I will admit. One of the only reasons I started watching this show is because of Sarah Michelle Gellar. I loved her when she was Buffy (and to me she always will be Buffy) and was thrilled when I heard she was returning to television. When I read what the premise of her show was, I was even more intrigued and happy because this show sounded like something I would watch no matter who was the lead.
The plot of Ringer is Bridget, a recovering addict and alcoholic is in the witness protection following a murder she witnessed by a well-known crime boss who has never been caught because he has all of the witnesses killed. Bridget doesn’t think she will live to see the court appearance so she disappears, to her identical twin sister Siobhan’s place in the Hamptons. There, they reminisce and a little more back-story is given as to why these two sister’s are estranged (I believe Bridget was high or drunk and drove a car with her nephew, Siobhan’s son in it and killed him but nothing has been mentioned as of yet.) They go out on a boat ride and everything seems like they are getting back to normal with them. Then Bridget wakes up from a nap and Siobhan is nowhere to be seen. Bridget assumes she killed herself because her clothes were found in the water a little ways away from the boat. The next scene we see is “Siobhan” returning home to Andrew and her stepdaughter, Juliet. But the twist is Bridget is actually Siobhan and she has taken over her identity. AS Bridget put it, she saw her opportunity and took it. And the road of being Siobhan becomes darker and darker the longer she is there and it gets pretty interesting with she finds out that Siobhan was having an affair with her best friend’s husband. Oh and she’s pregnant. But let’s not get carried away with revealing too much (although I might have, sorry!)
As I was watching the first episode, it was hard for me to get sucked in because the character (or characters) Gellar plays is very different than Buffy. Bridget is very timid, closed off in an innocent way – not closed off in a Lisbeth Salander way (see my earlier blog on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.) She gets nervous she is stepping on people’s toes and worries that she will make a mistake with everything she does and says. Siobhan is more confident and has a much harder shell but again, she is different than Gellar’s role in Buffy. Siobhan has a mask up or a wall. She might seem confident and happy with who she is and her life but she isn’t. She looks sad and alone – and that would explain what happens at the end of the first episode which is the reason why I watched the next episode. Don’t worry, I won’t give it away.
Gellar is slowly making her way into the character of Bridget (posing as Siobhan) albeit it took her a couple of episodes for me to really believe her as the character. The first episode and a half was almost painful to watch because she liked she was trying too hard to fit into the character – it wasn’t natural whereas Buffy was. I know I shouldn’t compare 2 different characters of 2 very different TV shows but when you think of Sarah Michelle Gellar, the first thing almost everyone things of is Buffy. She will always be Buffy to her cult fans.
One thing I am nervous of is the CW pulling this show right when I am getting sucked into it. But as we have learned, television stations and studios don’t know a good show if it hit them in the head – Firefly, My So Called Life to name a few that they missed out on. So I will keep watching this show week after week because it is fun to watch and I do want to see what happens to Bridget – and if she ever gets caught in all of the lies she is telling.
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