ShellSeeker June 6, 2015 Share June 6, 2015 In the Season 2 premiere, Barry sits in prison in the aftermath of the failed coup against Jamal, who is torn between letting him rot behind bars or executing him. Meanwhile, Molly fights for her husband's freedom; and Ihab and Samira resort to desperate measures. Link to comment
dubbel zout June 9, 2015 Share June 9, 2015 (edited) The second season starts on Tuesday, June 16, in case anyone was wondering. ETA: Which I see is in the header. D'oh! Edited June 9, 2015 by dubbel zout 1 Link to comment
BigBlueMastiff June 16, 2015 Share June 16, 2015 Yay, love this, show. Hate Molly and the kids, but love Barry and Jamal, and Jamal's wife, looking forward to it's return. 2 Link to comment
MrsRafaelBarba June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 I'm back for Ashraf Barhom, aka Jamal. Hope Adam Rayner's acting improves this season. Link to comment
MrsRafaelBarba June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Welp , Jamal definitely was rebound guy. Wifey is heartbroken, those tears were gut wrenching. Let's see how he gets back and joins the Resistance, this could be a great season. Link to comment
Dowel Jones June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Bassam could easily start Jamal's downfall simply by turning up alive someplace. That would ruin Jamal's credibility everywhere, especially with the newly arrived Chinese. I hope we don't get a retread of American Odyssey, where Bassam spends the whole season evading troops, traitors, and triteness. Open a boutique hotel in London? Just what that city needs, kid. 1 Link to comment
HunterHunted June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 This show makes me miss TWoP because I had such epic rants devoted to this show's first season. The only reason I watched this was for Jamal, Ashraf Barhom. I'm glad that the show has realized its epic mistake in featuring Bassam's terribly stupid family. I'm glad the show shipped these idiots who were too dumb to Google back to the States and seem to be keeping them on the periphery of the periphery. 6 Link to comment
thuganomics85 June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Aww, man! Is Jonathan Tucker gone? Besides the awesomeness of Ashaf Barhom (and the hotness of Moran Atias), Justin Kirk's smarm was one of my favorite things about the first season. Boo! That had to be one of the most obvious fake-outs ever. No way was Barry executed because a) Jamal wasn't going to be able to cross that line (yet?) and b) I know this show wants to be groundbreaking, but it ain't anywhere close to "We will totally kill our lead just like that!" level. Thanks for playing, Tyrant. Glad Molly and the kids got sent backing back to the States. Of course, since both Jennifer Finnigan and Noah Silver are still regulars, I'm guessing we're sadly not through with Molly and Jackass Sammy. Emma/Anne Winters though was only a guest, so I guess she won't be doing much. So, no surprise, Jamal is still pissing off Rashid and the rebellion, and violence continues to happen. But he seems to be forming relationships with China now, so he's got that going for him. He does stand-up to Tariq at least, but he also continues to let Leila dictate a lot of his decisions. I am curious to see what's instore for Nusrat and Ahmed. Especially the former. Considering all the shit Jamal has done to her, I have a feeling it isn't just going to be in the background for long. 1 Link to comment
Constantinople June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 So Jamal is Yul Brynner and Bassam is Charlton Heston. I guess that means Leila is Anne Baxter. 2 Link to comment
candall June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 (edited) So Jamal is Yul Brynner and Bassam is Charlton Heston. I guess that means Leila is Anne Baxter. Ha, you tickled my fancy with this. The part of Molly will now be played by Yvonne De Carlo, which is good, but I'm sorry to lose Alice Krige for Nina Foch. Can we shoehorn in Debra Paget and Jon Derek as the journalist and his daughter? Or will Nusrat and Ahmed surprise me? Edited June 17, 2015 by candall Link to comment
dubbel zout June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 I miss Justin Kirk, too, but I get why he's gone. He's done his bit to get the revolution going. I really hope Bassam's family stays in the U.S., though the previews tell me otherwise. The kids are terrible, and Molly isn't given anything useful to do. I am curious to see what's instore for Nusrat and Ahmed. Especially the former. Considering all the shit Jamal has done to her, I have a feeling it isn't just going to be in the background for long. Ahmed is a dolt—why did he tell Jamal everything? Does he not know his father? I hope Nusrat has some long-term plan. If the baby isn't a boy, she'll have no leverage whatsoever. Link to comment
slothgirl June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 I really hope Bassam's family stays in the U.S., though the previews tell me otherwise. The kids are terrible, and Molly isn't given anything useful to do. She was given the scenes with the MOST acting potential in the entire episode.. the goodbye scene and then the flying away scene. She totally failed on both counts to bring anything at all. Leila achieved more subtlety, depth and range just watching the execution and then breaking down crying with no lines of dialogue! Contrast that to Molly and the goodbye scene where I had NO IDEA what she was feeling, or even if she was feeling anything! I can't remember Jennifer Finigan in anything else, but she is awful in this role. 3 Link to comment
MrsRafaelBarba June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Jennifer Finnigan was great on The Bold and the Beautiful. Winning three consecutive Daytime Emmys, for Outstanding Younger Actress. Also was the lead in the short lived CBS series Close to Home. I was initially excited to see her on Tyrant, so her work here has me baffled. Moran Attias is acting rings around her. Link to comment
dubbel zout June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 She was given the scenes with the MOST acting potential in the entire episode.. the goodbye scene and then the flying away scene. She totally failed on both counts to bring anything at all. I was glad we didn't get hysterical crying from Molly. The relationship between her and Bassam was all over the place in the first season, and I think that's one reason her scenes usually don't work for me. I always have to stop and remember how she's feeling about Bassam. Is this one of those times she's mad at him, or are they in another detente? I know why they gave Bassam a wife and family, but they haven't done much to develop Molly or especially the kids beyond a superficial characterization. I know more about Ahmed and Nusrat than I do Bassam's kids. Link to comment
slothgirl June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 (edited) I was glad we didn't get hysterical crying from Molly. The relationship between her and Bassam was all over the place in the first season, and I think that's one reason her scenes usually don't work for me. I always have to stop and remember how she's feeling about Bassam. Is this one of those times she's mad at him, or are they in another detente? She didn't have to cry hysterically to show emotion and let us in on how she was feeling. She basically showed us nothing but also managed to not show us the sort of blankness that comes from numbness & shock, or show us a confused state of emotions where the charcater was feeling a mix of anger, grief and shock either. It felt more like the actress either didn't know what feeling she wanted to protray or simply wasn't up to the challenge of what she thought the character would be feeling and how she would express it. It was just bad. The actress may have been going for something nuanced and trying to deliberately downplay any tendecy towards "overacting", but as a viewer, I couldn't read it at all. Leila didn't cry hysterically either, but her face while watching the execution shouted volumes. Her breakdown wasn't hysterical either, but totally believable and multi-dimensional. Hell, even the way she used her hand and arm on Jamal's in the shower, without her face even being in the shot, conveyed more than JF did in her scenes! The poor acting choices or ability (whichever is to blame) by both Molly and Bassam in the jail scene took me right out of the scene completely. They were both awful. Edited June 17, 2015 by slothgirl 1 Link to comment
bluebonnet June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Oh geez, I knew Jamal wasn't going to kill Bassam. The entire episode I kept mumbling, "please don't have a fake execution, please don't have a fake execution". Fake execution plots start in a hole that does nothing but grow larger. It was always going to turn out bad for Jamal. It would have been so much better and believable if Jamal just continued to delay the execution, with this delay being his big mistake because it gives his allies time to start thinking what a weakling he is and gives the opposition time to coordinate a prison break. Fake execution and dropping him off in the desert (where obviously he will survive because actor contract) is just so contrived. I can't believe I'm seriously keeping this show in my dvr line up. Link to comment
mjc570 June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 i very much enjoyed season 1, and really was looking forward to season 2. I have to say that I was disappointed. I don't know what's up with Jamal (or the actor portraying him), but it's like he lost all his energy (along with his hair). If it hadn't been for his voice, I don't know that I would have recognized him. I still like the character, though, but I don't even begin to understand how he's going to deal with the fallout and total loss of credibility when the truth comes out. I also thought that Barry's "death" was completely overdone, since it was obvious that he wasn't the person being killed. I get that it was an opportunity for the various characters to have big, emotional scenes (not all of whom were able to carry it off), but I think it was an insult to the viewers. I blame the writers for not coming up with something more creative (such as the execution had to be postponed because Barry fell ill, or something), because I wasn't moved at all, since even I (and I am generally pretty clueless) knew that the lead actor wasn't going to be killed off. I had to laugh how Molly stayed in character during the big good-bye scene with Barry - not a word of apology for forcing them to come to Abudin,any recognition that Barry was right to stay awayor how her actions jeopardized everyone. Of course, in his discussion with Jamal (and I admit that I am biased in favor of Team Jamal on this one), Barry was as self-righteous as ever. I'm not sure that I'm going to watch the rest of this - I'll probably give it a few more episodes, because I like all the al-Fayeeds (except Barry and his family) and am curious to see what happens. What I would LOVE is if the focus on the show was getting rid of Barry and Molly (and Sammy), truly the weakest links in terms of both acting and writing. Link to comment
Chaos Theory June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Unpopular opinion I like Molly. I hope she isn't gone for good. If they play her right she is an interesting character. There were scenes I really enjoyed her last season. At least when she wasn't completely naive. It his their kids that's I didn't like. Link to comment
Andyourlittledog2 June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 Damn. I was hoping we'd seen the end of that stupid family. Molly and the kids inherit(?) 400 million? Per the previews at the end. My fear is that they will decide to use the money to exact revenge and fund the insurgents. My hope is that they will -- more in line with their actual characters as I have come to know them -- say to themselves, 'Excellent! An upside at last! Let's party!' Serious note: Bassam was executed as a traitor by his brother. Doesn't Jamal have the ability to keep the inheritance now, and not let it slip into the hands of the 'traitor's family members? I was looking forward to this coming back and I still am glad it did because it's different and I love the foreign actors and storylines. It's the American contingent that makes me lose my mind. Because those people? Cannot act and have ridiculous plots to poorly act within. Ahmed. Poor guy. Totally in the wrong family. I hope nothing bad happens to him but I do not see a happy future for that guy. 1 Link to comment
Rhetorica June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 I finally watched. Yes, the execution was known from the get go. But Leila's and Jamal's angst was worth the fake out. Those two can show so much without saying a thing. Please just keep Molly and the kids in the good old USA. And prett please keep Barry wandering in the desert for forty days and forty nights. I'm looking forward to season. 2 Link to comment
ganesh June 17, 2015 Share June 17, 2015 (edited) She didn't have to cry hysterically to show emotion and let us in on how she was feeling. She basically showed us nothing but also managed to not show us the sort of blankness that comes from numbness & shock, or show us a confused state of emotions where the charcater was feeling a mix of anger, grief and shock either. I thought she might have been kind of relieved. She didn't want Barry to get into any of this politics and he basically just steamrolled their marriage and did want he wanted. I mean, planning a coup put them all in mortal danger and it's not like he was keeping her in the loop. She was talking about their time in Paris long ago, not any fond recent memories. Part of the problem with Molly is that the writers didn't do her any favors. It's not 1985. To not know Barry's family history, etc., was ludicrous. They kept her willfully ignorant because plot, which we had all pointed out in the S1 discussion. I tend to think that predisposed the viewers to not liking her. She was uneven in S1 at best, and it's hard for any actor to pull off anything consistent with the material she was given. A small part of me was rooting for the show to go Game of Thrones and kill Barry. If you're going to fake kill him, why not just move him to another prison? Now that I think about it more, it could have been cool if Jamal killed Barry for real, and then was so torn up about it that he kept seeing Barry's ghost all the time. Edited June 18, 2015 by ganesh Link to comment
dubbel zout June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 Serious note: Bassam was executed as a traitor by his brother. Doesn't Jamal have the ability to keep the inheritance now, and not let it slip into the hands of the 'traitor's family members? We don't know if Bassam had family money but never accessed it. His father might have set up some sort of trust in the States. I'm sure a lot of the family money had to be outside Abbudin regardless. That's pretty SOP for dictators. Link to comment
mjc570 June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 Now that I think about it more, it could have been cool if Jamal killed Barry for real, and then was so torn up about it that he kept seeing Barry's ghost all the time. I totally agree. 1 Link to comment
LoveLeigh June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 The acting is not very good on this show. Molly underacts and I don't know.... the whole show is just absurd and fake. Maybe it is the writing and directing. Link to comment
ToastnBacon June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 I thought she might have been kind of relieved. She didn't want Barry to get into any of this politics and he basically just steamrolled their marriage and did want he wanted. I mean, planning a coup put them all in mortal danger and it's not like he was keeping her in the loop. She was talking about their time in Paris long ago, not any fond recent memories. Part of the problem with Molly is that the writers didn't do her any favors. It's not 1985. To not know Barry's family history, etc., was ludicrous. They kept her willfully ignorant because plot, which we had all pointed out in the S1 discussion. I tend to think that predisposed the viewers to not liking her. She was uneven in S1 at best, and it's hard for any actor to pull off anything consistent with the material she was given. A small part of me was rooting for the show to go Game of Thrones and kill Barry. If you're going to fake kill him, why not just move him to another prison? Now that I think about it more, it could have been cool if Jamal killed Barry for real, and then was so torn up about it that he kept seeing Barry's ghost all the time. The ghost of Barry idea is fantastic! They could have went wild with Jamal's psychosis and took the show in so many interesting directions. Having Jamal develop a split Barry personality that does battle with the uncle would have been interesting. Link to comment
SonofaBiscuit June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 At one point, Molly said something like "To think that I came here for a wedding." Yeah, and to think that Barry came here due to your insistence and now he's a dead man walking! Jennifer Finnigan was horribly miscast in this and I get nothing from her scenes. I think that Molly could have been an interesting character if she had been played by an interesting actress. I don't feel much sympathy for Leila...she's nearly as ruthless as Jamal. She was the one whispering in his ear, telling him that he needed to execute Bassam, and he needed to do it now (don't want to ruin the little event we're hosting tonight by having the execution looming, let's just kill him now so we can PARTY!). I guess the Al-Fayeed's don't hold that big of a grudge since Molly is flying on a private jet and the kids have a car service back in the States. Hey, your husband/father betrayed me, but no biggie, we're still cool, right? We're faaamily. This made no sense to me as I would have expected Molly and the kids to be cut off as soon as Barry's ass was thrown in jail. I knew that Jamal couldn't bring himself to have his brother executed. If Barry had half a brain, he'd haul ass back to the States. Actually, now that I think about that, someone could be sent to assassinate Barry, so I guess he's not safe anywhere. But ugh, I'm really not looking forward to Barry wandering the desert, off in his own isolated storyline. From the looks of next week's preview, Sammy (Barry's son) inherits $100 million, and his first thought is to go back to Abu Din. You know, the country that just executed his father (well, that's what he believes). These people are so fucking stupid! Link to comment
slothgirl June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 (edited) I don't feel much sympathy for Leila...she's nearly as ruthless as Jamal. She was the one whispering in his ear, telling him that he needed to execute Bassam, and he needed to do it now (don't want to ruin the little event we're hosting tonight by having the execution looming, let's just kill him now so we can PARTY!). I guess the Al-Fayeed's don't hold that big of a grudge since Molly is flying on a private jet and the kids have a car service back in the States. Hey, your husband/father betrayed me, but no biggie, we're still cool, right? We're faaamily. This made no sense to me as I would have expected Molly and the kids to be cut off as soon as Barry's ass was thrown in jail. I don't feel any sympathy for Laila either. But she is a fabulous character and the actress is hitting it out of the park in every scene. I think that Molly and the kids were in some sort of protective custody procided by the US government. I also imagine that it was not an Al-fayeed plane. Who was that women that was with her all the time supposed to be? I can't remember if she was in season 1 as part of the embassy / ambassador staff or not. But I assumed that's who she is. They should have had that actress play Molly. Or just about anyone else really. @@ Edited June 18, 2015 by slothgirl 1 Link to comment
dubbel zout June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 Who was that women that was with her all the time supposed to be? Former/current CIA operative, I think. (She was connected to the U.S government somehow, officially or not.) She helped Bassam organize the revolution last season. I'm kind of surprised she was able to stick around, but I guess she had enough protection. Link to comment
SonofaBiscuit June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 I think that Molly and the kids were in some sort of protective custody procided by the US government. I also imagine that it was not an Al-fayeed plane. Oh, that makes more sense. Ha! And I don't even remember that lady from last season (the one who was on the plane with Molly). I spent the entire episode thinking it was her sister but now I remember that the sister was played by a completely different actress. A year between seasons is a bit too long for me, I guess. Oh well. Link to comment
ganesh June 18, 2015 Share June 18, 2015 I had a few in me when I came up with the ghost idea. I didn't realize it would be popular! 2 Link to comment
MissScarlett June 19, 2015 Share June 19, 2015 This show is back! Yay! :) It took me a moment to warm up. I had kind of forgotten some of what had transpired last season. It is good to see Nusrat (sp?) exacting her own kind of revenge on Jamal. I knew that Barry wasn't going to be killed. I'm curious as to where they will go from here. Will he (Barry) join the rebel regime? Will his family (Molly & the kids) get revenge? I like all of the characters and the general premise of the show... so i'm definitely tuned in to the season. Though I will say, I hope they don't show too many episodes of Barry wandering around in the desert. Link to comment
Puffaroo June 24, 2015 Share June 24, 2015 I don't know what's up with Jamal (or the actor portraying him), but it's like he lost all his energy (along with his hair). If it hadn't been for his voice, I don't know that I would have recognized him. I wasn't sure it was the same actor until he did some of his signature head moves. What t'heck is different about him? And can someone PLEASE tell me how to distinguish Jamal's wife from his son's wife, when they're not in the same scene? I just *cannot* tell these women apart. Link to comment
slothgirl June 25, 2015 Share June 25, 2015 (edited) Jamal's wife is the one channeling Lady Macbeth. Ahmad's wife is channeling... oh I don't know, one of the daughters of Lear maybe? Or you could look at them both as Cleopatra... one in Caesar and Cleopatra and the other in Anthony and Cleopatra. Edited June 25, 2015 by slothgirl Link to comment
scrb June 25, 2015 Share June 25, 2015 Leila didn't quite have the reaction I would have expected to the faked execution of Bassam. She cried and threw up. Then she jumped in the shower with Jamal to hump -- much more typical. By that evening she was beaming for the state event. Link to comment
millennium April 29, 2016 Share April 29, 2016 (edited) Alice Krige is wasted on this show. They trot her out for little 1-minute scenes, if that. I still remember her from Ghost Story. Dance with me, you little toad! Time. Sigh. Edited April 29, 2016 by millennium Link to comment
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