Tell Me A Story Review: Hope (Season 1 Episode 1)
Kevin Williamson is back on The CW.
After requiring the rights from CBS All Access, The CW network is giving Williamson’s newest series, Tell Me A Story, brand new life, and an opportunity to gain more traction from fans who already know (and love) his prior work.
The series — an allegorical take on classic fairytales in modern-day life — all begins with Tell Me A Story Season 1 Episode 1, “Hope.”
While the show clearly has the mark of any classic Williamson series, this is no teen drama. The Vampire Diaries was dark, but Tell Me A Story is gritty.
Widely unafraid to take chances, it showcases a precarious side of Williamson, something that his other series never could.
Williamson is also back teaming up with Paul Wesley, who is able to stretch his acting muscles in vastly different ways from playing playing The Vampire Diaries‘s do-gooder teen vampire Stefan Salvatore.
Wesley has traded in his fangs in for a nasty drug habit, and his character Eddie is one of the most gripping aspects of the series right from the jump.
We meet slacker Eddie within seconds of the opening credits — a druggie who pays the bills by pulling bank jobs with his brother, Mitch.
There are clearly layers, and one hell of a complicated family dynamic, to Eddie’s story, but we don’t actually get to know any of it; all we learn is Eddie’s a mess, a part-time bartender, and one-third of The Three Little Pigs–something that only becomes obvious once he and his brother put on pig masks to rob a bank.
Not quite grasping where the fairy tale threads land is a bit of a problematic aspect that runs throughout the first episode.
It’s possible that’s all purposeful, and I’ve learned to trust Williamson when it comes to storytelling, but as a viewer who was originally intrigued by the idea of allegorical dark takes on classic tales, it’s a bit of a let down to feel lost in the metaphor.
The clearest fable is Kayla’s as symbols appear through wolf tattoos and bright red raincoats, it quickly resonates as a twist on Little Red Riding Hood. However, who plays what character is still a mystery, as Kayla is anything but an innocent little girl, naively skipping off to grandmother’s house.
Perhaps Kayla will end up being the Big Bad herself.
Danielle Campbell delivers a solid performance, but the character of Kayla is so off-puttingly unlikable, groaning becomes a reflex every time the show returns to her story. Her story is unfortunately given way too much screentime, considering how many other characters there are to meet.
The episode is overly packed with new characters moving at lightning speeds, overlapping in ways that are near impossible to remember (or even catch) upon first glance.
It’s a lot to take in, but Williamson is clearly still in tune with his knack for rapid storytelling, occasionally leaving us with cliffhangers at act breaks that are so strong, they could serve as season finales.
That includes the shocking death of Jordan’s wife Beth, who is mistakingly shot by one of the three pigs in the final moments of the episode.
The hour spends a significant amount of time watching the couple work through their marital issues, which is why it’s surprising Beth, a seemingly major player in this series, is taken out with a bullet so early on.
Jordan and Beth, Kayla, Eddie are just a few of the stories Tell Me A Story attempts to introduce in “Hope.”
We also meet broke dancer roommates so desperate to pay rent they end up committing murder, a veteran trainer processing a break-up (and PTSD), and a chef acclimating to a new job after grieving his late wife.
The good news is all of these stories have the potential to be gripping television. With a twenty episode season, Tell Me A Story clearly has the time to tell them, but it will take a few more episodes before an audience can feel properly attached to this many characters–or simply remember all their names.
What did you think of this episode of Tell Me A Story? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Tell Me A Story airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Kat Pettibone
Kat Pettibone is an aspiring TV writer, artist, and poet. As a Pacey Witter Fan Club lifer who never missed a TGIF, she has dreams of becoming your generations small screen Nora Ephron. She's also an avid lover of coffee, dogs and all things spooky.