After neuropsychiatrist Eldon Chance (Hugh Laurie) crossed into the dark side to help a patient he fell for in the first season of Hulu’s “Chance,” the good doctor is increasingly straying into dicier realms.
“Is it bad that I feel good?” a patient, a rape victim, asks after hearing the perpetrator had gotten his arm broken.
Unbeknownst to her, that beating was courtesy of Chance, who sent his lethal-weapon friend D (a fascinating Ethan Suplee) to confront the man. Chance was only trying to help his patients “by removing whatever source of ongoing trauma is preventing them from the benefits of therapy.”
But D’s confrontation had been more violent than Chance expected. “If I wanted him to bleed out, he would have bled out,” D reasons. Then adds the guy wasn’t “the type who was going to be persuaded.”
Chance decides he can’t be “drone pilot” anymore and has to become part of the process with D, but even his daughter, Nicole (Stefania LaVie Owen) is noticing that her dad’s anger is beginning to spill out.
Based on Ken Nunn’s best-seller “Chance,” the Hulu series is usually one step above grim. Laurie has a lot to do with preventing it from not going down an abyss. Even as a man at war within himself, the former “House” star always makes Chance intriguingly unpredictable, sympathetic, although the new doc never is as funny as the old one.
Chance’s relationship with the Nietzsche-quoting D has a strange perversity to it., giving the series something else to hang on to. They each recognize an off-ness in each other. Meanwhile, the divorced and obsessive Chance is still trying to be a good dad to Nicole, who has her own problems and knows her father might go over the edge at any time.
Having dinner with him and D, the teen observes they both “have death wishes or something.”
As a neuropsychiatrist and a philosopher thug, Chance and D often talk through their planned reckless behavior before doing anything and later the inevitable unexpected results.
In the new season, they are being forced to do their vigilante work for someone else.
The events of last season have caught up with Chance. San Francisco Detective Kevin Hynes (Brian Goodman) knows how many legal lines the doctor crossed and blackmails him into helping him covertly solve a case using his new skills
“You must get tired talking about this so much and then nothing changes?” a patient, another victim, asks Chance, but he knows better.
The series is a slow burner, but the noir mystery and Laurie keep the flames going.
Chance
What: Season 2 premiere of the mystery starring Hugh Laurie as neuropsychiatrist who has been sucked into dark, violent world as he tries to solve crimes.
When: Available Wednesday.
What: Hulu.
