Welcome to the world of ‘Con Man!’ For the uninitiated, you can check out the first season over at Comic Con HQ, but the show is basically about Wray Nerely (Alan Tudyk) and Jack Moore (Nathan Fillion) and their experiences behind the scenes in the world of Conventions, where they are invited after the phenomenal success of their short lived sci-fi series ‘Spectrum,’ of which there is still a rabid fan base. Their unlikely friendship continues despite the fact that ‘Spectrum’ launched Jack’s career while Wray struggles to find work outside of sci-fi and to be taken seriously as an actor. The whole show is loosely based on the real-life adventures on Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion following the success of ‘Firefly’ and has proven a hit with fans, who funded most of the first season and whose support has kept the show going into Season Two, where the series has found their home with Comic Com HQ. The episodes are only about 10-14 minutes in length, but they are jam packed with comedy gems from the minds of Tudyk and Fillion, and definitely worth a watch if you are fans of either Tudyk or Fillion.
In the Season 2 premiere, Wray continues his relationship with Jack’s assistant Faith, despite the fact that she is now dropping the ball with Jack’s career, which is currently hitting some roadblocks as the confident actor has found out that he is not the hot commodity in Hollywood that he once was, and his managers now think his career should turn to television. Meanwhile, Wray has to deal with his landlord, the ex-stuntman who used to double for women who starts the season falling off the roof while wearing a dress. Wray and Faith immediately rush him to the hospital, encountering a plethora of characters along the way, including a nurse who sympathizes with Wray as her elderly grandfather also had trouble letting go of his past, which happened to include membership in the Nazi party, and a doctor who keeps interrupting Wray’s conversations to practice giving bad news before he actually has to go deliver it to a patient.
Meanwhile Wray struggles to find a way to tell Jack that he does not want to be a part of the proposed ‘Spectrum’ movie which Jack is hoping will revitalize his career, and when he finally breaks the news to his friend, Jack immediately persuades him otherwise, offering him a potential role in a serious TV show called ‘Doctor-Lawyer-Cop’ if he comes back to ‘Spectrum.’ Wray agrees to the deal, and at that moment Faith arrives, and Jack learns of the new relationship, and realizes this is why Faith now sucks at her job, pointing it out to her and causing her to leave and ponder the effect Wray has had on her life. Encouraged by Jack, Wray heads off to visit his management, finding that the “volatile” times are causing a high turnover rate around the office, with assistants being rapidly promoted to full agents and then fired, even as Wray sits at the desk with his agent, giving us a slew of hilarious guest stars, all of whom are trying to convince Wray to take a lucrative TV commercial and forget about “serious” acting. When he gets a text from Jack which he thinks confirms the new role on ‘Doctor-Lawyer-Cop,’ Wray fires his whole team and leaves the agency, only to learn that Jack was pushing the commercial on him as the director of the commercial is also directing the show Wray wants, thus making it an opportunity for Wray to audition for the lead role. As Wray drives away, finding all of his recently fired agents are now working as valets, he realizes he needs to find someone new to negotiate his contract.
Definitely a great start to the season, and I am looking forward to seeing where they go with the story, especially if we get to see them actually make the ‘Spectrum’ movie. And of course, I am looking forward to when they actually make their way back to the actual conventions of the title, as some of their best material is the send up of situations that occur while attending with the fans. Make sure to head over to Comic Con HQ and check out the new season for yourself, and catch up on Season 1, and if you are wary of signing up for an account, you can get a free trial and see if the show is right for you, although in my opinion, it is totally worth it.
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
