Plan B

A masterful character study on obsession, control, love, and independence. Each episode will leave you emotionally wired.

The first season follows the tumultuous relationship of Philip and Evelyn. Philip is a well-meaning but driven lawyer, while Evelyn is an independent and dedicated cellist. Their relationship is a constant push and pull between love and control and independence, and when Evelyn decides she's had enough, Philip stumbles on the "Plan B" agency, an agency that will allow him to travel back in time to change the past.

With this power, his controlling and obsessive tendencies come to a new head. Given the power to redo the past to perfection, he becomes more and more obsessed with changing the past to protect his relationship and his family. But despite all the changes, we can still see the core of Philip's and Evelyn's characters and flaws remain unchanged.

Fantastic depiction of realistic, nuanced, and flawed characters. The dynamic between Philip and Evelyn is riveting. And the show is not afraid to create some of the most emotionally tense pieces of television I've ever seen. One of the few shows that I haven't been able to binge-watch, since each episode left me too emotionally wired to watch another. Would highly recommend.

I don't know why this show has such a low score. Well done and entertaining series. Hopefully they'll do more seasons. All episodes are interesting but that final episode was spine tingling. I'm still reeling from it as I write this review. Definitely give the series a watch if you can and I wish for people not to always be so harsh. Acting was great and so was the story. I am glad I watched. Now to meet the minimum number of characters for a review. I wish it were less. I am sad it is over and do hope they will do more seasons. They have no background on Plan B so that would be interesting to hear about.

Plan B attempts to explore the "what if" of decision making. What if we had the option to go back and do it differently? It's not as easy as changing one thing to create the desirable outcome. There are many variables attached. It's an interesting premise to see various versions of the past trying to manipulate the future. The problem is the series is not that engaging. While I was interested enough to see where it would lead, I didn't care about the characters and sometimes found them annoying. As a concept, I found Plan B creative but wish they'd done something more substantial with the set-up. Still the series held my partial attention at times.

I have now watched all 6 episodes, weathered the numerous rows, love-making scenes and baby delivery scene (why do they always make female actors do this, it's like asking a pianist to play Rachmaninov's Third) and shouted at the TV a few times. I am glad I did.

Karine Vanasse is remarkable, her character Evelyn is rarely happy for long, she is inconsistent, dis-satisfied with what she has and triggered at the smallest things, histrionic, dismissive, doesn't take responsibility for herself or accountability for her part of the problems they face, she deflects, moves the goal-posts all the time. She is encouraged in all this by her rather typical single female side-kick, who is hostile to Evelyn being in a couple and makes her disdain for the husband quite plain. Evelyn meanwhile - in various timelines - is not short of men, if there was ever a woman for whom the saying "she's not your girl, it's just your turn" was coined, Evelyn is that woman. Less Plan B, more Cluster B.

Vanasse plays this really awful woman with such sincerity and authenticity, her striking beauty and her range of expression is captivating, for example the grieving phone-call (spoiler) and the aftermath of this traumatic event (Episode 5, spoiler), her gentleness and loving nature when she and Phillip were happy, these moments were the calm before the confusing rug-pulling and door slamming storm usually.

There are various sub-plots and intrigues, which work well. Through it all, Patrick Adams' character Phillip really does try to do the right thing for other people, he means well, but he is caught in co-dependency with his brother and his awful mother, as well as with his wife, Evelyn, and nothing seems to work out. Until, he realises the one thing he has to do, to give all of them a chance to break the cycle and have different lives.

In a sense, Plan B is all about consequences, it uses a time-machine storyline to show how things could be different if people had behaved differently, if we had acted differently. It is potentially transformative in that, if only the characters in Plan B had made better choices, been more ethical, more direct, taken responsibility for themselves, they would not need to go back and fix things. This is the hidden payload in Plan B, live life in such a way that you do not regret your actions. This, for me, makes it more than a TV show.

Ironically, Plan B is also a morning-after pharmaceutical product, you'll get the irony when you see the show.

An Intriguing Premise, Well Handled.

What if you could re-live portions of your life and potentially improve the outcome? Hollywood has touched on this before with films such as 'Sliding Doors' and 'Butterfly Effect', but this Canadian series featuring 'Suits' star Patrick J Adams examines the premise in a much more intimate way.

Without giving too much away, the show uses the 'Sliding Doors' device to reveal aspects of the characters that become more surprising with each episode. The 6th (and final?) episode is a revelation in more ways than one.

The writing, acting and production are all top notch.

Overall, this is a series worthy of much wider attention than what it currently appears to be receiving. If you can find it, give it a try. You will certainly be entertained.