The Fall TV season is going to be different this year with channels unable to film their shows and trying to find creative solutions to fill their schedule. The CW has been acquiring shows to use this fall, because they are holding all of their shows, except the final episodes of Supernatural (if those even get to be filmed). Among those acquisitions is the two season show Tell Me a Story, from CBS All Access.
If you, like most people, don’t have CBS All Access then you may have missed this streaming gem, created by Kevin Williamson (Scream, The Vampire Diaries, and Dawson’s Creek). Tell Me a Story originally premiered in 2018 and each season is a retelling of three different fairy tales. The first season, that premiered last night, is The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Little Red Riding Hood
Kayla (Danielle Campbell, The Originals) and her father have just moved to New York after the death of her mother. Like most teenagers, uprooted from everything she knows she isn’t happy about the change. She doesn’t really know her grandmother (Kim Catrall, Sex and the City) and her relationship with her father (Sam Jaeger, Why Women Kill) is strained at best. After starting at her new school, her friend conveniences her to sneak out and go clubbing. At the club she hooks up with a guy, Nick (Billy Magnussen, Into the Woods) , with a wolf tattoo, who turns out to be her new substitute teacher. Her dad has accepted a new job as a chef in a hotel restaurant ran by Jordan Evans (James Wolk, Zoo) which leads us to the three little pigs.
The Three Little Pigs
Jordan Evans is a restaurateur, in a relationship with Beth Miller (Spencer Grammer, Greek). Set against the backdrop of 2018 political problems, mainly another school shooting, Beth isn’t interested in having kids and raising them in that environment. Jordan, on the other hand, wants to have children. This leads to many disagreements about their relationship. At a protest against the police, complete with people in pig masks, they leave early. After they leave the protest, they stop by a jewelry store where Beth proposes. Then comes the three little pigs. Eddie (Paul Wesley, The Vampire Diaries) works at the aforementioned club, his brother Mitch (Michael Raymond, True Blood), and a third that is yet to be identified. They rob the jewerly store and in the process shoot Beth, killing her.
Hansel and Gretel
Out of all the stories theirs gets the least amount of time in the first episode. The other thing connecting it to the other stories is the hotel and the club. Hannah (Dania Ramirez, Once Upon a Time) is a military vet and her brother Gabe (Davi Santos, Power Rangers: Dino Charge) is a dancer at the club. After a night making less than stellar choices, with Billy (Luke Guldan, The Good Place), doing cocaine in a strangers hotel room, they add larceny to the list. Billy steals money from the stranger and when he’s caught pushes him into a table, the man hits his head and dies. Billy bolts so Gabe calls his sister Hannah, whom he hasn’t spoken to in six months. Together they wipe down the room and leave the crime scene.
The series also stars Dorian Missick (Southland), and Zabryna Guevara (New Amsterdam), you’ll see more of them as the show progresses.
Review
Honestly, I’m not sure how well Tell Me A Story plays without binging it. I first found the show on CBS All Access in 2018 when seven of the episodes had already been posted and it was a great binge. Each episode just flows into the nest and gains speed. The first episode is just the set-up, it is a pilot after all. There are several characters that need to be introduced and only an hour to get the ball rolling on three different stories.
The first season of Tell Me A Story was a fun watch (I haven’t seen the second). The ways that all of the stories converge on one another and twist together works better when you can watch all the episodes at one time. A week to week basis would probably be pretty boring. I’m interested to see how people take to the show in the current format. It was originally released an episode at a time on All Access, but I binged it and it worked better.
If you missed the first episode of Tell Me a Story you can watch it on CW. If you want to binge the entire show them you can find all episodes on CBS All Access.
My regular column, Gone Too Soon will be returning next week with Timeless! It covers shows that are canceled before their time like, The Baker and the Beauty, Galavant, Hannibal, and No Tomorrow. Check it out!
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