I'm no psychic but after power watching the first season of Shut Eye this past weekend I get a strong sense that Hulu will pick this one up for a second season. Fingers crossed.
I actually had no idea about this series and then saw the entire season one come available. I jumped in and first thing I see is Jeffrey Donovan as the lead. Score!
Donavan was brilliant in Fargo so it was an absolute joy seeing him playing a new character in a larger and more significant role, and he didn't disappoint.
Another pleasant surprise was seeing Angus Sampson playing Fonso. Sampson was also in Fargo and played alongside Donovan as his brother, Bear Gerhardt. The two of these guys together makes for pure TV bliss. Cheers guys!
The rest of the cast is loaded with talent as well with special nods to Isabella Rossellini, KaDee Strickland, Susan Misner, and Dexter's own David Zayas.
Overall, this is a stylish, action-packed thriller that incorporates just about everything needed for a series to be successful. In fact, that's one area where they may have tried a bit too hard. Much like a great dish with just a few too many elements on the plate. Some of the sex and drug scenes for instance seemed a bit forced in for perhaps the sake of increased ratings. Still, easy enough to live with given the quality of everything else.
Another questionable area to mention was the heavy stereotyping of Gypsies which doesn't seem to be sitting well with the Gypsy community, although they did try to balance this out in one of the episodes with a community gathering of sorts which addressed this very issue. Tough one to get right here.
In the end, Shut Eye was an extremely pleasant surprise. The episodes flew by and I sincerely hope Hulu has the brains to keep this one going.
