- Title: Second Chance – A Suitable Donor
- IMDb: link
Owing more than a little to Frankenstein, Fox’s new crime-drama Second Chance centers around dead former sheriff Ray Pritchard (Philip Baker Hall/Robert Kazinsky) whose unique genetic markers allow the corpse to brought back to life by billionaire tech-genius Otto Goodwin (Adhir Kalyan). The scientist’s experiment might be the only thing which can save his twin sister Mary’s (Dilshad Vadsaria) life. After being brought back to life in a younger, and physically enhanced, body, Pritchard sets out to save his son (Tim DeKay) whose dirty partner (Derek Webster) in the FBI threw poor Ray off a bridge.
I didn’t expect much from the promos for the show Fox had been airing. Despite its goofy nature Second Chance lays the groundwork for some intriguing possibilities. Setting some definite parameters in the pilot episode by forcing Ray to return to the Otto’s process every twelve hours and hinging Mary’s survival on Ray works to keep the pair tied together and offer a reusable plot point to stop the womanizing and disgraced former cop from straying too far off the reservation. I’ll be curious to see how the storylines progress. Will Ray continue to try and help out his son? Will he take a murder of the week as some form of private investigator to use his training? Or will he simply stumble into danger his enhanced new body can help extricate him from as need be?
The choice to make Ray a deeply flawed human being allows the show to give multiple meanings to the show’s title. Not only does the dead man get a chance to relive his youth in modern day but also try and make up for past mistakes. Teasing the man’s son and granddaughter (Ciara Bravo) recognizing something in his younger self also opens the door to one or both eventually discovering their true connection to the mysterious stranger. “A Suitable Donor” includes an appearance by Nicky Whelan as the escort friend of the elder Ray who takes a shine to the new version (even if she, like everyone else on the show besides the twins, is unaware of who he really is). I’m always pleasantly surprised to see Whelan pop-up; hopefully she’ll stick around.