Stalker Review: Episode 1×02 – Whatever Happened to Baby James?

Maggie Q, as always.

Inconsistent pacing, stale performances from multiple characters, Jack Larsen every minute he's not waist-deep working a case

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Acting

B+

Plot

B-

Writing

C+

Character

B-

B+

BOTTOM LINE:

Average episode as far as procedurals are concerned, episode is strongest when focused on Lieutenant Beth Davis (Maggie Q).

B-

Total Score

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“Stalker” Struggles To Find Its Rhythm

It’s episode 2 of Stalker and in typical procedural fashion, there’s a new case of the week. A teenage girl believes she is being stalked, and someone breaks into the house while she is home babysitting her brother. They run outside, and thankfully survive the encounter. It’s up to Lieutenant Beth Davis and Detective Jack Larsen to solve the case before anyone gets hurt. Jack is still having baby-mama-drama, as his ex Amanda Tate hasn’t warmed to the idea of him getting involved in his child’s life. Then there’s Perry, the privileged stalker whom we saw Beth confront last week, still up to no good. So where did this episode thrive and/or dive? Let’s take a look.

Frankly, Jack Larsen, I Don’t Give A Damn

Seeing Jack stalk his ex, Amanda Tate, and his apparent-son doesn’t get any less creepy. To make things even more uncomfortable, Jack and Amanda run into each other at work when she delivers a warrant to Beth. The fact that Amanda is so horrified to see Jack speaks volumes. Clearly she wouldn’t have fled across the country and be so vehemently against him seeing their son without good reason. Jack wants to talk it out but she tells him he needs to get out of LA immediately. The show still hasn’t addressed the giant plot hole, where he could simply file a paternity suit but hasn’t. Sure, it might not improve Amanda’s personal opinion of him but it’s not as if he’s doing so well in that area on his own anyway. At least then he could legally get access to his son, and isn’t that what we’re supposed to believe is his largest priority? We can’t even feel sorry for him as he tries to come across sympathetic to her because in every other scene where he’s not entirely immersed in working a case, he’s a smug, unlikeable character that is entirely full of himself and lacks substance. Dylan McDermott’s only even remotely engaging moments are when Jack is putting the work in to figure out the case on hand, whether he’s discussing it with the team, or searching for clues at the crime scene.

“Look, I don’t want this to be weird.” ~ Jack Larsen
“It’s not weird, it’s despicable.” ~ Amanda Tate

I’d like an order of Lt. Beth Davis, with an extra serving of Lt. Beth Davis

Let’s just be entirely clear, here: Beth is the star of this show. Whether she’s at home waking up or going to bed, out for coffee with a friend, rolling her eyes at Jack’s failed attempts to win her good opinion, or saving a little boy from certain death, we are glued to the screen when the focus is on her. Maggie Q shows great range in her performance and makes us want to learn more about Beth. Many of the strongest scenes in the episode were of Beth being brilliant at her job. With her tough, no-nonsense attitude when questioning suspects in the case, to her playing off the delusions of a mentally unstable woman and later talking her down so she doesn’t stab a little boy, we became truly invested in this case. Beth’s commitment to her work is what made us feel connected to this story; we want her to save these people because of how strongly she wants to save them. Maggie Q knows precisely how much emotionality to put into her performance.

“Your instincts become my clues.” ~ Lieutenant Beth Davis

Perry, Perry, Quite Contrary

Perry’s still stalking Beth, as we see toward the episode’s beginning when he’s yet again standing across the street from her house. Then he has the gall to come into her place of work. Immediately, we thought he was going to say something along the lines of, “You can’t tell me what to do because I’m a spoiled rich baby that gets what he wants.” But we were pleasantly surprised when he asked her for help. Having him be so self-aware of his propensity for stalking made him more interesting of a character. Often the villains in these procedurals seem too far gone to understand the deeper psychology of the things they do. Too much predictability makes for a boring show so this was a nice twist. When Beth offers him the number of a therapist, we love her even more, because it shows how much she cares about helping people. At the same time, there is an underlining tone of skepticism, which demonstrates her sharpness of mind. For a moment, we wondered if this would be the end of it, but the episode concluded with Perry hitting on Tracy, Beth’s friend. It’s clear this battle is far from over, but we’re ready to see this thing play out!

“I fixate. I can’t explain it but there’s this part of me in my head that causes me to focus on someone and it takes over. I want to know them, I want to be with them. It’s like a drug and then the obsession fuels me, makes me madder. There’s something wrong with me.” ~ Perry Whitley
“If you want help, Perry, call this man. He’s a therapist. He can help you if you’re serious.” ~ Lieutenant Beth Davis

FINAL VERDICT

This episode overall felt more stale than last week’s, probably because there wasn’t as much movement in the case of the week or development of characters. The choppy flow in the developments in the case case made the episode’s pacing inconsistent. It felt as if we barely had time to get a feel for who the actual villain was before she was apprehended. Also, her performance felt a bit forced at times. It would have been nice if the show had outright stated that 28-year-old Victor would be facing charges for being sexually involved with 16-year-old Hannah, as it felt like the focus was so much on getting a piece of information from him that the crime he had committed seemed to be overlooked. Wouldn’t these people, whose job it is to enforce the law and protect people, take time to tell this man that he would have to pay for his crime? Beth remains the most dynamic and well-acted character on the show. If it weren’t for Maggie Q’s performance peaking our interest, we wouldn’t be so inclined to keep watching. It was also a nice touch to have Beth tell Hannah that she wasn’t judging her for dressing sexy, having a tattoo, or being sexually active. The only thing that mattered was pursuing the lead in order to find her missing brother Thomas. This further demonstrated Beth’s sensitivity to slut shaming, and this was a nice touch from writers Sanford Golden and Karen Wyscarver, as it made us like the character even more and connected well with her telling Jack off last week over his ignorance comments on her appearance/attire. Stalker has the potential to be a more engaging procedural, but it would do well to learn from the more successful ones with larger fan bases. Shows like Castle and Bones have a greater fan investment because in addition to a “case of the week,” they give viewers greater back story and development of their lead and reoccurring characters, and show more of their personal lives outside of the crimes they solve. The occasional viewers can follow episodes even if they haven’t been watching consistently, while the loyal fans are able to carry on being emotionally invested in the main and even supporting characters. Stalker could greatly benefit if they do the same for Beth, Jack (but his plot needs a great deal of re-working), and the other members of the team (who haven’t been developed at all).