2 out of 5

Created by: Rand Ravich

You know how when Ben Affleck played Daredevil, and they never really did a body shot because he wasn’t in superhero shape, and how that was only one more drop in the “lost credibility” bucket for that movie?  Might seem like a random comparison, but it nonetheless came to mind during ‘Second Chance,’ which has tech company Lookinglass – or its twin founders / inventors, Mary and Otto (Dilshad Vadsaria and Adhir Kalyan, respectively) – secretly using their creations to bring a dead man back to life in an ‘improved’ version of his younger self, played by Robert Kazinsky.  The reasons for this are something something cancer cure, but it’s sort of unimportant.  (And hence why the writers try to ditch that crutch later.)  Kazinsky does a good job balancing the crotchety nature of his source personality with the freedom of newly granted youth, and the season’s scripts actually fairly respectably balance the man’s questionable past behaviors – as a corrupt sheriff – with the kindling desire to do right in righter ways, but the show also goes out of its way to pitch the rejuvenated “Jimmy” as big and buff and power of ten men, and Robert, while certainly a fit dude, isn’t the kind of “Hollywood” ripped we normally imagine.  Which makes me a bad person for body image, but it was the disconnect the visuals represented, cutting away from showing too much of Rob’s bod.  That’s where my Daredevil comparison comes into play: that our guard is up since it was a late addition to the TV schedule, and then there are obvious workarounds in the presentation.

Otherwise, Second Chance falls into an amusing enough procedural, where Jimmy uses Lookinglass resources to solve crimes alongside his copper son, Duval (Tim DeKay), and the show smartly doesn’t drag out Jimmy’s “secret” for too long, and only occasionally falls back on the old-man-in-the-new-world gags.  So what’s the problem?  Overridingly, that while Second Chance doesn’t make any too egregious errors, it also doesn’t take any risks, at all, and doesn’t dig deep into its Frankenstain spin.  It exists primarily as an idea.  The actors carry it well, and the production design is in line with the needed effects, and sets, but nothing stands out.  It’s simply one of those shows where you wonder: is this it?  Which makes it ultimately disposable, and thus must be reflected in my most holy of rating methods.