In Review: Fantasy Island (S1 – EP2) His and Hers/The Heartbreak Hotel

Synopsis: In His and Hers/The Heartbreak Hotel. Two adventurers, whose marriage has grown stale, want to have the ultimate adventure together. After sleeping for 35 years, widower Brent must decide if he is ready to face his grief awake.

The Story

Picking up from last week. This episode plays out Ruby’s first day working on the island and she wastes little time in proving herself to Elana Roarke. Visiting the island this week are a married couple who live life on the edge. However, their dangerous lifestyle is playing havoc with their sex life and is only helping them both run away from some real issues that they have with one another. In order to try and fix these relationship issues. The island decides that they perhaps need to walk a mile in each other’s side. So, to that end, Daphne learns what it is like to live in a man’s body while Zev finds out firsthand how vulnerable it feels to live as a woman. 

What starts out as rather funny. Soon delves into some real issues. As Zev learns firsthand how his wife Daphne fears for their lives most of the time. A really good moment is when Daphne who is in Zevs body awakes on the beach after having taken a nap without having been in fear for a single moment. It’s also fun to see how Zev who is in Daphne’s body handles being ignored by the bartender in the restaurant.

The second storyline in this episode concerns a man who lost his beloved girlfriend over 35 years ago. His fantasy is to sleep until such times as he can deal with the loss. This particular story is where Ruby’s insight proves somewhat valuable to Roarke who is truly struggling with how to deal with Mr. Lee and help him resolve his issue.

The Acting

Real-life married couple Dave Annable and Odette Annable do a brilliant job with their roles of Zev and Daphne who are struggling with their marriage. Both actors do physical comedy really well. I was particularly amused by Odette Annable’s take on how much of a struggle a man in a woman’s body would have when it comes to putting on high-heeled shoes.

Overall

Much like last week’s episode. His and Hers/The Heartbreak Hotel felt a little uneven at times. We got quite a lot of fun out of the switched bodies comedic element of Zev and Daphne’s fantasy. But when it came to Mr. Lee and his wanting to sleep for 35 years. Only to awake for 48 hours every 5 years. Well, I felt Mr. Lee’s storyline was a little underserved as Zev and Daphne’s storyline got most of the spotlight.

Overall. This new series remains pretty decent and Roselyn Sanchez and Kiara Barnes continue to build new layers into their characters of Elana Roarke and Ruby. As we start to see how the two characters work together.

I only hope that we get a few storylines in future episodes that have a little more edge to them in order to give Sanchez an opportunity to show us a little of Elana Roarke’s darker personality traits.