I wish I could say Briarpatch was getting better, but Briarpatch 1×05 “Behind God’s Back” is just more of the same confusing, wannabe edgy narrative that makes it very, very hard to actually connect to anyone. At least till the end, not that we trust this show to actually, you know, deliver on the good, emotional cliffhanger endings.
And that’s the problem, on paper, some of this works. Rosario Dawson certainly does, because Allegra doesn’t need to be showing all her emotions to be compelling. The problem is that the plot around her doesn’t, or the characters, for that matter, and the more of the show we see the more we feel like the entirety of Briarpatch can be summoned up in this phrase: lost opportunities.
“Behind God’s Back” tries, and fails, to connect this to the past, to make it about something bigger than Felicity and whatever happened to her. It’s just that, at this point, the crumbs aren’t enough. We’re going to need explanations, a lot of them.
Explanations we don’t really trust this show to deliver.
FIVE THINGS ABOUT “BEHIND GOD’S BACK”
- I’m not sure I’d just up and follow a random drone, though I guess when you don’t really have any other option, anything is good? And hey, I am interested in how this ties back to Allegra and her past, so at least there’s that.
- Eating bacon like Rosario is a mood. So are like, half of Allegra’s outfits. The other half are just borderline boring. Still, she’s distinctive in the way she dresses, and she looks like a badass, I’ll give her that.
- Making friends IS hard. This is a universal truth that doesn’t change no matter who you are, where you’re from or what your personality is like.
- Allegra and the lawyer are marginally interesting in this episode, which I guess is more than I thought was possible.
- Last time the show left me intrigued at the end of an episode, they picked up the next one by having completely skipped over the thing I was interested in. Let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson in that regard.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of “Behind God’s Back”? Share with us in the comments below!
Briarpatch airs Mondays at 11/10c on USA Network.
