NBC 'Rosemary's Baby' 2014 Remake Episode 2 Review: Zoe Salanda Gives Award-Worthy Performance in Faster Paced Episode
I hope my tardiness on the second episode review of "Rosemary's Baby" the miniseries is understandable because I had to fight an unseen demon just like Zoe Saldana's Rosemary. (Well not so much.)
Nevertheless, just like Saldana we carry on, and so did the second episode. It did not disappoint, featuring a brilliant and award-worthy performance by Saldana, who holds and carries the slow-moving series along. The supporting cast do their best, but this is Saldana's show come hell or high water.
By the end of episode one, we see Rosemary losing her innocence, literally. Rosemary remembers her teenage years, doing dance, stealing kisses with a boy in the tree, and then she unknowingly gives herself to everything: power, lust, and a lack of inhibitions.
But Rosemary fights. This is exactly what she does by episode two: She is fighting for her humanity, independence and fighting to learn the truth about the Castevets and her husband, Guy.
As Rosemary fights for her soul, her husband and supporter has given up fighting; he sold his soul to become successful. Guy sold the rights of his first book so it could become a movie. He is also a rising professor, and the female students adore him. Guy only shows signs of conflict when his perfect life is threatened. For example, when Margaux Castevet shows him passion by french kissing him, he is not sure how to feel.
However, when Julie, his and Rosemary's longtime friend, threatens to take Rosemary to the doctor, Guy really goes ballistic. Let's just say that French cooking class that Julie was taking will forever be changed.
Meanwhile, Rosemary's pregnancy is transforming her into an emaciated, pale and sickly lady.
"This is not supposed to be happening, I should be feeling better not worse," she says.
But the only thing that makes Rosemary feel better is a trip to the salon, where she cuts her hair into a pixie cut, just like Mia Farrow's Rosemary. After that, Saldana is all better -- at least for the day.
But our Rosemary is not giving up that easy. Later, alone in the apartment, she finds a diary left by the previous victims -- I mean tenants -- who stayed in the apartment. In the diary, a woman describes the Castevets as witches and reveals that the mysterious man that has been following Rosemary is really Roman Castevet in disguise.
Okay, so Rosemary is no Nancy Drew, but the show has never tried to be a mystery. It is more of an exploration into how bad you want a child and to have the perfect life too, as The New York Times suggested.
Still, Rosemary did not sign up to be part of a cult. She tries to free herself with all of the strength that she can muster with the help of Commissioner Fontaine, but even he becomes a victim of the Castevets. The whole ordeal sends Rosemary into labor.
Does she lose the baby? Are the Woodhouse's finally free of the Castevets?
True to the film, Rosemary, alone in the house (surprisingly she spends a lot of alone time in this version), hears her baby crying and rushes to find him, armed with an unusually large kitchen knife, ready to do battle with these evil b*tches -- I mean witches. Rosemary threatens and cajoles the Castevets and their clan from around the baby.
A mother's love is strong. Rosemary chooses her baby, her life and the future that is planned for her.
The first episode of "Rosemary's Baby" was a bit cliché, slow moving and somewhat boring. The fast pace of episode two should have been seen in episode one. While I may have written that episode one was like a penny in the bucket of the horror genre, episode two catapults it into a worthy drama. Perhaps if they had a proper balance of more drama and less gore, it could have been more impactful.