Serial Drama

Beacon Hill, Season 2 Episode 2

Plenty of episode spoilers ahead, so be sure to watch it first!

All right so, first of all, we need to talk about these two again.

Now, I'm all for healthy relationships where you're able to speak openly, but man is Laura forgiving. Katherine just goes on and on about the hold Sara has over her, how she just still gets to her so much and, sure, Laura doesn't love it but it's also kind of rude? Quit talking about how hung up you are on your ex to your current girlfriend, Katherine! And from their first scene in this episode, it sounds like the thing that brought them together was Laura basically nursing Katherine through her heartbreak. This doesn't bode well.

This season it seems like they're being a little less vague about politics and anchoring it in at least something reality-adjacent, talking about how different politics are these days, talking about public policy-tweeting, how the House majority leader has changed, etc., etc., but without naming any names (so far!). Which I like, only because it'll help us anchor these people to a context we have a shorthand for (even though it's a little funny to think about how dramatically the political paradigm has changed since Season One which, in-universe, was... like, yesterday? But hey, some of these people also have a whole new look since then! I'll allow it.).

In other news, these two are doing a bit of canoodling!

They have a little more spark and familiarity in this episode than in the premiere. Oh, also it sounds like Sara's paper is a tabloid-style right-wing paper? Maybe modeled after the New York Post? I can't remember how much information we really got on that in the first season, but it seems like that's not Sara's deal so we'll see how that plays out. Anyway, she's basically got her investigative haunches up about her grandfather's quickness in giving up his seat, but is also resentful that she has to report on both her ex and her own family.

Beacon Hill: Six Years or Six Seconds

As always, SPOILERS GALORE BELOW!

Oh hi there! Long time no see. Anything interesting happen since last we spoke on here? The world's been pretty uneventful, eh? Beacon Hill is miraculously back, a thing we truly thought might never happen despite our certainty in 2014 that it would happen in 2015. But here we are in 2020, an otherwise entirely un-noteworthy year in history.

This was a ride, y'all! I could've done the normal thing and just rewatched the first season in preparation for this, but instead I just read my own recaps and was still pretty lost. To make things crazier, multiple characters have been recast, including the two leads! Is it not enough that everything seems at least mildly surreal in the midst of a pandemic and almost-nationwide lockdown? The answer is no, no, it's not enough. I suspect this all came down to actor availability and not anybody getting the boot, since most of the replaced actors still seem cheerful and excited about the new season. So we'll forgive it! Either way, we should forgive anything in life that puts more Nadia Bjorlin on our TV screens.

In a brilliant but equally disorienting (lest you think this post about it is going to clarify anything for you if you're lost!) move, the "previouslies" that opened the new season included clips from the first season BUT WITH THE REPLACEMENT ACTORS EDITED IN. Has anyone ever done this before? I liked it, even though it made me feel like the brownies I ate this afternoon weren't just innocent brownies. So let's see what we can parse.

Sara Preston, one of the two lead characters (at least that's how priorities broke down in the first season), was played by Known Soap Person Alicia Minshew in Season One. Sara is now being played by Known Soap Person Nadia Bjorlin.

Sara's brother Eric, who was played by Known Soap Person John Paul Lavoisier in the first season, is now being played by Known Soap Person (but not to me yet) Mark Hapka.

With me? Next up: Sara's ex-girlfriend Katherine Wesley (aka Kate) was played by Known Soap Person Sarah Joy Brown in Season One, while here she is being played by Non Soap Person Marem Hassler. (A cursory search tells me she may have done an under-5 stint on The Bold & the Beautiful, but I'm not counting that.)

So far I think that's it for the cast replacements. A few actors new to this season include Hillary B. Smith, Jessica Leccia, and Alexis J. Smith. We're also promised some Jacob Young later in the season. Also returning: Ron Raines, Crystal Chappell, Louise Sorel, Ricky Paull Goldin, Tina Sloan, Melissa Archer, Jessica Morris, Rebecca Mozo, and Scott Bryce, among others. 

We've spent six years waiting to find out who was at the door that made wealthy wino WASP Claire Preston gasp as she did, and it turns out it was Senator Tom Wesley. Do I remember enough to understand why this would be significant? No, I do not. I do know that he is Kate's father and I guess the other Massachusetts Senator (I do recall that Kate might be appointed to Senator William Preston's spot now that he's ill, and he happens to be Sara's grandfather). 

I feel like we changed exteriors? Again, it could be faulty memory, but I thought the whole thing took place in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, which is very urban. Yes, the Prestons were definitely wealthy but I thought they were townhouse-wealthy, not mansion-on-the-outskirts wealthy.

If only there were some way to go back and verify! 

Anyway, Tom tells a perpetually-tipsy Claire that he's running for POTUS (I think? It sounded like he said "running for the leadership" but then she said something about his always wanting to be President.) and wants to make sure she isn't going to cause any problems. We don't know what's been between them, but she assures him she's not going to be his problem.

 

Coming Soon!

Some actual content coming soon just as soon as I get my technology all sorted. Here's an extremely subtle hint...