With ‘From Scratch,’ Netflix cooks up its version of a Lifetime weepie, ‘The End’: Ex-con turned serial killer, now a judge on “America’s Most Wanted,” is sent into the witness protection program (which is run by this character played by Martin Donovan, the guy who played Dr. Derek Shepherd on “CSI” and who is an actual former police officer.) He survives, and we get a few more episodes of the serial killer.
The new season starts up with the same basic setup; a serial killer, turned a prisoner, is sent back into the witness protection program run by his ex–police partner who played “CSI,” Dr. Derek Shepherd (Martin Donovan), of all people.
Then “The End” starts up. We soon realize that this is very much not a drama like “CSI,” and it’s not even that much like “Nip/Tuck”: It’s this kind of soap opera-ish drama where the end of the show is how all the characters wind up back where they started from (which is all of them, in different states).
This is actually the end of the show.
The first scene we see of the “new” Donovan character, Michael, is a flashback at the beginning of episode 1, “Confirmation Day.” A guy named Ryan (who plays a small part in the show as a serial killer who kills for the first time at this point) tells his psychiatrist, who turns out to be Dr. Shepherd, that he is on the run from the authorities. Just before a cop shoots him, Shepherd’s character tells him, “You’re about to die.” Ryan turns around, looks right at the camera, and says, “I’m about to die.” A minute later: we cut to a little scene with Shepherd, who is alone with his family. He’s doing some kind of therapy (he does a lot of “brief therapy” throughout the entire series that I don’t get), when Ryan enters the room.
This is when this new character starts to come to life.
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