CAST:
Meagan Good (Joanna Locasto), Laz Alonzo (Will Moreno), Tate Donovan (Edward Bowers), Victor Garber (Robert Bowers), Wes Brown (Julian Bowers), Katherine LaNasa (Sophia Bowers), Ella Rae Peck (Mia Bowers), Marin Hinkle (Samantha Bowers)
QUICK SYNOPSIS:
When troubled rich girl Vivian Bowers is found dead from an apparent drug overdose, her former best friend-turned detective Joanna Locasto is convinced by her ex-partner (and ex-boyfriend) Wes to go undercover and investigate what truly happened. Immersed in grief over the death of his daughter, Robert embraces Joanna back into the family, which certainly has a lot of skeletons in the closet. Now on the inside, Joanna and Wes must try and figure out who was behind Vivian's death, which was clearly a murder.
MY TAKE:
Vivian is dead not too far past the opening scene, so we jump right into the story. Meagan Good is a decent actress, you really feel terrible for Joanna as she learns her estranged best friend has been murdered. The two had not spoken since senior year, after an argument where Vivian was seemingly high or drunk and Joanna tattled on her friend to Papa Bowers in order to help her. Doesn't seem like too much of a thing, until later in the episode. You really start to dislike pretty much every member of the Bowers family by the end of the episode. Robert's second wife, Sophia, is a rude boozy snob with a wine glass glued to her hand. Edward (Donovan) is a alleged rapist who is outwardly nasty to both his ex-wife and Joanna, and Mia is a typical bratty rich teenager. You only sort of like Julian, only because he has a past with our heroine and seems pleasant on the outside. (But, this is only until the end of the ep, being he paints himself as a murderer candidate.)
Pretty much the entire Bowers family (minus Mia) is capable of having murdered Vivian, so we surely have a lot of twists and turns coming our way. I'm guessing each week another member will look like the killer. Oh, and did I mention that we find out that Mia is Vivian's daughter? Oh yeah – back to that seemingly boring fight Viv and Joanna had back in high school. Turns out that puking Viv was neither drunk nor high, she was pregnant and running away. This leads to Vivian being forced to a program for unwed mothers, and her baby being raised as her sister. That's nice, and sort of heavy for the first episode. We also find out that she was pregnant (again) when she was killed. The lie Joanna is telling but not saying she is a cop will surely be hard to keep up with as she delves deeper into the fold.
I already see a love triangle forming between Joanna, Julian and Wes. She has a past with both of the men, and clearly has unresolved feelings for both. We already can see from coming attractions that she starts a relationship with Julian, but is he the killer? Guess we will wait and see, as we are told that viewers will find out who it is by the end of Season One.
RECOMMENDATION:
This show seems decently promising. I will surely be giving it a few weeks’ worth of effort and see what happens. If it keeps my interest we are good, but if the story gets dicey and too involved, well, we shall see.
Deception – “She's Dead, So Now She's A Saint.”