Reverie Review: No More Mr. Nice Guy (Season 1 Episode 3)

Reverie Season 1 Episode 3 “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is the most consistently entertaining episode of the series thus far. However, though it’s fun to watch, it also underlines that even this early on, the show needs to start taking some real risks.

The premise of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is fascinating. Who hasn’t wanted to basically live out a fantasy as a Batman villain at one point or other?

Reveries can give you that opportunity, and it’s got to be a great time. Especially if your own life in the real world was something less than fulfilling – why wouldn’t you want to spend as much time as possible in the false one?

Ostensibly, that’s what happens to Nate, a mild-mannered husband and apparent reverie addict who gets fired and is now at risk of losing his home because he can’t give up the virtual reality he’s created.

At first, we think that’s because Nate just loves romping around in a wolf mask, robbing banks with machine guns and escaping in helicopters. That’s kind of understandable, in a way.

What would we do in an imaginary world with no consequences? (I mean, isn’t this kind of the entire premise of Westworld?)

Unfortunately, that ultimately isn’t the case here. Nate’s obsession with his bank heist fantasy has more to do with working out his emotional angst over experiencing a home invasion than it does with his desire to be the Joker.

And while Mara does a commendable job in talking him out of it — even tracking down the guilty culprit in the real world — the twist sort of takes all the fun out of his virtual antics.

Honestly, it probably would have been a more interesting episode if Nate’s desire to stay in his reverie had some darker undertones.

The show’s empathetic approach doesn’t work as well here as it did in the series’ previous two installments, mostly because it doesn’t draw strong enough connections between Nate’s real life experience and his virtual one.

A throwaway line about how he still feels confident in his virtual world doesn’t necessarily explain why that means he becomes a bank robber.

Also, shouldn’t someone be freaked out about the idea that the program is “giving you what you need” by making unauthorized and unasked for decisions during your sessions?

I would be super mad if I paid for this thing only to get kidnapped by a gang lord during my own virtual fantasy, is all I’m saying.

Luckily, the rest of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is Reverie’s most balanced episode yet, offering up several plot threads outside of the rescue-of-the-week. That’s a first, and a positive sign going forward.

We finally get a little bit of a dive into the mysterious Paul, who, as it turns out, used his reveries to deal with his cruel and abusive father. Only he too didn’t choose that particular path. The program did.

This twist hints at something at darker at work in the reverie framework and hopefully this is a story that Reverie explores more thoroughly in the weeks to come.

How does the program decode what you need? What if it’s wrong? Are reveries entertainment programs? Therapeutic ones? Something else entirely?

On the plus side, Mara’s trip into Paul’s psyche lets their relationship grow in an organic and interesting way. It seems obvious that these two are destined for romantic status at some point, and they do have a certain chemistry here.

Plus, the “other doors” Mara sees in his reverie clearly hide more secrets. Sendhil Ramamurthy is such an appealing actor, so it’s good to see that he’ll likely be getting more to do as the season progresses.

Elsewhere, Mara’s visions of her dead niece continue. It’s interesting, since Mara’s presented as such an intuitive and smart person, to watch her actively and encourage this clearly bad and damaging situation.

She knows Brynn isn’t real. What does she hope to gain here? Closure? Comfort? That Mara isn’t strong enough to resist these visions is smart characterization — and a reminder she’s not perfect, despite how great she is at her job — but to what end?

Perhaps we’ll find out more about that, now that Mara’s very grasp on reality seems to be crumbling. How that works exactly, is unclear, but it’s a twist I wasn’t expecting.

So much of Reverie feels like it should be a predictable, feel-good procedural that happens to also have virtual reality involved. But its darker undertones are intriguing. And something the show should probably lean into a little harder.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• “Nobody goes into reverie to be a lookie-loo.” Facts, I guess?
• Mara’s various attempts to get Nate’s attention in this episode feel like a real strange way to engage someone if you ask me.
• One of my favorite random facts about the reverie experience is that in order to use it you have to get incredibly comfy beforehand. I’d definitely work better from that plush couch in Mara’s office is all I’m saying.
• I definitely want to find out what happens if you die in a reverie. For example, if Mara hadn’t exited out of the truck before it hit the wall, what then?

What did you think of this episode of Reverie? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Reverie airs Wednesdays at 10pm on NBC.

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