Save Me (2018)

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Season 2
Season #: 2, 1
Metascore
89

Universal acclaim - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
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Critic Reviews

  1. The Telegraph
    Reviewed by: Anita Singh
    Apr 1, 2020
    100
    The quality hasn’t dropped. ... James is superb, and he has assembled a supporting cast of the calibre of Stephen Graham, a standout in series one when he made us feel sympathy and revulsion for him as a convicted sex offender; and Camilla Beeput as Nelly’s almost-girlfriend.
  2. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Steve Greene
    Nov 5, 2020
    91
    The narrative tightness of the story is never at odds with its diligent pacing. That combination allows each player in this expanding world to feel like they belong. The final chapter of “Save Me Too” is both a logical endpoint and a pathway to continuing. It’s a constant strength of this show that it’s filled with the kind of moments where other series would be content to bow out.
  3. The Times
    Reviewed by: Carol Midgley
    Oct 6, 2020
    80
    They were no less convincing second time around, although the horror and urgency is diluted with so much time having elapsed. ... This will prove to be one of the year's best-written dramas.
  5. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Rebecca Nicholson
    Apr 1, 2020
    80
    It still stands firm as a gripping thriller. It starts with the kind of bang that insists you pay attention to find out how we got here.
  6. The Independent
    Reviewed by: Fiona Sturges
    Apr 1, 2020
    80
    It’s the script, written by James, that truly takes the breath away: clever, gripping while never slipping into cliché.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. Bertaut1
    Dec 3, 2020
    8
    Nelson "Nelly" Rowe (Lennie James) is a popular self-styled womaniser living on a Deptford council estate in London, whose life is turnedNelson "Nelly" Rowe (Lennie James) is a popular self-styled womaniser living on a Deptford council estate in London, whose life is turned upside down when he is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his thirteen-year-old daughter Jody (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), whom he hasn't seen in ten years. After convincing the police of his innocence, and frustrated with the way the case is progressing, Nelly decides to take matters into his own hands and try to track down Jody himself.

    Picking up eighteen months after the end of the first season, the second season, dubbed Save Me Too, also starts with slow early episodes which almost imperceptibly ramp up the tension, and once again, the last two episodes are exceptional. With this season's directorial duties split evenly between Jim Loach (son of Ken) and Coky Giedroyc, the show's aesthetic becomes slightly more adventurous (the second episode, for example, is primarily a flashback, whilst other episodes place us more directly in Nelly's head, with a more noticeable sense of subjectivity), but not to the point of distracting from what remains the core of the story – realistic characterisation.

    Just as with the first season, the second is far more interested in characters than plot, and once again, James and Stephen Graham are exceptional. James goes all-in on Nelly's bull-in-a-china-shop mentality, making the character, if anything, less attractive than he was in the first season. He's still got the twinkle in the eye, but the events of the last year and a half have definitely had an impact on him. Never the most tactful character, his tendency to shout first and ask questions the next day after he's calmed down is even more apparent than before. And although characters such as Clair and Barry drop into the background a little, others come to the fore and help to expand the milieu; there's Tam (Jason Flemyng), Nelly's kind-hearted cross-dressing friend; Bernie (Alice May Feetham), Melon's conflicted wife; Stace (Susan Lynch, who may or may not be in love with Nelly; Zita (Camilla Beeput, Nelly's girlfriend; and, especially, Grace (an exceptional and emotionally devastating performance from Olive Gray), who was once held by the same people who took Jody.    … Full Review »
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