This Week In TV: Gellar’s Comeback Fizzles With Ringer

I’m going to assume that when Sarah Michelle Gellar decided to return to TV, she had her pick of what show to do. Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains a pop-cultural touchstone, and Gellar’s strong professional work ethic is well documented. Plus, she’s been largely invisible for the past eight years – appearing in a string of little-seen films and raising a daughter – which would turn any new Gellar-centered TV show into instant magazine fodder. What network wouldn’t want to work with her? That’s why it blows one’s mind that Gellar read the Ringer pilot and said, “Yep, this is the one.” Ah, Sarah, you deserve so much better.

Airing on The CW Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST, Ringer tells the story of Bridget Kelly, an ex-stripper and recovering addict played by Gellar, who’s the sole witness of a mob execution. Fearing she’ll be snuffed out before testifying in court, Bridget slips her FBI babysitters and bolts for New York, where her twin sister Siobhan (also played by Gellar) lives the good life with her upper-crusty millionaire husband (Ioan Gruffudd). When Siobhan surprisingly commits suicide by throwing herself off a boat into TV’s all-time-worst green-screened ocean, Bridget decides to assume Siobhan’s identity, assuming that will keep her hidden from both the mob and the dogged FBI agent pursuing her. Problem A is that Siobhan’s life is a lot more complicated than Bridget could have guessed. Problem B is that Siobhan isn’t even dead – she faked her suicide! – and may be responsible for the shady individuals who are now targeting Bridget-as-Siobhan.

So, yeah, the plotting is preposterous, which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing. This is The CW, after all, where melodrama and soapy storylines are the order of the day. The problem is how poorly Ringer’s twists and turns are being sold to the audience. Within the first two episodes, Bridget learns that someone is still trying to kill her, that Siobhan was having an affair with her best friend’s husband and that Siobhan is newly pregnant as a result of that affair. Hmm, might be time to pick a better place to hide, right? But Bridget decides to stick with New York because “people here need Siobhan to stay.” That’s right – the ex-junkie feels that perhaps she can redeem herself by fixing the lives of those in Siobhan’s orbit. At least, I assume that’s what the writers are going for. There’s also evidence that Bridget is just incredibly stupid. (Why hasn’t she faked a miscarriage yet? That would be one less lie to cover up!) With these scripts, it’s honestly hard to tell what the intent is. But if redemption is what’s on Bridget’s mind – surpassing even survival – wouldn’t the straighter path to atonement have been to just stand her ground at home and testify against the mob?

Suffice to say, motivations are muddled. And it doesn’t help that Gellar, despite how wonderful she was on Buffy, seems totally out of her league playing Bridget. Instead of convincing the viewer that she’s a broken shell of a woman trying to leave behind a life of drugs (and apparently prostitution), she instead portrays Bridget as a more of an ordinary girl stuck in extraordinary circumstances. Meanwhile, the supporting cast is a bore. Gruffudd does his stuffy Brit thing. The dogged FBI agent is played by the usually winning Nestor Carbonell (Lost’s Richard Alpert), but he’s given almost nothing to do except to show up at the most inopportune moment. (Whenever Bridget’s doing something like stuffing a dead body in a trunk, you can bet the house that Carbonell is about to knock on the front door.) Ringer occasionally moves away from Bridget to show us glimpses of the real Siobhan camped out in Europe. The show also spends time with Malcolm (Mike Colter), Bridget’s sponsor and confidant, who’s being terrorized by the mobsters trying to track her down. But both have been utilized more as plot points than actual characters so far.

Gellar deserves better … or at least something that’s more catered to her specific talents.

The end result is a show that’s convoluted without being deep, complex without being thrilling. Gellar deserves better … or at least something that’s more catered to her specific talents. Buffy more than secured her legacy, but there’s not much chance that Ringer is going to add to it.