Second Chance 1.01“A Suitable Donor”

So of course it’s a very old premise. This new FOX sci-fi outing was even originally called The Frankenstein Code, but somebody apparently found that too obvious. Instead we go with a very generic title, Second Chance, but the first episode is all about the high concept, which can be said in so few words: Philip Baker Hall (great casting) is a disgraced cop, doddering a bit in his forced retirement, but is he really at fault?

His son is an uptight FBI Agent, the kind of man who tries to follow all the rules he can find (we know this because he is played by Tim Dekay, and this is always the kind of man he plays). Looking for some old records (grandpa’s heyday has circled back around for the kids of today, little does he know) in his son’s empty home, thugs break in and kill the witness they find there.

And that might be that, except for our resident Frankensteins. Unusually, we don’t get a mad scientist so much as a duo of tech-wizard twins, ADHD Otto and morose Mary Goodwin, as smart as her brother and more socially skilled, but stricken with a rare cancer.

Like Extant before it, Second Chance takes us to a slightly advanced future world, except instead of projecting to an era of renewed space travel, our future modern gadgets come from the sealed, elite compound of Lookinglass, the twins’ hive of innovation and Google-like surveillance and recording synergy. Turns out Pritchard, unbeknownst to his family, has a rare genetic makeup that is compatible with their corpse-revival system, and if he’ll be their guinea pig they may be able to save Mary too.

It’s a lot to ask, and it means most of the show rides on the shoulders of star Rob Kazinsky. Thankfully, they’re wide and look great in a smart body conscious track suit. He busts out of the twins’ attempt to keep him in a virtual cocoon of his old life, and freaks out when he notices his brand new young strong virile body.

Until he notices that virile part at least, and then he tries to get busy with the indulgences that may have led him astray years before. However, while he’s stronger, faster and more agile than the average man, he has a time limit: he must return to the eerie super-gel vat that is the signature motif of the show, because without daily treatments the new body won’t stay viable. So very convenient, as it gives the twins a measure of control.

So they work out a deal, between their need for him and his need to solve the mystery of his killers (who may also endanger his son and family). I can’t say if it’s going to get any deeper or more profound, but the cast convincingly delivers the strangeness of the situations, and Krazinsky is pretty fine eye candy. If FOX supports the scheduled 11 episodes, we could have a new kind of Six Million Dollar Man, or maybe some other kind of cyborg/superhuman story. The potential is there.