The first season of Wild Cards, a joint CW/CBC production created by Michael Konyves, became a streaming hit on Prime Video recently, and there’s a lot of reasons why: It’s an easy-breezy show with a free-spirited con artist teaming with an uptight cop to solve crimes, there are lots of great scenes of Vancouver, which is used to substitute for “generic North American city,” and Vanessa Morgan is magnetic as Max. All of those factors continue in the second season.
WILD CARDS SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: An illegal road race is taking place. Max Mitchell (Vanessa Morgan) is in a blue Mustang, about to race two people in a green Charger. All of a sudden, the cops show up.
The Gist: The day before, Max is with Detective Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) on his boat, telling him she knows who killed his younger brother. She has a USB drive that has a voice recording referring to both Cole and his brother, but Cole is still upset at how Max obtained the recording, and doesn’t think he can trust her again. Given that she’s a con artist with a butler/hacker in her employ, his feelings are founded. Much of it has to do with the fact that she has possession of a jeweled egg that’s supposed to be in evidence; it’s more or less the retirement plan for her dad, George Graham (Jason Priestley), for when he gets out of prison.
But they broker a deal; she won’t say he smashed the fake egg the cops seized, she’ll return the egg and won’t get arrested, and they’ll never see each other again. But Commissioner Russo (Karin Konoval) wants her “dynamic duo” to keep working together, much to the chagrin of Cole and Cole’s boss, Chief Li (Terry Chen). This time it’s to crack a street-racing robbery ring.
At the same time, Li orders Cole to back off the investigation into his brother’s death, but he just can’t sit still; he enlists Max’s butler/hacker Ricky Wilson (Fletcher Donovan) to decipher where the recording was made, all while he and Max try to infiltrate the robbery ring via Max’s skilled driving and an electric-blue Mustang.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Like we mentioned for Season 1, Wild Cards can insert themselves in the comedic procedural category where High Potential, Castle and Bones sits.
Our Take: We do like the fact that the first season didn’t end with Max and Cole sleeping together or anything that might seem cliche; in fact, Cole wanted nothing more to do with Max by the end of the first season. It seems that, even though the plot machinations that are going to continue their unorthodox partnership are likely going to get increasingly silly, it may take some time for Max to build trust with Cole again. In the meantime, though, she’s going to continue to use her “special skills” to help close out cases.
The chemistry between Morgan and Gianniotti continues to work, and watching the two of them team up to go undercover in the robbery gang was a good example of how well that chemistry serves the weekly cases they have to solve, which can get a bit ridiculous at times. It also looks like Konyves has fleshed out some of the supporting players a little more, namely Det. Simmons (Michael Xavier) and Det. Yates (Amy Goodmurphy).
There does seem to be a larger story in the second season, mostly involving Max and George and a watch she got off a body of an unidentified body that was identified as Uriah Heep (like the prog-rock band). Will that story be interesting? Who knows? But any way to keep Priestley coming back to the show as a guest star is always a good thing.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Max shows George the watch and says the $33 million the jeweled egg was worth “was nothing compared to what this can get us.”
Sleeper Star: The second episode has both Martin Sheen and Ally Sheedy as guest stars, which should be interesting.
Most Pilot-y Line: When the commissioner points to Max and says she wants her to keep working with Cole, she gives the Sally Field Oscar speech: “You like me! You really like me!” She feels a bit too young to make that reference.
Our Call: STREAM IT. We like Wild Cards because it’s a “good silly” kind of show. The things that are ridiculous about it don’t distract from our enjoyment of it, mostly thanks to a good supporting cast and good chemistry between Morgan and Gianniotti.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Wild Cards’ Season 2 On The CW, Where Max And Cole Are Still Solving Crimes Together, Whether They Want To Or Not appeared first on Decider.
