Charlie (played by Jeffrey Donovan of Fargo fame), a failed magician, runs a psychic parlor, “helping people” with his intuitive abilities. He manages several other such parlors, whether they are using Tarot cards, crystal balls or tea leaves. His operation is organized by the Romani people, commonly called Gypsies. Think Mafia, but these people have a story about golden nails and some nonsense that God allows them to steal from people who are not gypsies. At one point, the gypsies attend a gathering to improve their image. The speaker wants the participants to discard the old stereotype of “gypsies, tramps and thieves” and think about their royal ancestry. All of them are engaged in the storefront psychic trade, main goal to rip people off! This is wonderfully funny and reminded me of Fellini’s Roma movie where hordes of nuns attend a Catholic fashion show where nuns’ clothing is paraded like high fashion. That was funny then, and this too is wonderfully ironic.
So we find Charlie running his business. A boyfriend of a woman client stalks and beats him up for feeding cheating news to the girlfriend. Charlie is badly injured with a huge gash on his head and a concussion. He starts seeing visions and this really conflicts with his line of work! I love this premise; it is very funny, but the series uses this to really bring in issues from the medical establishment about the mind and brain. In the form of Dr. Nora White (Susan Misner) and her bizarre ways of dealing with head injuries, we find her giving Charlie psilocybin mushrooms to get to the root of when his wires got crossed in his head (some talk of quantum mechanics here). She is outrageous and it’s a wonder she isn’t cast out of the medical profession, but she turns out to be his best ally in his struggle to either get rid of these pesky visions or else get to the bottom of them.
Meanwhile, Charlie carries on with his work. One client of his is a Mafia man, Eduardo (David Zayas of Dexter fame), whose child seems hopelessly blocked and the medical people don’t have a clue. Charlie gets the actual intuition that the kid can’t hear and this turns out to be correct. Eduardo is beholden to him for life and gives Charlie a fabulous car—stolen of course— and offers to take out whoever might be bothering his wise man.
Charlie’s wife Linda (played by KaDee Strickland), a former Vegas stripper, brings home a new catch: Nadine’s husband is gone on business trips a lot, they are rich, and Nadine does some odd things like leaving gift bags for a kid. Charlie works with her, looking at her unhappiness. Mostly his daughter and his tech associate Ted dig up information on how much money Nadine has, that she had a son when young and gave him up, and that the boy died. Nadine can’t rise above her guilt and sadness and just puts up with her cheating husband. Charlie “tarot reads” the truth out of her; somehow, the idea occurs that burning that 1.7 million dollars in her luxury account will break the bond that keeps the poor boy Miles clinging to the earth plane. Of course, Charlie and company had planted clues (baby crying in the night) and conducted a séance where a baseball flies through the window, supplying those clinging clues that the boy was stuck. Burning this money would free the child and free Nadine from her sadness and guilt.
Charlie should not be planning a “long con.” This would be the time for him to inform the gypsies and get them involved because the “adaje” (not gypsies) aren’t trusted with stealing major amounts of money, just more puny amounts. Charlie’s family of parlors is managed by Fonzo (Angus Sampson) and his icy mother Rita (Isabella Rosellini) who really thinks she is royalty and tries to keep some appearance of manners with her barely civilized son. Fonzo is nearly always disgusting to look at and think about. For example, he is picking at his toenails and with the same hands, picks up donuts and offers one to Charlie. No thanks. Besides being disgusted, Charlie sees the vision of the donuts melting and burning. What does it mean? Then he has to do a favor for Eduardo to determine if a relative had betrayed him in the drive-by shooting that ended up killing the postman by Charlie’s house. Eduardo and Charlie go to a donut shop when the cousin fries donuts. I will not tell you this, but I seriously had to think about if I could continue watching because of the violence. Be aware, the warning they give at the beginning about viewer discretion needs to be heeded for sex and violence.
As Charlie is working on his con of Nadine, Fonzo and his cousin White Tony (Zak Santiago) are fighting over wrongs done (murder), cheating on the parlor businesses, affairs, etc. The high council meets and the Gypsy King Josef decides that Fonzo must give two of his parlors to White Tony’s empire and that the families need to make peace by having Fonzo’s daughter marry White Tony’s son. Fonzo bemoans the unfairness of this to his mother Rita, about sacrificing his 16-year-old daughter. He concludes, “I wish I had a son.” Rita, who is always rhapsodizing about their gypsy heritage, says back, “I wish I had a son too.” Whoa! Cut off his legs, why don’t you! The look that Fonzo gives her tells us a lot about the future. Fonzo then goes out to the tent where the younger daughter lives since she “ran away from home” and left the family. He finally gets it that some of this Roma tradition stuff does not have to go on. I liked Fonzo for this; otherwise, he is a brute and violent. You don’t know who to hate more: the pretentious Rita with the ugliest hairdo I’ve ever seen or the slob Fonzo. This is why you can root for the other con man, Charlie, by comparison.
The con succeeds, then fails, then succeeds again with all kinds of schemes and people betraying each other. 1.7 million dollars was indeed stolen from Nadine, but where is it? More serious haggling between Fonzo and White Tony occurs because all debts need to be settled before the wedding can take place. Linda and Charlie have thought of a new scheme to now steal the money from Fonzo—wait no, from White Tony because their parlor had been given to White Tony the day before the Nadine money was stolen by hypnotist Gina (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who had conned Linda … who goes after the money after Charlie screwed up getting the money with the fake burning … It’s all jolly good fun, amidst this insane, extravagant, bling-ed out gypsy wedding. The hatred between Fonzo and White Tony explodes, leaving Rita holding the damn gypsy hammer she treasures so much. We think we have a happy ending for Charlie and Linda, but the vision of the golden nails puts them— and us— hanging on the cliff. Just in time for season two.
I for one am ready for more, but I have heard complaints about the plot wandering off in too many directions, and there is that element of jumping around. It didn’t bother me. I watched the entire 10 episodes last year and again to do this review and I was never bored; I appreciated the exploration about the intricacies of the mind. Perhaps, more than anything, Shut Eye shows that “the gift” used in an evil way will not lead to good. You will find poetic justice here (such as when the spoiled brat Emma dies from a drug she stole, like she had that coming!), some laughs, and a whole new look at the Roma culture. Has anyone ever shown us this updated view of the “gypsies, tramps and thieves” of Cher’s song? I can’t believe there wasn’t some controversy about this series, but this discussion was all I found. https://www.reddit.com/r/shuteye/comments/6h594z/unwatchable/
New episodes start Dec. 6. Catch up so you will be ready.
Bent Perspectives 