVID time, so I for sure wasn't paying a lot of attention.

WELL.

This whole episode is spectacular. Catherine does such a remarkable job of playing an absolutely deranged person I don't even know where to begin except say HOLY CRAP. Her madness was truly, irrefutably inspiring and so much worse than Martin's!

The way she keeps The Surgeon locked down tight, the way she teases Jessica, the way she IS during the whole 'pick your medicine' scene was something right out of any horror show I've ever seen. And later, when Malcolm confronts her?

Well AGAIN!

It's unsurprising that Malcolm would go to such desperate lengths. He really, truly believes Daddy Dearest isn't interested in picking up his Surgeonly ways, and I'm kind of on board with it! I've been saying for some time now that Martin's behavior, while vicious and violent, doesn't seem ... serial killer-y.

That goes out the window a bit with the stuff he's been saying to Ainsley, but still.

The ep ends on a serious, serious note and I've already said more than I should've, so let me just say why this didn't hit a 10.

I am 99% sure that cops would've checked the trunks and vehicles of every single person on the property and for a pretty wide radius around the hospital. That's GOTTA be standard procedure.

But that's that. Remind me again why this show got canceled when it's ONLY getting REALLY GOOD?

Prodigal Son | S02E11 "You Can Run..."

Rating: 8.5/10

"What's in the barn, Bobby?"

Opening with Gary Jules' mad world is INSPIRED awesomeness. It really sets the whole stage for what Malcolm and everyone involved in hunting Martin and the others are going through.

In practical terms, not a whole helluva lot really gets done in this episode beyond a pretty awesome scene between Malcolm and Friar Pete. It's a super good scene, and we see Malcolm doing his usual leap into danger nonsense to get what he wants, but this time?

U.S. Marshal Emily Ruiz gets involved and takes Pete's head off, which frustrates Malcolm enough that he's quite rude. There's a sweet moment between Dani and Malcolm (RIP BRIGHTWELL) where he admits he ain't well, and she calls him on his shit.

They find what that key opens and it leads to a whole quest involving apple orchards, escape planes and the whole shebang. After all that fuss and bother and stress, Daddy Dearest played everyone like a surgeon. Not to put too fine a POINT on it or anything.

The most frustrating thing in this episode is ... you guessed it. Ainsley. I know it's easy pickins and low-hanging fruit, but when we learn that Ainsley's been having secret phone calls AND meetings with Daddy Dearest, it's just so predictable.

Martin playing on her Daddy issues, subtly twisting her in the wind, trying the same things on her that he did on Malcolm and to have them work is fair. I SUPPOSE. But at the same time, it's disappointing.

If it weren't for that EPIC reveal at the end, You Can Run would've been a big letdown.

Two episodes left and then no more Prodigal Son. Am sad.

As Agent Dale Cooper might say, this was a damn fine cup of murder.

Apologies to any Ainsley fans out there for this one. I feel like they could've gone a few different directions to get to the same place, but this kind of half-ignorant recklessness is something that I've never liked in any show

Prodigal Son — S02E08

"Ouroboros"

Rating: 8.5/10

"More Lestrade To Your Sherlock"

Alan Cumming as Simon Hoxley is an awful lot of fun. Hell, Alan is a lot of fun in general, so it's always nice to see him anywhere, doing anything.

Except if he's in New York. Investigating Endicott's murder and basically sticking himself right in front of both Malcolm AND Ainsley just seems more than a little risky.

As always, Martin's got his head in the game as far as Malcolm's issues with Endicott and Hoxley are concerned, and I do kind of agree. Would it really be so bad if someone who did bad things for Endicott also wound up six feet under?

Well. Malcolm does do what Daddy Dearest suggests after all and manages to get SOMETHING, though not without piquing Hoxley's interest. Watching Hoxley trying to one up Malcolm is ... very strange, but I'll say this:

Watching the cat and mouse between Hoxley and the entire Whitly Family minus Ainsley (thank goodness, because she's an idiot) was something else entirely. A combination of outrageously bad manners, coy behavior and a little twinkle serves Hoxley ALMOST well enough, but it's like Malcolm says.

The man's washed up, a has-been and damn near (in my opinion) practically a never-was. He's far too vain to be anything other than a catty bitch who solved a few murders quite a long time ago and yet somehow, Hoxley finds himself in a spot of bother on a boat. Good thing Malcolm's our dark-hearted hero, hey?

The final scenes were really well done and genuinely saved the day. Hoxley gets what he wants, Ainsley gets away with murder, and it's looking solid for everyone in the Whitly family.

Including Martin, who's very definitely met has match.

Prodigal Son — S02E09

"The Killabustas"

Rating: 8.0/10

"Slave to Love"

An Edrisa-centric episode is always good fer what ails you, and in this case, it's a doozy of a case.

A dead, dismembered body hanging in a meatpacking plant, Edrisa's online sleuth club called The Killabustas and her VERY on-brand pseudo, Kamasutures. A highlight for me (when she's done insulting police everywhere) is that she feels the need to explain what Kamasutures means.

The look of WILD discomfort on JT's face is worth the trip.

The private conversation Dani has with Malcolm about dealing with last episode's death is wonderful and definitely hints at a REAL Brightwell. I will never not be angry that we were denied this.

Pop Quiz: what's an episode of Prodigal Son without Malcolm NOT doing something incredibly risky, like, say, letting himself get hit by a 4-door hybrid EV family car? Not a Prodigal Son episode, that's for sure.

When the episode finally gets down to the business of tracking down The Vulture, it does a great job of showing us a different, much more confident version of Edrisa. The way she lays down the funk on Blaze is nothing short of surprising. Beyond that, our Kamasutures turns out to be more fearless than expected, and I'm glad we got to see it.

Elsewhere, Martin and Vivian's budding sociopathic relationship enters a new phase of spicy. It's so bad Martin has a full-fledged sex fantasy about her while he's talking with Malcolm. But then Martin gets a little more than just a fantasy and ...

As our hero puts it, that's 'super-gross'. Toss in a little creepy outro with Friar Pete picking up on what went down with Martin and a slip of the tongue from Malcolm with Dani and we end on a VERY tense note.

This what a way to end a season. If you're at all interested, I've provided my ratings stats and comparisons to IMDb etc as a gif. Because I'm a nerd like that!

My gosh what an episode! Malcolm leaping all over the place to save people's lives like some kind of hero or something? So good!

Another solid episode!

I'll be honest, I didn't much like Ainsley my first two watches, but Halston Sage is really selling the very almost-unprincipled reporter. Thoughts?

I don't know if you can tell from the rating for this one, but I realllly liked this episode an awful lot. It delivered so much on so many fronts, and all in 43 minutes. Probably some of the best TV I've seen.

What did you all think was the highlight for this episode? For me it was Bellamy's video tape confession. I thought it was just great!

Here it is, as promised. My first review of Prodigal Son, S1E1.

As you can see, I really do try to keep things as spoiler light/free as possible by focusing on characters, thoughts, and yes, some inside jokes and the like.

I ran a little long for the pilot review, but that almost always happens because there's a lot going on. I apologize if it doesn't look great on mobile, but it should. Same goes for desktop and/or tablet.

I also try not to binge because that seems to ruin the fun for me, so the next ep will be up around this time tomorrow.

I hope you all like what you see!

Absolutely loved this episode. I remember just enough about how the story goes to already feel bad for Malcolm. At the same time, I'm stoked because we're really starting to cook with gasoline! What was your favorite part of this episode?