Prodigal Son (TV Series) It's All in the Execution (2021) User Reviews

Snowflake alley in the reviews.

[JasonSterling29 · 6/10 · 28 January 2021]

The episode was bad and it had nothing to do with the social commentary. I've only watched Gotham, Bob's Burgers, and Prodigal son from all the FOX shows, and I didn't expect the social commentary but my goodness these political right-wing junkies are out in their numbers.

Let me get this right you can have a 'Cop show' but you can't talk about things that happen with police? It makes no sense. The only political stench here is the reviews. Grow up! Honestly, I don't care what happens between cases in shows like these. They can promote or talk out against anything they want. I just want to watch a good show.

On to the episode. It was dull and didn't make a lot of sense. Am I to believe an executioner would take the time to dress and stage a body and put it on display? How did he find the guillotine?...

Ignore the Political Reviews

[Blockbuster_Rewards_Card · 10/10 · 13 January 2021]

First off, I'm giving this a 10/10 because the rating is unfairly low. Let me explain why - after reading the other reviews here, I felt the need to write one myself. I'm a big fan of this show, and couldn't wait for season 2. I'll admit, it wasn't what I expected. Certainly not bad, but a bit odd. Some of the major issues from last season weren't addressed, but it is clear that they will be showing flashbacks to fill in the missing time.

The Black Lives Matter movement was mentioned. How could anyone - from any political stance - expect the show not to? Prodigal Son has two main characters who are cops, played by Aurora Perrineau and Frank Harts. Both actors are people of color. Perrineau was targeted on social media for being a woman of color playing a cop. By including support for the BLM movement, the show wasn't taking a political stance, and in fact, mentioned on several occasions that they support cops. In season one, they had their white male protagonist say that he has "nothing but respect for the badge and those who wear it." I don't believe this was intended to be political either. But a show that centers around the NYPD is going to support cops, to some degree at least. It's the same thing with BLM. It's not about politics, it's about supporting two of their leading actors and acknowledging societal issues that they would be delusional not to address. Because the show has two cops played by people of color (a choice that I think is excellent, not to mention that the actors are phenomenal) it puts this show in the center of a key societal issue. This show acknowledges their respect for law enforcement, while also supporting people of color. It's a great balance.

That being said, nothing extreme happened. Nothing BLM related happened that hasn't happened in real life. So I really don't understand the people giving this episode a one star rating because of it.

I agree that this isn't the best episode of Prodigal Son, and I'd be concerned if it was. Because no season starter should be better than a season finale for ANY show. This was a pretty good episode overall. It was VERY good for a season starter.

9/10

[belendakay · 9/10 · 14 February 2021]

I have to wonder if the people who gave the first episode of season two such a low rating even watched the entire episode. Political? Good, it should be, let's talk about it, all of it! If we refuse to acknowledge what transpires in real life, maybe we'll pay attention if our favorite shows put it front and center for us to understand this is what is happening and it needs to stop!

When you watch it a second time WOW!

[jfdewarren · 10/10 · 14 January 2021]

Between the lines and second degree perfection with this opening episode. You have to view the first act again. Pure tv writing pleasure. And those first notes of Don't Fear the Reaper sent me to tv nirvana. And the scariest part of all was the TJ incident with the police. The craftmanship of the entire episode is to be celebrate.

And the racists come out of the woodwork

[kathi-22236 · 10/10 · 27 January 2021]

I am so jazzed this show is back and is every bit as great as the first season. Maybe better, if that's possible. The Surgeon is creepier than ever (hard to reconcile this character with Aziraphale from Good Omens-Michael Sheen is incredible). And I so loved that they incorporated Malcolm's antique collection of weapons of murder in the storyline. The show has always been a combination of whimsy and horror and that delightful mix is a big part of what keeps me hooked.

And I so love that every cop show I like to watch is tackling systemic racism head on. I came to read the reviews here and I see that virtually every negative review has been from people who are mad that the elephant in the room is finally being acknowledged. Just emphasizes how deep the problem goes.

I am excited to see where this season goes! Is Malcolm really a dyed-in-wool killer or is his father just really good at messing with his head? Will Ainsley kill again in a frenzy and block it out? What will happen with Gil and Jessica? I feel like a voyeur! LOL!

Apparently acknowledging reality is now political

[annyasmilyanova · 10/10 · 23 January 2021]

The show is handing its second season well for know. I hope they stay on course.

The whack-o is back-o!

[ravenskald · 10/10 · 23 January 2021]

Great start to the sophomore season! Like so many other shows this year, they root themselves in today's world... racism, Covid, BLM, corruption in the institution of law enforcement... to not touch on these is irresponsible at minimum. Good work, PS!

Drama family Murder

[kellymartin-48713 · 10/10 · 14 January 2021]

I Absolutely loved season one Every week I looked forward to the next episode

Right wingers can die mad

[ambjaneth · 10/10 · 22 April 2021]

Omg people are giving this wonderful episode low ratings just because they hate that there was a reference to how Black people are treated by the police. Imagine how mad Black people are that this is actually their life? Like seriously die mad about real life being portrayed in Hollywood then, ya Yankees.

The Crazy Is Back!

[madfashionista · 10/10 · 20 April 2021]

I'm amazed so many snowflakes freaked out about 5 minutes that addressed a real-life problem. What about the rest of it? I loved it! There was so much crazy flying around, especially with Malcolm! I didn't have a problem with all of the exposition. If you're only an occasional viewer, you need it to keep up to speed.

The ledge scene and the sex dungeon scenes were my favorite. Malcolm is completely unhinged and I am so there for it!

And a great show bows to the identity politic gods!

[tluvkj · 4/10 · 16 January 2021]

I gave it a four based on the actual show which would've been an 8 if not for the identity politic systemic racism and police brutality subplots they just had to add. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a long drawn out subplot for the season because identity politics has ruined so many shows the past several years.

Everything about the season 2 premiere disappoints

[AlucardRed · 2/10 · 13 January 2021]

I guess in a way the show was always silly, but they really ratcheted the silliness up a notch for this one. Add to it the nauseating, hit-you-over-the-head bits about covid and social justice that had all the subtlety of a piano falling and congrats Hollywood, you did it again! Take a once bearable show of escapism and ruin it. Oh well, at least season 1 was fun at times, but I won't be continuing with season 2 and I strongly suspect I won't be alone in that. Enjoy the falling ratings, you're already seeing it here.

Did not appreciate the sub-plot

[runner140 · 1/10 · 13 January 2021]

It was poorly executed and implausible. Probably won't watch the show any longer if the writers are going to continue to virtue signal it's audience.

What a shame, forcing political bs on fans

[namstonk · 1/10 · 14 January 2021]

So a very average start to season two which you can understand to a point. However the crass ending was beyond any logic, I'll watch next week but if that's the way it is going, then shame on you new writers and watch ratings drop.

If you tell a lie....

[sjpd-42796 · 1/10 · 14 January 2021]

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." -Joseph Goebbels Hollywood has continue to push these social justice lies over and over as if they are fact so big and repeatedly that even showing statistics proven them wrong doesn't change peoples minds. Great! One more show I will not support by watching it. I'm running out.

Another leftist political stupidity PC story

[lmroth · 1/10 · 14 January 2021]

Congratulations. One by one they destroy every show so that nobody will watch the crap because of Hollywoods political leftist agenda. You cut your own throats so that you in the end will have no work. And you are too stupid to realize it. I am done with this show too. When I watch movies or tv shows I want to be entertained, not brainwashed.

Fictional story

[duble_j · 3/10 · 13 May 2021]

Truly enjoyed watching this show until the writers decided to do a CNN storyline. Keep it fictional please.

Nonsense.

[jascoward · 1/10 · 29 March 2021]

Anyone who believes the Tarmel event would actually play out like that is either silly or stupid.

While I understand what they were shooting for, they screwed up 10/10.

This show has amazing writers and they dare present this ridiculous scenario.

I have binged watched the first season and treasured it. I pray this is a solitary blip.

And another one bites the dust

[lusciousmuffins · 1/10 · 13 January 2021]

Want to know how to ruin a TV show? Just ask a Leftist! They are able do it in record time.

Rather than simply focusing on story telling, Fox has obviously decided to go all in on indoctrination into the church of SJW. That trend already had me down to pretty much one or two shows on the network I could still stomach. After the season 2 debut of Prodigal Son, however, I am officially down to none. The upside of that being that I can now simply delete Fox from my channel line-up to save myself time.

Alas, their decision to shoehorn the preferred political talking points of the Left into a story about a the son of a serial killer was only part of the problem the exceptionally disappointing return of this show had to offer. The underlying plot was formulaic, the acting lackluster, the dialogue stilted at best, and the whole thing a very disappointing mess that offended viewers' senses, as well as their intellects.

Last season I felt this show had real potential and that, done properly, a second season could help it grow into something exceptional. Alas, in one episode the makers of this show have already managed to squander that potential and convince me season 2 is not worth watching past the first episode.

Sad really.

Loved the first season. This episode is a disgrace.

[RobLuvsTheMountains · 2/10 · 14 January 2021]

This episode is disgraceful. Lying, no matter what your goal, is disgraceful, disgusting, and should not be accepted by thoughtful, thinking, knowledgeable, intelligent people. It's obvious that the writers were deliberately bludgeoning the audience with social justice themes. That's bad enough since any thinking person will naturally distrust someone with an agenda. What's worse is that the writers don't even have the courage to portray the truth. They portrayed the police as racist and every one of them was white. The truth is that most excessive force cases involved African American, Italian, Hispanic and Asian American police officers, not just Caucasian. The writers want to virtue signal but lack the integrity and courage to use the truth. I guess they couldn't portray all police as racist since most of the main characters are police. What are we going to do next in this country? Will we say that all men are inherently ("systemic") rapists because some men are? Are we going to start saying that all mothers secretly wish they could kill their children because there have been some high profile cases of women who have killed their children? In short, another show, another form of supposed entertainment, ruined by divisive and destructive lies.

So lazy and stupid.

[dinoplahutnik · 3/10 · 23 June 2021]

"Prodigal Son" was one of the rare tv shows I was watching, and besides the topic I liked, it was well made, with interesting stories, intriguing characters, and okay dialogues. I like Martin Sheen a lot, with Tom Payne and the others bringing the show to a decent level.

However, while managing to portray cases in an interesting and sort of educational way, with some unexpected twists along the way, the very first episode of the second season brought upon a very sub-par and lazy written story which made me decide to stop watching the show altogether.

Besides "figuring" out very quickly that the "executioner" was actually the executioner, and expressing some giant prejudices towards one of the biggest states in the US (to which many Californians and New Yorkers are escaping lately), the racist sub-plot with JT is just lazy and stupid.

So, instead of running up the stairs to help Dani and Malcolm (because they are his team and everything about season 1 indicated he would rush to save them), he decides, totally out of character, to stay down and wait for the uniforms so he can send THEM up. This is, of course, so an encounter between him and two white police officers can happen (because if he went up, this would not happen). Now, in the first season, hundreds of police officers paraded through dozens of crime scenes and none of them were portrayed as racist and/or stupid. But now, after all the BLM stuff in 2020, these two were all of a sudden portrayed as not only racist but also stupid. Because, how would you call people who see a black person, tell him to freeze, and IGNORE the fact that he is identifying as Tarmel from Major Crimes, supposedly an elite unit in the NYPD? I guess that we need to believe that the uniformed guy is just one-dimensionally evil and plain stupid. And then, after the truth is known, i.e. That the guns are pointed to a detective and that the "racist" was completely wrong and out of line, JT acts like a scared boy? And continues to despair in the precinct, behaving like a victim, instead of being furious and full of righteous anger? Acting head of Major Crimes got into an altercation with a uniformed cop and he is acting like a "boot"? Instead of the other way around? In New York? Of course, this is only so Gil can come in at a decisive moment and "save" JT, but still, so lazy and stupid.

After "The Rookie", another great show destroyed by disastrous writing and social justice pandering. Not watching the rest.

I'm so sick and tired of this liberal political nonsense

[j_cary88 · 1/10 · 22 January 2021]

All of my favorite shows are being destroyed by writers insisting on blending in with the lying media propaganda. Ripping on Texas, a republican state, for having capital murder charges. Throwing in the "white cop attacking defenseless poor black man" tripe, and ruining a fiction show by inserting the false liberal narrative going on in reality. It's completely unwelcome here, and reading other reviews, I see I'm not alone with my disgust. Stick to the FICTION plot that worked in the first season, (although, the Democrat narrative is the most fiction thing out there), and stop catering to the establishment. Focus on your audience.

JUST STOP!!!

[joeltrouchet-12119 · 1/10 · 16 January 2021]

1st thing, don't listen to the bullies that will call you names because you believe that politics don't belong in tv shows or sports...2nd thing, will you please keep the whole blm thing out of tv shows! I mean that scene towards the end was absolutely pointless to the storyline! I don't mind covid being introduced because we do live in a covid world right now...but so many effing tv shows are ruining themselves because of them giving in to the bullies that will attack you if you don't stand with them...how about some of you reviewers, instead of falling in line like sheep, how about you properly learn what is going on...covid won't kill this world...stupid people will!

Not great.

[surflvr1319 · 1/10 · 21 January 2021]

Not even good. "It's Texas". What lazy writing this episode!

Another One Bites the Dust

[shermanator-43406 · 1/10 · 24 January 2021]

Got thru 10 minutes. Another great show destroyed by unimaginative writers in Hollyweird! Count me out. Dumped my season pass recording.