Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Why Women Kill’ Season 2, Where Allison Tolman And Lana Parrilla Face Off In Marc Cherry’s Period Anthology

When Paramount+ was still CBS All Access, Marc Cherry’s Why Women Kill was one of the service’s splashier premieres, for two reasons: Marc Cherry’s presence as the show’s creator and writer, and its stellar cast. Given the anthology nature of the series, what would he do for an encore? Well, how about having Allison Tolman and Lana Parrilla face off against each other? Sounds like a pretty good story, right? Read on for more.

WHY WOMEN KILL SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A lit up street in Hollywood, 1949. “Hollywood. It’s a town that’s always attracted a certain kind of woman,” says the narrator (Jack Davenport) as a beautiful woman in a red dress gets out of a car, photographers’ flashes going off all around her.

The Gist: Rita Castillo (Lana Parrilla) is the president of the glamorous garden club that’s so well known that its ranks are tracked by the local press. While she and her fellow beautifully dressed and coiffed club members wine and dine that evening, a more (ahem) practically-dressed woman carrying a grocery bag watches from outside the bar.

That woman is Alma Fillcot (Allison Tolman), who keeps a fantastic garden at her home and longs to join the garden club. She’s mostly invisible to these society women, though; she’s mostly known as the veterinarian’s wife. That veterinarian, Bertram Fillcot (Nick Frost), is known for the gentle way he deals with these women’s pets, especially when the time comes to put them down.

We see that when a lounge singer named Maisie (Rachel Bay Jones) comes by with her sick pup. As he puts the dog to sleep, he plays soothing music to make his last moments “beautiful,” and tells the pup his life was meaningful. It’s an emotional moment, to be sure and Maisie invites the gentle doc to her lounge that night to hear her sing.

In the meantime, Rita, whose marriage to 80-year-old Carlo Castillo (Daniel Zacapa) is more of an arrangement, hires PI Vern Loomis (Jordane Christie) to tail her boyfriend, a vacuous actor named Scooter (Matthew Daddario), thinking he’s having an affair. It turns out he is, but with someone unexpected: a diner waitress named Dee Fillcot (B.K. Cannon). Yes, that’s Bertram and Alma’s daughter.

As Alma angles to fill a vacant slot in the club, she boldly goes to a lunch where the club ladies are meeting, and Rita invites her to a fundraiser. She tries to buy a spectacular dress for it, but finds it too expensive and makes one instead. As she looks for a sewing machine needle in the attic, she finds a cameo with a woman’s name on it, dated on Valentine’s Day in 1945. When she wears the cameo to the party, she finds out something that prompts her to find more artifacts like that in the attic.

Bertram takes an interest in Maisie, but not because of her looks, but because she has obvious signs of cirrhosis of the liver. That interest, though, takes a bizarre turn when he comes to visit her at her apartment.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A period thriller/drama like Lovecraft Country or Them combined with the dark humor Marc Cherry has displayed in his other shows, including Desperate Housewives and Season 1 of Why Women Kill.

Our Take: We were far more satisfied with the first episode of Season 2 of Why Women Kill than we were after watching the first season’s premiere in 2019. Most of that satisfaction is because Cherry has gone back to what he knows best: Doing a story in a single timeline containing multiple strong women who square off with each other while dealing with their individually spiraling lives.

It helps that, like most of Cherry’s shows, it’s been impeccably cast. We’re in the tank for Tolman, and she doesn’t disappoint here as Alma; she’s strong but vulnerable, realistic but determined. When she rather loudly inserts herself in the garden party’s luncheon, we believed her discomfort and nervousness just as much as the deep concern she has about Bertram after finding what she found in the attic.

Prarilla, who was so great as Evil Queen Roni in Once Upon A Time, is in her element as Rita, playing a fiercely intelligent villain that’s got a number of dimensions, many of which make her almost more sympathetic than Alma. Her marriage is a sham, her plan to inherit her husband’s riches thwarted by his continual existence, even after he has a stroke after tumbling down the stairs when he hears Rita having sex with Scooter. She’s manipulative as hell, but for some reason we still want to see just how she’ll spread her villainy.

Frost is also an equal player here, playing this roly-poly guy who seems to be the gentlest veterinarian and most supportive husband, but he might be the darkest character in the whole season.

So there are a lot of narrative directions Cherry can go in this second season, and we were intrigued enough by the end of the first episode that we can’t wait to see where he goes with it.

Sex and Skin: Scooter is busy in this first episode, sleeping with both Rita and Dee. But in both instances, it’s “network sex,” where you see very little skin.

Parting Shot: Bertram gets into bed with Alma, who looks to be asleep, but instead she has a worried/frightened look on her face.

Sleeper Star: B.K. Cannon is a fun wildcard as Dee, who seems to be realistic about her place in Scooter’s life and is pretty confident with herself.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we can think of.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Season 2 of Why Women Kill surpasses the first season by concentrating on one story and one set of interconnected characters, boosted by an excellent cast.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.