Someone, please tell the Kings that they need to take a deep breath and just relax for a second. Robert and Michelle King (who created and ran “The Good Wife” for seven seasons) are back on television only a couple months after the shaky ending of their drama with a show that could not be more different from their long-running, acclaimed series. Where “Wife” was level-headed and serious in its discussion of politics, “BrainDead” takes its ideas to a new and rather absurd level. While there’s a fun series somewhere in its DNA, with the amount of setup the first two episodes had to them, the show couldn’t move past the bare-bones of its premise. The Kings seem to be letting the story breathe to the point where it loses a sense of cohesion and becomes a muddled mess.
“BrainDead” follows Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “10 Cloverfield Lane”), the sister of powerful Democratic United States senator Luke Healy (Danny Pino, “Cold Case”), who enters the world of politics to work in her brother’s office. She starts when a partisan battle is about to cause a government shutdown. Through her work with Luke, she deals with Gareth Ritter (Aaron Tveit, “Grease Live”), the young and charming assistant to Republican senator Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub, “We Are Men”). Meanwhile, a group of bugs crash to Earth on a meteor and are brought to Washington D.C. by the Smithsonian. Throughout the first two episodes, they’re seen crawling into people’s ears, causing their brains to pop out of their heads and explode.
Within the arrival of the bugs and the largely unseen havoc they wreak on D.C. is a weird story that the show unfolds slowly but surely. It takes multiple episodes to gain insight into who the bugs are going after and how they go about targeting their victims. What we don’t know is the reason behind their attacks and the true effect on their victims. (What does losing their brains do to them? How do they still think without them?) It’s hard to hone in on what the show means and what it wants to say without clarity here. It’s one thing to let a story breathe, it’s another to completely confuse your audience.
Though, the series still has some elements which draw me in despite some of its more confusing elements. Like “The Good Wife,” “BrainDead” features a deep ensemble of New York actors who bring their characters to life with a sense of charm and charisma. Winstead and Tveit especially have fantastic chemistry, as scenes where the two share the screen crackle (and provide the show’s few laughs). The drama also features a similar slickness and production value that made “The Good Wife” so entertaining. You can see the Kings’ influence on the direction, camerawork and the score, all of which help me maintain a passive interest in watching their show.
I wish the Kings took a step back while planning “BrainDead” and took more time to adequately arc out their story. They introduced too little of their main idea in the first two hours, leading to a jumble of a story arc. Still, Winstead and Tveit’s chemistry and the production values are going to be enough for me to keep tuning in for the rest of the drama’s short season.