Vengeance And Greed Take Centre Stage As The Story Takes Shape
After last week’s somewhat subdued episode, Tell Me A Story picks up the pace and kicks into gear as the overarching story begins to take shape. With more references to fairy tales and deeper characterisation, Tell Me A Story delivers an impressive episode, one that sets the tone for the season ahead. After the ominous end to last week’s episode, we catch up with Jordan at Beth’s funeral, consumed by grief and thoughts of revenge. With this bordering on obsession, he begins seeing the pig masks everywhere, including at the funeral. Now knowing where the gunman lives, Jordan vows to right the wrongs done to him. Having seen Jordan standing outside his house, Eddie begins to worry everything is starting to unravel and gets worried. Desperate to pay off his debts, he confronts fellow robber Sam about his cut and gets a threat and a gun to the face for his troubles. Back at his trailer, he comes home to get high unbeknownst to him that Jordan is waiting in the shadows for him. Kayla’s story has had quite the tumultuous ride this season, sporadically jumping between really good and lacklustre. Thankfully, this week is the former and we see the Little Red Riding Hood story start to take shape. Kayla is forced to work at her Grandma’s costume shop and takes a particular interest in a red anorak. Whilst there, Ethan pops up and antagonises her, telling her he knows about Nick and their night of passion. When Nick catches wind of this his demeanour changes; a darker side pops up which ends with Kayla seducing him and leaving the door wide open for the episodes ahead. Rounding out the trio of modern fairy tale stories is the one that gets the most amount of screen time this week. Hannah is starting to get reckless while Gabe pleads with his sister to leave it alone when she suggests they should figure out who the dead man was and investigate further. While Gabe bows out, Hannah pursues a lead and comes across a stash of money. She snatches it up greedily and makes a hasty retreat, unbeknownst to her that someone knows she’s taken the money and will do everything in their power to get it back. This week, the story has a much better pacing to it and the various stories slowly begin to intertwine and take shape. What’s particularly interesting here is the way Tell Me A Story weaves each story with a very different but very strong motif. While perhaps a little obvious, each story adopts the key emotional drive from the fairy tale it’s based on, with greed, vengeance and deceit rearing their ugly heads this week. Interestingly, Kayla’s storyline is beginning to see more shades of red come into the art style too. It’s a small touch but something that thematically works very well indeed. Hints of the Big Bad Wolf are teased too, with Ethan scaring her in a mask and a wolf’s head up on the wall both acting as a great use of foreshadowing for the story to come. Three episodes in and Tell Me A Story has had a pretty rocky ride to this point. From a decent pilot to a lacklustre second, this modern fairy tale drama pulls it out the bag for an impressive episode that sets the wheels in motion for the story ahead. The characters are more fleshed out this week, the plot is beginning to take shape and some much needed drama is injected into the narrative. The tantalising prospect of next week’s episode advancing the plot further is certainly intriguing and it’ll be interesting to see if Tell Me A Story can keep this good momentum going.
