Second Chance

The key will be whether Second Chance can keep from lapsing into a stale weekly catch-a-crook caper or have enough layers of unique duplicity and humanity to resonate as considerably more than that. It so far still deserves the benefit of the doubt, with a compelling opening episode that should leave many viewers in the mood for more.

It's pretty ridiculous, but also oddly compelling at moments. [8/15 Jan 2016, p.98]

By current standards the show isn't particularly graphic or brutal and, indeed, works best the closer it comes to comedy and romance. When it tries to go deep or dark, it feels overwritten and overwrought; as light entertainment, it's passably diverting, not without charm.

Second Chance is pretty much another Fox attempt at a crime procedural crossed with a high concept.

The pity is that there are aspects of Second Chance that work amidst the nonsense, but the show becomes no greater awareness of those aspects over the four episodes I've seen.

Other than presenting Kazinsky with the late holiday gift of a starring role, there’s not much else to Second Chance. The twins feel as if they’ve been grafted onto the plot from another series, while DeKay’s sole note for much of the first few episodes is pissed off. Other shows have tackled estranged fathers and sons better.

Second Chance is so self-serious at times that it verges on parody, especially in every overwritten scene with the twins. The writing is atrocious, the production values are subpar, and there’s not a single good performance.