Prodigal Son: All Souls and Sadists

October 30, 2019 5:11 PM - Season 1, Episode 6

Ainsley confronts her family with her intention to interview her father.

Bright attempts to track down the station wagon in the photo while also pursuing a sadistic killer. Ainsley discovers her father has a human side.

posted by miss-lapin (8 comments total)

The strongest parts of this episode are Sheen and Young. Young talking to her daughter about The Surgeon's humanity, The Surgeon talking to his "group." These scenes are what keep me watching.

The murder of the weak, I mean week, was just awful. At this point, the show can and should drop the weekly murders to nothing more than a side note since the writers suck at making these murders anything vaguely interesting. Give Sheen and Young more business as they are the ones who are enjoyable to watch.

And wasn't there supposed to be a Moriarty? We need that to come back as well.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:18 PM on October 30, 2019

Yeah, I don't know if I've just watched too many police procedurals, but the killer seemed pretty obvious from fairly early on.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:35 AM on October 31, 2019

The killer was so obvious I thought it had to be a red herring.

When I watch this show mostly what I feel is that I wish Hannibal were still on.
posted by Justinian at 3:09 AM on October 31, 2019 [4 favorites]

The murder was obvious. The only way it could have been more obvious is if the if kid wore a t shirt that said, "I did it."

Considering Bright's completely crap at profiling, I think a better way to do this show would be if Bright wasn't officially being asked to help by the NYPD but rather Lou Diamond Philips, feeling guilty and responsible for Bright, basically let's him tag along on investigations. You'd still have the resentment of other cops and Bright fucking everything up, but it would be slightly more believable than Bright being some sort of boy wonder.

I mean imagine how much easier that framework would go here-The cops immediately focus on the mother. While they go to work on her, Philips asks Bright to essentially "baby sit" the kid while social services sends someone over. Bright does his Philips act giving the kid a piece of candy. Memories are triggered as off screen the cops realize it's the kid. Bright's ass gets saved by Philips.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:11 AM on October 31, 2019

"Isn't that a little... exploitative? Then again, I've been exploiting others my entire life."
"You mean as a serial killer?"
"No, as a white man. We're terrible."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:50 PM on November 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

It's a little thing, but, I love how Sheen never seems to show any discomfort with being handcuffed. Like, aside from those moments of reaching the limit of the wall-tether (which, even then, play as being more disturbing/frightening for the other person in the room than as irritating to Dr. Whitley), he's just so comfortable-seeming that it feels like he could just break out at any time. Like he's just humoring everyone by wearing them.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:22 AM on November 2, 2019 [4 favorites]

I totally agree with that. He stretches to let others know he's at the end of his lead. It's one of those weird counter points. So much of the show is terribly done, but then there are the details.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:33 AM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Every time Bright got excited this episode, he reminded me of the incarnation of Gomez Addams from The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
posted by detachd at 6:52 PM on November 9, 2019