Absentia season 2 review: Emily Byrne’s quest to find answers is highly engaging

Star Rating: 

Imagine a past so horrific that one has to drug oneself not to wander in the bylanes of memory that bring back the images of it. Emily, in Season 2 is in a constant struggle to balance the battle in her head and her quest in real life. The lady who set out to capture and extract revenge from her kidnappers in the first season, has turned out to be a complete vigilante in the second season, and is looking for answers to her questions in a city that is under attack from an unknown enemy. PS: If you can’t take anxiety and deal with high curiosity, head off straightaway.

What Absentia is about: An Amazon Prime series, Absentia is story about a FBI agent Emily Byrne who was believed dead, but returns after six long years. Turns out she was kidnapped by an infamous serial killer. Her struggle to remember what happened to her in the last six years, and the quest to find the kidnapper and take revenge was majorly the first season. Season 1 comprised all this, till Emily finally bust down her captor and had her revenge. By the end of it, we knew it wasn’t just the captor, but that the lady had many questions in her mind and needed to find the answers. Season 2 kicks off from the same note and takes you on the journey further. Emily is now hallucinating and controls it with drugs. However, she knows that the bad men are still pursuing her, while people think it’s just her trauma. While there is a gas attack that kills several in an FBI office building, Emily finds her real mother, and is also trying to make things good with her son. She joins the FBI again to get access to the interrogation, which reveals a lot. But who is following her all the time? Who is the attacker? Why is he killing people on a rampage? And can the innocent Emily Byrne regain her innocence and the happy life she once had?  All your questions are answered this time, trust us.

Yay: This is a show where amazing writing and finesse in acting go hand-in-hand. Writers Matthew Cirulnick, Deron M. Browne and Logan Slakter know that their audience is intelligent and know what they are getting into. All the three writers and the directors, Oded Ruskin and Adam Sanderson, don’t try to simplify things for you, they keep them jumbled while giving you a few visuals of the bits and pieces from the past, giving credit to your intelligence and memory. You are with Emily on the journey but you cannot root for her, since you don’t know if her version of the story is correct (how can one believe a hallucinating lady), so the makers build the series on the basis of the top level of curiosity.

For a series this intense and dark, comprising of some action here and there, what one misses is the evolution of the characters. But the makers are with the world they have created and true to it. Every character you know from the first episode is evolving and has a script to chew on (at least the ones immediately around Emily).

Emily, played by Castle fame Stana Katic, is surreal. Calling Stana a fine actress considering Absentia, might be an understatement. She gets into the skin of Emily. Convoluted, confused, scared, angry and still caring for her son, Stana portrays everything in these nine episodes. Watch out for her in the scenes where she is hallucinating. All the peripheral cast — Patrick Huisinger, Cara Theobold, Neil Jackson, and Patrick McAuley, have a tight hold on their characters and are honest with their approach.

Nay: Not many nay points here. Just the cinematography and design don’t move much ahead. The script and acts get richer with time, but the surrounding milieu stays the same. We know it is a long-form execution, and that sets might feel repetitive, but they should not feel that they are just there. Mise-en-scène is lost in the process.

CineBlitz Verdict: if you are into suspense, thrillers and revenge dramas, switch on your systems right away and dive in. Nine episodes with a runtime of approximately 40 minutes each, makes it binge-worthy. Watch it for the integration of good writing and justifying actors. We totally recommend Absentia to you.