Sarah Michelle Gellar Returns To Small Screen In CW's "The Ringer"
“I wanted to come back to do a show fans would love and I would love to watch,” Gellar said about her return to TV during an interview at Comic-Con this summer, adding that the script was, “the first time in a really long time I was surprised by something.”
In "Ringer," Gellar is Bridget, a recovering alcoholic with a troubled past. As the sole eyewitness to a murder by a professional killer, Bridget is certain that she is next in line to be killed. Bridgent is convinced that no one, not even the FBI, can protect her. Unable to calm herself down, she escapes to New York to visit her estranged twin Siobhan, a wealthy New York socialite. However, with what seems to be a reoccurring theme on this show, nothing is as it seems. Just as Bridget and Siobhan begin to reconcile their relationship, Siobhan drowns herself while the sisters are sharing an afternoon on a boat.
Caught up in the tragedy of her twin’s sudden death and the confusion of its aftermath, Bridget makes the rash decision to take over her sister’s identity. Since they were estranged, Siobhan had never told the people in her life about her sister, and desperate, Bridget sees the idea of starting over as her sister a fresh start.
However, life is not perfect behind the Chanel sunglasses. As Siobhan, Bridget stumbles headfirst into the secrets, lies, and intrigues of her twin’s secret life. Bridget quickly realizes that she is no safer masquerading as her sister. As the first episode screeches to a halt, Bridget finds herself up against a hit man, sent not for herself, but for her twin.
Overall, this episode was a promising start to the series. While the camera dwelled almost a little too lovingly on shots with mirrors in the background, to drive home the fact that she was really a twin got old fast, the performances were strong and the characters felt well-developed. With only one episode, "Ringer" successfully introduced the main players and opened up the potential for many plot lines in the future.
As the camera pans in on Siobahn, alive and potentially pregnant in Paris in the last scene, it is apparent to the audience that there are more secrets to come. The question is, how far in the series will the show wait for Bridget to realize that her sister is still alive and how caught up in Siobhan's life will Bridget be when both worlds collide on her shoulders? "Ringer" leaves viewers with a lot of questions that will hopefully begin to unravel into some answers as the series continues.
"The Ringer" is on Tuesday nights at 9/8 CT on the CW.
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