NOS4A2 :: Bad Mother

AMC

Well, here we are back for a second season of NOS4A2. Why? Who knows. If AMC was going to renew any show on its schedule, it should have been Lodge 49. I spent the first season pretty much hate-watching this show but I decided to give the season premiere a look before making a decision to stay or ditch it for good. Season 1 ended with vampire Charlie Manx in a coma after spontaneously combusting when Vic McQueen set his car, The Wraith, on fire (also killing her boyfriend in the process). Maggie, Vic’s friend with the magic Scrabble tiles, decided to stay in Haverhill while Vic continued her quest to kill Charlie even though the tiles said she wasn’t ready. Pregnant and aided by biker/comic book nerd Lou, Vic set out to find Christmasland.

Season 2 opens eight years later with Vic and Lou a couple raising Vic’s son Wayne somewhere in Colorado. Vic seems to have a business of doing custom airbrush art on motorcycle helmets and gas tanks. But her world is turned upside-down when Wayne asks her who Charlie Manx is. He saw on the news that Manx has died but Vic does not believe he’s really dead because Maggie’s tiles said she would be the one to kill him. This sends Vic on a downward spiral of booze and hearing phones ringing that no one else hears, putting not only Wayne in danger — she burns down the house, accidentally, with Wayne locked in his bedroom, terrified of her behavior, by putting all the phones in the oven and turning it on — but her relationship with Lou, who has put up with a lot in the last eight years.

But she has no way to get to Manx without her ‘knife’, the motorcycle that was able to carry her across the Inscape, the magical covered bridge that would take her where she needed to go. As luck would have it, a local dealer came into possession of her bike — somehow it made its way from Massachusetts to Colorado — and she sets about getting back in working order so she can be the one to kill Charlie Manx.

Maggie, still in Haverhill and in a relationship with the detective Tabitha Hutter she met at the end of the first season, for her part is done with the Scrabble tiles and tells Vic just that when she finally calls Maggie for the first time in months (years?) to ask the tiles if Manx is really dead. But after refusing to do so, Maggie goes to work and pulls the tiles out, calling 911 before to say a young woman is in distress and to come quickly, and asks if The Wraith is dead. The tiles say yes and Maggie collapses into a contorted mess. Did the EMTs ever get to her? Who knows.

Somehow, Manx’s sidekick Bing Partridge is still alive, now posing as a Cadillac enthusiast who has finally tracked down the Wraith. It’s now being used as a piece of art that Bing is desperate to purchase. But … the engine has been removed and the owner wants $100,000 for it. So Bing leaves and comes back later with his trusty gas tank and doses the guy. Once he regains consciousness, Bing forces the man to help him replace the engine.

AMC

Vic deserts her family to go find Manx with her restored knife and the Inscape takes her to the morgue where Manx’s body is undergoing an autopsy. Now correct me if I’m wrong but would the pathologist conducting the autopsy just leave the body lying on the table and clock out for the night? That seems like it would have a big impact on the tissues and fluids but whatever. Vic sees the body and stabs the heart with a scalpel. Mission accomplished. But … getting the engine back into the car also restarted Charlie’s heart, even with the scalpel stuck in it.

I have to admit that the season premiere was marginally more interesting than the entire first season. Mainly because we got an extended scene in Christmasland with the children playing a game of murder. A few interesting things happen there. While running through the forest, they discover a wall of what looks like video noise, or static on an old TV. On the other side they can see a group of teens talking about things that have happened in this area. The girl vampire sticks her sword through the static and on the other side the teens see sparks and the tip of the blade coming out of nowhere. Then a small vampire boy runs through, giving them all hope that they can go into the other world and feed. But a few feet away and the boy evaporates, scaring the rest of the children in Christmasland who then go into panic mode when all the lights go out. They know something is wrong with Father Christmas (Manx), and it is the girl vampire who was calling Vic to tell her they’ll kill her for harming Father. If Vic had only known they can’t leave Christmasland, that could have saved her a lot of problems.

As it is, Vic is still not a character you want to root for and that is the show’s biggest problem. Sure, a show’s hero can be flawed, but Vic has a lot of flaws that just make her difficult to side with. She’s wrecked her relationship with her son and Lou more than once, and after getting drunk (again) and burning down the house with Wayne inside while she drives away is pretty unforgivable. And then she abandons them again to kill Manx. Not even with an ‘I’ll be back’, just a goodbye to Wayne. Last season Craig was the one character who was actually a nice person, to a point. No one else was likable at all. With the Season 2 premiere, Lou is the only likable adult and it would be nice if they’d actually let him go with Vic across the Inscape for various adventures. Perhaps she’ll come back and take him to destroy Christmasland, but Lou is probably at the end of giving Vic any more second chances. The viewers may be feeling that way too.

NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on AMC.

What did you think of the season premiere? Sound off in the comments below!

 
Buy NOS4A2 Season 2 on iTunes!