Read the Room is the third episode of Lucky, and this is the one where I started worrying the show loves its main character a little too much for its own good, just too much convinient luck. I was also wondering when they were going to put out her official name and it turns out to be Luciana, she can talk her way out of almost anything, and this episode goes so hard on it that staying alive starts to feel less like skill and more like the universe just clearing a path for her every single time she needs one, not saying that I didnt like the episode but it takes out from it. Her dad John spent her whole childhood training her to read a room and that is exactly why the flashbacks work, they explain how she can slide into some random kids birthday party and pass herself off like she belongs there. My issue is this one stop just hands her everything on her checklist, clean clothes, cash, a car and no one at that party notice or caught her, yeah its a great oportunity but what are the odds every single person was at the backyard and not even one cleaning lady at sight considering this is a part of wealthy people. Its still fun to watch, Anya Taylor Joy sells a lot of that confidence, but there is a real difference between a con artist creating her own opening and a story just handing her a full escape kit. This scene is way closer to the perfect escape kit for me than just pure skills, in real life we call it luck although others call it knowing when to pull the trigger and sometimes its a theory hard to prove or disprove. I want her to be smart, but the show keeps stacking careless easy marks in front of her until any real tension just disappears, at some point the show has to let her fail because right now her confidence feels protected by whoever is writing her checklist, not earned by her.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34866681/
- Platform:APPLETV
There are more simple and rough momenets that just work a lot better for me because Lucky cannot control what she is watching this time, she is stuck hiding on a property tied to her mother in law while Dutch is just beating the hell out of a man who does not have any answers everyone wants out of him, and his cooperation getting him nowhere is what makes that scene feel dangerous in a way the birthday party never felt like, its the total opposite because at the party she was in control and now she is a second away from getting caught. Lucky is scared at the stables, actually scared and I like that the show lets her sit in that fear instead of calmly handling everything thrown at her, but then her phone call with John right after matters too, he talks her down from panic in seconds, making me ask myself how did he train her so well al this time that even when she is in total panic mode far away from him all she needed what her father voice, but he is also the same guy who taught a little kid how to steal cash from distracted parents at a birthday party and that is a contradiction more interesting because how can she be so calm? is it just the fact that one situation can get you killed and the other to jail? hhmmm the show makes it hard to know if in fact her talent is just black and white instead of gray areas. She is using his lessons to survive, but those same lessons are the reason she keeps using innocent people without thinking twice. I also felt like the episode never stops to make excuses for that either, she is easy to root for, but nobody is trying to sell her as some innocent victim here, and thats a smart choice on the shows part, this story and the main character are really a roller coster.
The hunt for Cary picks up real speed, faster than I expected thanks to the escape kit I mention before, and I think cramming this much movement into one chapter is because this whole season only gets seven episodes total, aside that this is a mini series so they dont have much time. Some of that speed works and some feels like another shortcut, the same problem as before, but there is one scene in the back half that completely earns itself, a con she runs on a guy connected to a rental property. Her plan here is actually clever, she plays drunk to get close to him, gets her hands on his phone long enough to send herself information about his wife, then uses that leverage to force his help without ever raising her voice, and it is one of the best scenes in the whole damn episode because Lucky is creating her advantage instead of stumbling into it, I know it might sound as a fantasy but at this point in time I have come to realize this is just a story of someone so damn lucky that is absurd so just go with it and decide if you enjoy someone been that Lucky. She reads exactly what kind of guy he is, lets him think he is in control, then flips the whole situation on him, and Anya Taylor Joy is fantastic in this moment, looking unsteady for a second before snapping into someone completely locked in, although this is too damn predictable. I wanted way more scenes built like this one, where her skill actually explains the result instead of convenient timing, because the birthday party and a couple other scenes during this episode just go too hard on lucky breaks, while this rental scene shows exactly why Lucky is dangerous when she just go for it, and it seems like her monther in law and Dutch also knows this, makes me wonder if Lucky did some jobs for them although there is a scene with John where she clearly tells him she wants nothing of it.
[Source](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/lucky/umc.cmc.5qo7t3nngb2vj0m9dxkwebw1o)
[Source](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/lucky/umc.cmc.5qo7t3nngb2vj0m9dxkwebw1o)This episode turn things way better for me because this episode pulls Lucky toward Cary, yeah very convinient but thats the whole thing about this mini series, there is one task at hand and thats get to know why Cary dump her, the husband she has been chasing and closing that gap this early feels like the right call because the personal betrayal here is more interesting than another hour of address chasing or arguing who is going to die because there is 10 million missing. Cary left with a pile of money and built himself a comfortable life somewhere quiet while Lucky spent all of this time running, stealing and eating actual shit just to survive, and everything she finds tells her he did not vanish because he got scared and confused, he planned this out for himself, and I wonder if Cary is going to be able to talk her down and get Lucky on his side again, she is mad AF so its going to be interesting. This is why John warns her at one point that she is thinking with anger instead of her head and he is totally right about it, even though its a strange piece of advice coming from the same guy who helped build the criminal life she is stuck inside, somewhere down the line she got into the family business or became John partner. Lucky has every reason to be furious, but rushing toward kicking the hell out of Cary wont get her answers, so far she has not show any sadness as a wife who gets dump the way he did, any other woman must feel terrible but Lucky is so calculative that she shows nothing, reason why I think episode 4 is going to show some of those feelings towards what Cary did to her. Feelings about Cary mess with her training, this is where I think the episode finally hands her a problem that her dads whole rulebook does not have an answer for.
I got to say it was a good episode but only when you take out the obvious and look more into the inner problems of Lucky. Agent Rand is pulling on her thread, Priscilla can feel the walls closing in, and Wayne has his people looking too, so next week should be a mess, except this show has already shown how fast it clears a path when Lucky needs refuling her luck and I dont want another convenient distraction letting everyone off the hook before the hard conversation happens, Wayne did told Priscilla "I found your boy" so that adds a lot of sauce because considering how convinient and predictable the show is, Cary and Lucky might join again to escape Wayne's guys. There is enough real personal conflict now for the show to slow down and let Lucky sit with whatever Cary says, and reckon with the fact that Priscilla and John have both spent years making choices for their kids without asking what they wanted, Priscilla says she is protecting her son but roles with very cruel and dangerous people like Dutch and Wayne, and John wants his daughter safe but his own training is why she survives by lying and stealing every day of her life, so why not lie to her father too?!. Those choices give this whole thing something stronger than a standard crime chase, closer to watching two parents convince themselves they did right while the damage piles up around and against their kids. This episode was a fun one, specially if you root for Lucky and the cast keeps every scene moving forward even when the coincidences pile up and get a little annoying, but I need the next episodes to stop being so gentle with Lucky, because if this show wants people to stay hooked it needs to truts more on her tallent to save her sometimes and her mistakes to actually cost her something the rest of the time, otherwise the whole thing risks feeling like a story that only lets its lead win.
#lucky, #readtheroom, #luckytv, #television, #tvreview, #episodereview, #crime, #thriller, #drama, #mystery, #betrayal, #family, #chase, #survival, #conartist, #anyataylorjoy, #carrie, #priscilla, #john, #dutch, #agentrand, #recap, #streaming, #series, #episode
Rating: 75/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
