At this point, I’m not sure if this quirky anthology series will be picked up for a second season, but even if it doesn’t, Roar still had a very strong first outing.
As I just mentioned, this was an anthology series, meaning each episode told a new story with a completely different cast. This show was also based on a collection of short stories by Cecelia Ahern. It’s definitely a modern-day take on the struggles of women, but they are woven into fable-like stories. This means that a lot of what happens in the episodes are kind of magical in nature, but the lesson still applies pretty perfectly. For instance, domestic abuse is a topic covered in the episode, “The Woman Who Was Fed by a Duck.” In it, the protagonist is in what seems to be a pretty great relationship with a duck, but as time goes on it’s clear he’s verbally and then physically abusive. She manages to get out of the relationship, but then instead of jumping into another relationship right away, decides to take time for herself.
I’m sure my opinion on the strong episodes verses other’s opinion vary greatly, but I really enjoyed “The Woman Who Ate Photographs” because it tells the story of something really present in my life right now. Nicole Kidman plays a woman who goes on a mini road-trip with her dementia addled mother. Towards the end she has a wonderful monologue to her husband where she says she doesn’t really like talking with her mother, but she doesn’t want to lose her either. My own mother is going through that with her mother at the moment, and this story just really resonated with me. Another episode I found really enjoyable was “The Woman Who Solved Her Own Murder.” This was more enjoyable from the crime aspect of it, but the truths revealed at the end are disturbing, and sadly, really relevant to the world we currently live in.
As I said before, each episode has a totally different cast, but each cast is totally awesome! Some great appearances came from Betty Gilpin, Jake Johnson, Chris Lowell, Hugh Dancy (Hannibal forever!!!), and Issa Rae. Peter Facinelli had a very brief appearance that made me laugh pretty hard, as well. In looking at all the short stories in Ahern’s collection, there’s more than enough to work from for other seasons, so I hope this show gets renewed and gets the chance to tell these important stories.