I love you, but we only have 48 hours to save LA.

I’ve clung to the threads of a series 2 narrative that’s gradually lost my patience, but at this point I’m 95% done. At least Flash Gordon took the mickey out of its own craziness.

At the mid-season finale point (thank God I don’t have to watch any more this year) I’m reflecting on what gets under my skin so much about La Brea’s second season so far. Firstly, why am I so aggravated by the expositional elements of the script? They are once again present in all their clunky glory and it hits me – it’s a sign that the audience isn’t trusted to follow the story. That’s for one of two reasons: either it’s because the writers know it’s convoluted; or they think their audience is stupid. Neither is a good option.

Next, it strikes me that the time frame of certain events and themes, the pacing of them, is all out of synch. People will be shot and injured, seemingly gravely, and then they’ll be ok within the space of a few hours or days. Other illnesses are dragged out across episodes… it’s both implausibly convenient and dreadfully inconsistent, and there’s another example of both in this episode. If you’re trying to create a Game of Thrones style ‘no character is safe’ vibe then the level of peril needs to be evenly spread throughout your narrative threads and you need to see them through. When a deadly disease and a gunshot to the torso are both resolved with unrealistic ease, you turn every high-stakes gambit into an empty threat and your audience stops caring.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, there’s a trial by combat duel, hiding an ulterior motive for the combatants, involving spears. I love Ty, but Oberyn Martell he is not. It’s not great, unsurprisingly.

Then there’s the denouement of the Eve / Gavin / Levi love triangle. Eve’s my favourite thing about La Brea at this point, even if the narrative is more wacky than those races Dastardly and Muttley used to drive in. Possibly the showrunners have been trying to make the audience lean one way rather than the other, because for me, Levi takes a step that leaves me pleased at how things shake out. For a given quantity of ‘pleased’, that is. I’m much more relieved to get some respite from this nonsense.

Verdict: Look before you leap, La Brea… oh no wait, too late. 2/10

Claire Smith