Reviewer Rating: 3.3/5.0
3.3
Where do we begin, accused fanatics?
Can you think of any other way to end the most inconsistent season of The Accused other than a bizarre, seemingly futuristic case about murder and sex robots?
This is without a doubt the most ridiculous case we’ve ever encountered in this series, but otherwise it’s at least weird enough to be oddly entertaining.
That’s more than we can say about some of this season’s drab productions.
The Accused Season 2 Episode 8 expanded the show’s timeline. They expand into the future through the case, as the whole situation with Humanix feels like it’s happening in the not-too-distant future.
We currently live in a world where humanoid robots haven’t become so mainstream that they’ve already taken over jobs like food servers and personal assistants. This was the case during this time.
So in “Meghan’s Story,” the defendant takes a big step forward in that approach; and frankly, I don’t know how to feel about that. But given the nature of the season as a whole, I can at least give them points for creativity.
Megan’s personality is not bland, but she is certainly obnoxious, selfish, selfish, ambitious, jealous, selfish, and controlling. She’s simply a complex, layered woman, and this hour doesn’t hesitate to bring her worst traits to the fore.
The more we know about the woman, the less likely people are to support her, which the defendant doesn’t often do because it tends to create sympathy in those on trial.
Refreshingly, the show deviates from the norm by building up the story and adding context to complicate the situation and resulting crime.
It’s reassuring to learn that Meghan is simply a terrible person, even if it conflicts with the unsatisfactory tendency to occasionally malign female characters for their audacity, ambition, and possession of all the men society usually praises want.
Thematically, the hour took a forward-looking approach to exploring issues such as big tech, not entirely dissimilar to the third episode of Season 2 of The Accused, which also discussed artificial intelligence and its takeover.
Megan is the head of a music company and artificial intelligence seems to be completely taking over the music industry, which is quickly becoming a reality and an annoying and frustrating thought.
We naturally weigh the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and how it can be a useful tool in our lives, rather than a detriment to our lives, jobs, or anything else.
“Megan’s Story” touches on this, and we immediately see the conflict between Megan and John about the nature of her company and how she can become successful.
As an artist and musician, John values creativity and originality and what art brings to the world that would be completely lost in the use of artificial intelligence.
John’s music disappeared, and he resented Megan for not doing enough to fight for him or his music, instead chasing the thing that killed the industry in the first place: artificial intelligence.
When you think about the entire music industry being run on artificial intelligence rather than music edited and created by humans, it’s enough to give you goosebumps.
Yet Megan is over the moon with these developments, seemingly locking the industry in, leading to her becoming a music mogul alongside John’s old friends and bandmates.
John and Megan’s already strained relationship is pushed to its limits when she introduces a sex robot into their lives. Megan’s self-absorption prevented her from noticing this.
Meghan is a narcissist, always blinded by her own ambition, always striving for the next big thing, new milestones and achievements. Meanwhile, John is like a kept husband, withering on the vine.
Their marriage was doomed long before Eve came along and would soon fall apart whether she was present or not. Eve just caused something worse and a real tragedy.
It’s jaw-dropping that Meghan thinks giving her husband a sex robot to essentially delegate her “wifely duties” to sex would be the answer to all their prayers.
Of course, she gets jealous when she has to see this, or when her husband is hooked up to a custom robot to soothe him in all the ways he wants.
No one can compete with a robot that can take care of a person’s every need, so she puts herself at a distance from a husband who’s already half-assed in the first place.
Feeling lonely in his marriage, John found all the support and fulfillment he needed through this sex robot, fell in love with it, and found true happiness in a way that he hadn’t found in a long time.
At that point, nothing Meghan does can make up for the years she spent ignoring her husband, ignoring him, and invalidating him in favor of her own needs and desires.
Even her choice to implant their saved embryos in order to finally have the child he wanted his whole life was completely selfish and not for him.
It was in the moment of her acceptance of Jesus that Meghan decided she had better make her next big decision right away.
It wasn’t a good sign, it just highlighted their problems from the beginning, because instead of talking to him about this new option, she went to have the embryo implanted as “a surprise.”
Who does this? If she even sat down and talked with her husband, who was on the verge of divorce, could they still be a good couple and good parents?
Once again, Meghan made a unilateral decision to influence them, without consulting him or expecting him to accept this ordeal.
Only this time, instead of doing so, he doubled down on his desire for a divorce so that he could be with Eve.
It’s ridiculous, like something out of Lars and the Real Girl, where he actually believes he can be truly happy and be in a healthy relationship with something that isn’t even real.
There’s barely enough time to explain that John’s solution to years of dealing with a strong-willed, ambitious woman who emasculated him is to seek a relationship with a gorgeous robot who has no personal mind and is programmed to love He takes all interests and serves all His needs.
There’s deep, inherent sexism here, of course, but the show is so fast-paced and weird that there’s little room for it. It was good in the end.
Sadly, John became so frustrated with living in Megan’s shadow for so long that he eventually gave up on considering that a woman who actually had a mind of her own could challenge him.
The infidelity angle of all this is unique in that Meghan approved of it so it wasn’t cheating and Eve wasn’t real in the first place, although that ultimately didn’t matter.
The moral conundrum in all of this, while not a unique premise, is interesting.
But the hour shows us from beginning to end that Megan is a manipulative, selfish woman who always gets what she wants.
She convinced her sister, with whom she was never close, to risk her job and study to give John a sex doll.
Megan continually manipulates John, and then when he finally has had enough and wants to leave her, she kills him in a fit of hurt and anger as an emotional reaction to what happened, then blaming it on pregnancy hormones.
She also placed the blame on Eve, knowing full well that the robots would not be held accountable, again manipulating her sister into covering for her.
Megan is devastating and has no qualms about manipulating her sister into abandoning her entire career, giving up on comprehensive studies, and sabotaging the advancement of artificial intelligence, all in an effort to cover her tracks.
She succeeds in all of this too, acquitted of her husband’s death, her sudden desire to conceive twins, and her sister under her control.
Megan is one of the most evil and disgusting characters in the series, which makes things interesting.
As far as endings go, this isn’t the strongest one, and once again the series leans entirely towards death.
It’ll be interesting to find out if The Accused has a future in season 3, and what it might look like after this shocking weakness. Was Season 1 just a one-time success?
Can the series turn things around and find its footing and rhythm again? How many stories can they tell in this format without it feeling redundant?
These are questions I never thought about going into the season, but they are questions I will be thinking about as I finish.
It mostly feels like the defendants whimpering their way out, though this time, it’s a kind of raunchy science-fiction weirdness that added some of the charm to the previous “Eugene Story.”
I don’t know what to do. And you?
Over to you, accused fanatic.
What did you think of the unusual episode that ended the season?
What are your overall thoughts on the season? Do you think the defendant has been given a contract extension?
Let’s hear your thoughts below.
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