Review: Hit and Miss 1.2

Mia and Ryan share a similar character arc.

After the intense premier, the second episode of Hit And Miss continued on a good track. This week took a much more raw look at the nature of dysmorphia, while still continuing to work on these interesting and fulfilling characters. Some of the characters aren't developing in the way I thought they would, but the series still feels compelling despite that - mainly due to Chloe Sevigny's astounding performance.
     Understandably pissed off at having been beaten up and humiliated, the Landlord put the kids' cottage up for sale. The older kids blame this on Mia; Levi is broken by the fact that he can't keep his family together after his mother's death, and Riley, having been secretly having it off with the landlord to keep his favour, is shocked by his betrayel. Levi calls Mia a freak, which causes her to go into a period of gender dysmorphia; culminating in a dark scene where Mia stands naked except for a party nose in front of a mirror and begs to be real. At the same time, Mia's son Ryan tried to emulate his father and began to experiment with female clothing. The Landlord refusing to buy the house from Mia, her concerned employer Eddie offers to use his legal existence to buy the house with her money, allowing her to keep control. They hold a party in celebration, where Mia confronts Ryan about his attempts to emulate her, and where she finally feels she can accept her femininity.
     I loved the very clever thematic device regarding gender politics that this episode used, and it worked across all of the characters. Mia's harrowing scenes in front of the mirror, and her refusal to help Leonie dance at her recital, allowed Sevigny to really dig deep into the character's recesses. Her relationship with Ryan became awfully symbolic in this regard. Ryan, named after Mia's male identity, acts as a metaphor here - Ryan experimenting with feminity and Mia telling him to be himself instead of emulating her. Levi felt his masculinity being questioned by his inability to protect the household, but then accepted that he couldn't win all of the battles. Riley lost her motherly instincts as she grew to resent both the Landlord and Mia.

Mia tries to balance her home life with cold-blooded murder.

     I was a bit weirded out by Riley's change of pace as a character, though. After the headstrong and responsible parental figure from the premiere, it felt like a drastically different character the moment she started to act like a grumpy teenager. The character spent the entire episode going off the rails, when she'd been the most mature of the kids last week. I suppose you could put this down to the clash between her twisted loyalty to the Landlord and her new mum Mia, but it was the one thing in the episode that struck me as odd.
     Hit and Miss is well on its way to becoming an absolutely brilliant drama. The way that it handled the concepts surroundng dysphoria were masterful, and Chloe Sevingy is a truly amaing actress for being able to do what she does in this episode. The script is absolutely superb and I'm enjoying this series on so many levels that other shows on British TV just aren't providing.

Thanks.