Second Chance Information

Second Chance is an American science fiction crime drama television series created by Rand Ravich. It is inspired by the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The show debuted online on December 25, 2015, and started broadcasting January 13, 2016, on Fox. On Friday January 29, 2016, Second Chance was moved to Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following poor ratings in its first two episodes, swapping time slots and days with Hell's Kitchen.

Premise

The series follows the life of Jimmy Pritchard, a 75-year-old former King County, Washington sheriff who was morally corrupt and later disgraced and forced to retire. After he is killed in a robbery at his son's home, Pritchard is brought back to life in the improved body of a younger man by billionaire tech-genius twins Mary and Otto Goodwin. However, despite having a new life and a chance to relive his life and find a new purpose, the temptations that led to his career being tarnished continue to haunt him.

Cast and characters

Main

• Robert Kazinsky as Jimmy Pritchard
• Dilshad Vadsaria as Mary Goodwin, Otto's twin sister, co-founder of Lookinglass
• Adhir Kalyan as Otto Goodwin, Mary's twin brother, co-founder of Lookinglass
• Ciara Bravo as Gracie Pritchard, Duval's daughter and Jimmy's granddaughter
• Tim DeKay as Duval Pritchard, Jimmy's son, an FBI agent
• Vanessa Lengies as Alexa, Mary's assistant

Guest

• Philip Baker Hall as old Jimmy Pritchard
• Amanda Detmer as Helen, Jimmy's daughter and Duval's sister.
• Scott Menville as Arthur (voice), the Goodwin's computer.
• Rod Hallett as Hart Watkins.

Episodes

January 13, 2016 

|ProdCode = 1AYF01 |Viewers = 4.71 |ShortSummary = Jimmy Pritchard is a 75-year-old former sheriff who was disgraced for fabricating evidence, something he justified as necessary to protect his town, and has a tense relationship with his son Duval, an FBI agent. After being murdered by men who broke into his son's home, he is secretly restored to life, youth, and even given superhuman strength by the genius tech billionaire twins Otto and Mary, the founders of Lookinglass. After realizing what happened to him, he runs away, still under the twins' constant surveillance. When he recognizes one of his murderers as his son's FBI partner John Strayburn, he goes to warn Duval, but has to return to his tank to stay alive. Mary starts receiving cells from Jimmy to fight her cancer and helps him by compiling evidence about John, which Jimmy hands to Duval the next time he is out of the tank. Duval is kidnapped after notifying his corrupt chief about John and Jimmy is able to save his son just before it is tank time again. |LineColor = 13A6A9 }}

|ProdCode = 1AYF02 |Viewers = 3.75 |ShortSummary = During the blackout caused by Jimmy's resurrection, two murderous convicts escaped from prison. He feels responsible, so he tracks them down with Mary's help. He also introduces himself to Duval as Duval's paternal half-brother and offers his help in fighting the crime in the city. |LineColor = 13A6A9 }}

|ProdCode = 1AYF03 |Viewers = 2.15 |ShortSummary = An FBI scientist tells Duval that Jim's DNA sample is a familial match for him, but she's puzzled by the transgenic mutations in the sample. Meanwhile, an environmental protest against a coal plant turns deadly when the protesters are killed with an axe. Some of the surveillance footage is missing and Jim thinks the company's CEO, Duke Davis, took it based on his previous interactions with him. Mary offers to help him and offers Davis Lookinglass' help to update his security, which he refuses. Meanwhile, Duval takes advantage of their absence to interrogate Otto about Jim. Arthur warns Mary and Jim manages to distract Duval by offering him information about the case. Back at Davis' home, it is revealed that the killer is his teenage son, Asher. With Mary's help, Jim and Duval discover several violent incidents in Asher's past that Davis hid with his money, but Asher has an alibi, Bobbi, a girl who works at the Davis' country club. Jim follows her to Asher's party where he manages to steal Bobbi's wallet. Thanks to its contents, he and Duval realize she's leaving town. They follow her to Davis' jet, where Jim finds Duke fatally stabbed and Asher wielding a katana. Jim and Asher fight and Jim manages to knock him down thanks to Duval's timely arrival. Bobbi shoots at Duval, but Jim protects him by jumping in front of the bullets. Jim asks him to take him to Mary Goodwin and, in the car, tells Duval he's sorry for not being a good father. When they arrive back at the Goodwins' house, Mary finally tells him the truth about Jim. |LineColor = 13A6A9 }}

|ProdCode = 1AYF04 |Viewers = 2.20 |ShortSummary = Duval is having a hard time accepting that Jim is his father. Following Mary's advice, Jim decides to reopen the only case on which Duval ever asked for his help: a teenager named Kevin Whitfield who OD'd on heroin. Duval thought there was more to it, but Jim told him to let it go. With the twins' help, Jim finds Kevin's notebook, filled with chess movements, and Arthur connects Kevin to three more teenage geniuses who OD'd on heroin in the area within the last 18 months. Jim tells Duval, now officially on the case, that Otto discovered all the victims had applied to Seattle State University. They talk with the school's therapist, Dr. Liz Kenyon, who, unknown to them, is the killer. Duval discovers that Dr. Kenyon is a former piano prodigy who came under the influence of a man called Emile Sayles, who pushed her until she had a breakdown at 16. Jim thinks Sayles attacked Dr. Kenyon at her office, but Duval informs him that Emile has been dead since 1997: she's the only killer, it's all in her head, and now they don't know where she is. After Mary unintentionally inspires Jim, he and Duval work out Dr. Kenyon has gone to her old middle school. They arrive there just in time to save her latest victim, though Jim has to reveal his super-strength to Duval in order to get to her. It turns out Dr. Kenyon was killing the teenagers to "protect" them from Sayles. Duval asks Jim to give him some time to process everything before he gets too close to Gracie. Jim asks Mary for a favor and gets her to put him into the FBI server as Duval's confidential informant, without telling Duval first. |LineColor = 13A6A9 }}

|ProdCode = 1AYF05 |Viewers = 2.13 |ShortSummary = During a TV interview for the launch of Lookinglass' new operating system, Cobra 9, Mary is ambushed when news of her blood cancer leaks and, afterwards, her car is run off the road by paparazzi. Mary's assistant, Alexa, shows her an online dead pool where someone just bet on her dying today. Jim and Duval find out the car was shot at and, while Jim tracks down a paparazzi and discovers their suspect has a cobra tattoo on his left forearm, Duval arranges to get himself assigned to the case. An unusually weak Jim gets a bad beating and ends up in the hospital, where he hallucinates his old self. He manages to flee the hospital and sends the message to Duval through Arthur. Duval receives it, but there are several Cobra 9 software developers with cobra tattoos. They tell Duval about an angry former developer, Malcolm Sprague, who has filed lawsuits against Lookinglass. With Jim in the tank, Otto discovers his endocrine system is failing because of a glitch in the code he wrote. Malcolm kidnaps one of the coders, Kelly, and offers to trade her for Mary. While Duval accompanies Mary to the meet, Otto uses an adrenaline shot to stimulate Jim, who catches up with them. Duval and Jim ask Mary to stay in the car. Jim attacks Malcolm after he shoots Duval, but he's still weak and can't stop him. Mary finds and frees Kelly. Malcolm is about to shoot them, but Duval shoots him first. Otto finds out that Jim's genetic code is being rewritten by his own body. He also gives Mary the good news that her treatment with Jim's blood is working. |LineColor = 13A6A9 }}

|ProdCode = 1AYF06 |Viewers = 1.98 |ShortSummary = |LineColor = 13A6A9 }}

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Production

The show was picked up by Fox to series as a last-minute addition to the lineup on May 8, 2015, first titled The Frankenstein Code, with the series being set in Los Angeles, before undergoing name changes to Lookinglass in August and finally once again to Second Chance in November; the setting was also changed to King County, Washington as well. In October, the original order was reduced to an 11-episode season.

Critical reception

The show was met with a below-average response from critics. On Metacritic, it holds a rating of 47/100 based on 18 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 30% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Second Chance boasts a few interesting ideas and Robert Kazinsky's game performance, but there aren't enough functioning parts in what's ultimately yet another mediocre take on the Frankenstein myth."