1x02 His and Hers; The Heartbreak Hotel

It's a better episode that still is stretching itself too thing. Fantasy Island has traditionally been about the guests. Roarke was the medium now the lead. Roarke doesn't have a story because the story is about the guests. This time around they're trying to change that and while sure maybe that's not a bad idea by itself. What it does here is detract from the guest narratives.

I think this is a result of the serialization of TV. People hate monster of the week arcs or episodic adventures because everything should be "bingeable" meaning it should be so complicated and hard to track it should reward the person who binges it all at once. (That's what that word means Peter). I'm not saying they needed to wait an entire season before fleshing out Roarke but they could have done very well to establish itself better. Too much time is spent on Roarke to no interesting result and in return our two guests the sleeping man and the Freaky Friday couple come off less interesting. This is similar in scope to what happened with The 4400. The 4400 was a show that did what short stories do. It said forget the background let's just start at the interesting part. People disappear and then come back. The why isn't important. Here again Fantasy Island is too focused on building up to a why when that's not the point. The Fantasy and watching people confront is the first grab. This early on anything else is secondary

The sleeping man's narrative comes together well in part because his pacing is done well. He's a character that dips into life every few years why wouldn't he dip into the narrative only every few scenes. Would have made a great multi episode guest arc. But Fantasy Island at least sticks to that formula. You're in, you're out, you get the t-shirt later. His conclusion feels rushed but again we spend too much time working on Roarke, but at least this time we're getting some juicy details. It feels kind of weird that someone in hospitality would be so closed-minded about a girl friendship unless they're supposed to be lovers in the end considering Ruby's .... predilections (The term I'm using until she actually sleeps with a girl or confirms her "deal" either way)